Do You Have An E-Mail Address? Many things are changing in electrostatics. For example, the job market in electrostatics is changing, and we should all become aware of this change. The change is evolving; yet, it is an important change. No longer do we need to pick up our professional magazine and our local newspaper to determine the global and local job situations in electrostatics. Now the jobs in electrostatics are starting to come to us. At the heart of this change are the computer, the Internet and electronic mail.
I have never paid much attention to the electrostatics job market. Until recently, I would have said that the key to finding a new job would require going to a conference such as the ESA Annual Meeting. And, while there, letting people know that you are in the market for a job change. That procedure may still be useful, but it is fast being overtaken by the Internet. Companies are starting to distribute their openings to mail lists that are specific to a given technical field. In larger cities companies are even sending their job openings to the local technical professional organizations and asking these organizations to distribute it to their local membership. Receiving job opportunities is just one example of the many pieces of information that are starting to occur to people who have e-mail.
As a member of the ESA, how will this affect you? When you reach the point where you get an e-mail address, the ESA would like to hear from you. Please submit your e-mail address to our ESA Newsletter Editor (Bill Smart, e-mail address:(104572.636@compuserve.com). Bill will place it in the ESA Membership Roster. However, you will have two options for distribution of your e-mail address.
The first option is to only have your e-mail address published in the paper copy of our membership roster. This roster has traditionally been updated and sent to the membership about once every two years. The advantage of this option is that it will allow other ESA members to look up your e-mail address if they want to correspond with you. Only ESA members will have your address; so, it will keep others from sending you junk e-mail.
The second option is to request your e-mail address be placed on the ESA Home Page as well as in the Membership roster. This option will allow anyone who accesses the ESA Home Page to look up your address. Consequently, it could increase your junk e-mail. However, it will also allow anyone interested in electrostatics to contact you. Examples might include companies who want to advertise their technical openings, companies that want to sell you their new or latest equipment in electrostatics, organizations that are sponsoring electrostatic events and companies that have new publications in electrostatics. This is all useful information for all of us involved in electrostatics. The choice (option one or two above) regarding your e-mail address will be yours. However, each of us is responsible for sending Bill Smart (our Newsletter Editor) an e-mail message requesting our e-mail address be added before any action is taken.
For the Friendly Society,
Al Seaver aeseaver@mmm.com
Recently I came across a new book Laser Experiments for Beginners, which has received good reviews. As I browsed, electrostatics jumped into view. An experiment on the isoelectric point of gelatin has this description: "The electrostatic forces between collagen strands in gelatin vary with the pH, and laser light scattering can be used to determine the pH at which electrostatic interactions are at a maximum. The point at which this maximum occurs is known as the isoelectric point." This usage is unfamiliar to me. Is it more common in chemistry? Is the isoelectric point used in other fields? Does anyone of our members test to see when electrostatic forces are at a maximum? Please write to the Newsletter if you have more information.
Glenn Schmieg
Some time ago Prof. Stuart Hoenig sent us an ad for the hyG Electronic Toothbrush which he feels is "a new level of something or other". The ad copy states that in addition to the benefits of normal brushing, this brush "uses a revolutionary ionic action which bombards the positively charged plaque on your teeth with negative ions, causing plaque to loosen in areas the brush doesn't even touch!" The unit sells for about $30, and includes the power body, five brush heads, a battery tester, and one lithium dioxide battery. It is available from Dyna Dental Systems, but we have no information on how to contact the company. If you're really anxious to get one, maybe Dr. Hoenig could help.
The December 1995 issue of Scientific American describes the several ways an international commission is using and considering to eliminate the 16 « foot lean in the 179 foot tall Leaning Tower of Pisa. More than 750 metric tons of lead ingots were attached to the base of the high side of the tower in 1993 which not only stopped the lean but reduced the lean in nine months to only 77 inches. The addition of a concrete ring around the base is expected to move the top of the tower back another inch. Two techniques are proposed to alter the characteristics of the soil under the high side of the tower. One will simply use drills to remove soil from under the high side. The other will use electrodes inserted to depths of up to 20 meters into the earth under the high side to remove water (by electro-osmosis) from the soil on that side. It is hoped that these measures will eventually restore the tower to a vertical position, and the great Leaning Tower of Pisa will lean no more.
At the University of Arizona, Stuart Hoenig has been using electro-osmosis to reduce the force required to move a plow blade through the ground. As we understand it, voltage applied to the blade attracts water to the blade, lubricating it, and reducing the resistance that must be overcome to draw it through the soil. Graphs provided by Dr. Hoenig show a linear reduction in resistance from zero to 20% as voltage is increased from zero to 40 volts in soil with 12% moisture. In soil with 17% moisture, a reduction of 30% is achieved when 40 volts is applied to the plow blade.
Just how fundamental this law is to the field of science is well illustrated by the fact that it appears as the first formula in Richtmeyer's Introduction to Modern Physics. We all use it regularly in our work and thinking. Generally, however, we think in terms of the charge (Q) and its size as being the determining factor in establishing just how large the resulting force will be. Because the separation (r) is normally large and the charges small, the force is deduced as being "quite small". This is not unusual reasoning. When considering atomic, and especially nuclear, phenomena, this is especially not the case because the separation between charges becomes small and the r2 term in the law results in the force being quite large. Consider what happens when r goes from one centimeter (as might be the case for normal practical experiments) to 10-8 for an atom or to 10-13 for a nucleus even when the charge may be decreased by a hundred fold. One readily sees why the force between a hydrogen nucleus and its electrons is so large.
Emery Miller
While attempting to bring my records up to date, I notice that a number of members have failed to pay their 1996 dues. Knowing how easy it is to overlook such minor matters when one is trying to follow all the recent developments in the field of electrostatics, I have hesitated to drop these people from membership without making every effort to be sure that this is in accordance with their wishes., Accordingly, I am asking Bill Smart to flag such members by placing a RED DOT on the address label of this issue of the Newsletter so that they can get their dues to me and have their names appear in the next roster. Check your label if there is any doubt in your mind.
Emery Miller