all Alyssa A. Goodman stories

Nature moves into 3D publishing

404132862 — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:44:24 -0500

New visualization techniques yield star formation insights

404132862 — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:38:42 -0500

New computer visualization technology developed by the Harvard Initiative in Innovative Computing has helped astrophysicists understand that gravity plays a larger role than previously thought in deep space’s vast, star-forming molecular clouds.

Visualizing science focus of panel

404132862 — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:38:47 -0500

The huge load of data now coming from modern computer systems is so overwhelming that new methods must be devised to allow people to visualize the world in more understandable ways, scientists involved in computer graphics areas said in a special symposium today.

“What can humans actually understand?” asked Harvard Professor Alyssa Goodman, who arranged thea symposium on “Seeing Science” at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held February 14 through 18 in Boston. “We just don't have the bandwidth and the receptors” to handle all the data now coming in from various disciplines, including astronomy, medicine, and the social sciences.

Innovative computing initiative sets sights on projects

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 11:05:49 -0400

After a year of hiring, moving into new digs, and generally getting its feet wet, the Harvard Initiative in Innovative Computing (IIC) is ready to forge ahead into the new year, diving into computer-intensive projects that need not just computational firepower, but also innovative thinking.

The initiative is moving ahead on a half-dozen or so projects generated by groups of Harvard faculty in response to a call for ideas last spring. These projects span a broad array of disciplines, from using medical imaging technology to illuminate star creation to producing astonishingly detailed pictures of the mammalian brain to designing a Web portal that offers astronomers new ways to share data.

Young star caught speeding

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:34:51 -0400

Findings linking a speeding star to its birthplace provide direct observational support of theoretical simulations predicting that protostars can be tossed out of a young cluster. This is the first time that such a fast-moving young star has been seen outside of a cluster or binary system. Astronomers Alyssa Goodman (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and Héctor Arce (Caltech) announced Jan. 5, 2004 at the 203rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society that they have caught a newly formed star in the act of speeding. PV Ceph, located about 1,400 light years away in the constellation Cepheus, is whizzing through space at a speed of 40,000 miles per hour-some 40 times faster than a speeding bullet. And like a bullet, it left an exit wound when it ripped out of the star cluster where it formed. The discovery has significant implications for calculations of star formation efficiency -- how many stars of what sizes are likely to form from a given molecular cloud. Modeling that process correctly is critical to understanding how galaxies everywhere turn gas into stars.