Episode 9: Transient Absorption

We head to the very far end of the electromagnetic spectrum to tackle one of Dugan's favorite subjects, nuclear resonance spectroscopies.  No, not nuclear magnetic resonance - we're talking about gamma ray transitions between nuclear configurations. After a fairly exhaustive discussion of how little we know about nuclear physics, we get into the details of radioisotope Mössbauer spectroscopy, nuclear forward scattering, and even a little bit of nuclear resonance vibrational spectroscopy. How do nuclear spectroscopists achieve resolution more than thirteen orders of magnitude greater than the nuclear transition energy? You'll have to listen to find out! And be sure to stick around to the end to learn the surprising connection between Vanderpump Rules and the Fiery Furnaces's masterpiece Rehearsing My Choir.

Prof. Nate DeYonker from the University of Memphis takes us out of this world and into the vast expanse of space as we talk all things astrochemistry. Get ready to hear about molecules that seem like they shouldn't exist, spectra from extraterrestrial telescopes with almost frighteningly good resolution, and the challenges of quantum chemistry using quartic (!!!) force fields. Nate also gives us a primer on "Pauling points" before closing the show out with an incredibly moving tribute to the late Mimi Parker from the band Low.

We're finally back, and this time we're talking everything thermal! After some brief updates, we dive into blackbody radiation, Planck's law, and selective emitters. Then Jay explains how to use these concepts to design incandescent lightbulbs that are actually twice as efficient as LED bulbs. Then we move on to one of Jay's all-time favorite ideas: passive daytime radiative cooling. And things get even crazier when Jay explains how to use the universe as a really great cold reservoir in a heat engine to get harness solar energy without any photovoltaics.

We're celebrating Dugan's recent JACS paper on copper-catalyzed photocycloaddition reactions by doing a Back 2 Basics episode on photocycloadditons that is really just an episode on that paper with a little bit of Woodward Hoffmann rules thrown in for good measure. But what is a podcast for besides self-promotion anyway? We return to some of our favorite topics, including X-ray spectroscopy and transient absorption, and discuss how a combination of spectroscopic techniques can be used to deduce photochemical reaction mechanisms involving transition metals. We also ask ourselves how a single methylene group can drastically change the fate of a molecule and how a single pandemic can drastically change the fate of a research project.

This month is more Back 2 Basics as we discuss the famous Stern-Gerlach experiment. In addition to the classic version, we contemplate thought experiments, photonic analogs, spin pedagogy, cigar smoke, Nobel Prizes, interpretations of quantum mechanics, God, and approximately infinite universes. Did I miss anything?

New season, new format - we broadcast in-person from a hot tub in Atlanta during the Fall 2021 ACS Meeting!  We have been planning to review "Sit Resist" by Laura Stevenson basically since we started podcasting in Fall 2020, and we finally do in this episode.  And by "review" we really mean talk about how amazing this album is.  Content warning that this episode discusses dark subject matter, including physical abuse, substance abuse, and death; specific warnings are provided in the audio along with the duration of the content for listeners that would like to skip certain content.

In this episode, we talk about ways in which light-matter interactions are revolutionizing surgery.  We are joined by Christie Lin,  VP of Research at OnLume - a startup based in Madison WI dedicated to improving patient outcomes through innovations in Fluorescence Guided Surgery (FGS).  Christie prompts us to revisit some of our favorite topics, including SWIR fluorophores and gamma rays, and she also introduces us to regulatory policy for combination drug and medical devices!  The results of our first ever Twitter poll are announced,  and we finally answer a question that has been vexing us since Episode 1: How DO you focus a proton beam?  The answer might leave you speechless.

We're unbelievably honored and excited to have the legendary Prof. Katja Lindenberg on the show to take us through her life in physics and physical chemistry. We talk to Prof. Lindenberg about her early life and education, her transition from mathematics to physics, and of course her incredible 50 year career at UCSD, during which she used "the language of science" (statistical mechanics) to describe problems involving random processes in nearly every discipline you could possibly imagine. We also get to hear a few stories about some of her first friends and mentors at UCSD, Maria Goeppert Mayer and her husband Joe Mayer!

We are joined by Prof. Lea Nienhaus from Florida State University to learn about photon upconversion with perosvkites, a strategy for increasing the efficiency of photovoltaic energy conversion among other applications that her group has pioneered in the last few years.  We also talk to Lea about her science communication project, "Kitchen Spectroscopy", that she launched at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic that empowers people to discover the plethora of "glowy things" that can be found at home.

It's Season 2 of the Goeppert Mayer Gauge! We kick things off with an introduction to transient absorption spectroscopy and discuss what it is, why it's useful, and how it's done before getting a bit philosophical on how best to think about the signal that is actually measured. And just to prove how serious we are, Jay has scored us our first (fake) sponsorship, and Dugan finally recorded with a microphone that doesn't sound like it's under water. Things are about to get CRAZY. Are you ready for Season 2?!?!?As always, extra content and links are available on our website:https://foleylab.github.io/gmgauge/