Lectures
During VSA 2006, several lectures were held with topics in different areas of scientific research, ranging from presentation of scientific work to neural networks. Here are brief overviews.
- Zeljko Andreic: Presentation of Scientific Project
- Reiner Stoss: Remote telescopes in education
- Zeljko Andreic: Mysterious world of very low radio frequencies
- Marina Brozovic: Introduction to Neural Networks
Zeljko Andreic: Presentation of Scientific Project
In scientific community it is not only important to conduct successful research, but also to present it likewise, because unpublished work does not exist. The results can be published on scientific meetings (talk or poster presentation) and as papers in scientific magazines.
General rule, which can be applied to all means of reporting scientific work, is to study guidelines for authors. Most common way of presenting work is with a poster. Poster is a visual medium, so text and tables should be reduced, and more place should be dedicated to graphs and illustrations. But, colours have to be used with caution. Furthermore, presenter should never forget that he/she is there to give additional explanations to visitors. If the presentation is oral, special attention should be on time limits, since they are very tight (10 – 15 min, discussion included). Modern presentations are made with slides or foils, which should summarize the most important parts of work.
The most important way of reporting still remains publishing a paper in scientific magazine or conference proceedings. First step is to choose the type of paper (letter, short communication, article), and then the magazine to be published in. Extract the most important results and present them graphically, write body text, later add introduction, discussion and conclusion, acknowledgments and abstract. After the paper has been submitted, you wait for the answer from the editor. Best is when the article is accepted. Also good is to modify the paper and resubmit, accompanying the paper with a letter to editor explaining the modifications. However, even when the paper is refused, there is no need to panic. Accept comments you find valid and resubmit to some other magazine.
Reiner Stoss: Remote telescopes in education
Stimulating interest for science at school-age is becoming hard task and astronomical observations give easily available opportunity of hands-on experience. The problem is that these observations are made during night, while children are in school during the day. The solution is use of remote controlled telescopes on distant locations (eg. school in Europe, and two remote telescopes on Hawaii and in Australia).
There are three modes of telescope operation: manual, automatic and robotic. First telescopes were operated manually, but with advance in electronics and computer development many functions (eg. positioning, focusing, imaging) were being automated. The goal for future automatic telescopes is to become fully robotic. Robotic telescopes are independent of human factor, meaning they operate by themselves, from data acquisition to data reduction. Telescopes can also be locally or remotely accessed.
Remotely accessed telescopes have many purposes, among them: asteroids and comets research (discovery, follow-up, photometry), supernovae, gamma ray outbursts, variable stars. An example of successful use of remotely controlled telescope in education is Visnjan School of Astronomy 2003, while during the school group of students, with their mentor, discovered a near Earth object (NEO) using remote telescope.
Zeljko Andreic: Mysterious world of very low radio frequencies
In EM spectrum, very low frequencies (VLF) range from ~ 100 – 10000 Hz. Due to small frequencies, these EM waves can travel around the globe, and are used by radio amateurs to contact distant stations and for maritime navigation. Natural source of VLF waves is thunder, which produces not only acoustic waves and light, but also some x rays, radio waves and lots of VLF. Second biggest source of VLF are aurorae.
Several types of this phenomena have been recorded: spherics (coming from nearby thunder), VLF travelling on magnetic field lines, reflected VLF, chorus (very high activity, where individual signals cannot be distinguished). Equipment for recording VLF includes antenna, audio amplifier and signal recorder (usually PC). It is also important to be on an isolated location, at least 10 km from the nearest power line, because they bring noise to measurements.
VLF could also be connected to meteors. There are several theories whether meteors can produce VLF, but none are proved. During the 1998 Leonid meteor shower, Croatian expedition of physics students observed it from Mongolia on several channels: video, audio and VLF. No meteor connected signal was observed on VLF, but for the first time an electrophonic meteor sound was recorded, but the mechanism of their occurrence hasn't been revealed yet.