Sci & Entertainment
Under the Microscope with David Jackson Physics Professor David Jackson is an associate professor from the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He graduated from the University of Washington and received his Ph.D. from Princeton University. He arrived at Dickinson College in 1994 as a visiting assistant professor, and officially joined the faculty in 2001. In 2002, Professor Jackson published a textbook titled Explorations in Physics: An Activity-Based Approach to Understanding the World, and he is currently the Editor of the American Journal of Physics.
I know that you are very busy now with the American Journal of Physics. What are your chief responsibilities as editor? Basically, my duties are to oversee the review process and the publication process. Right now, we are getting something like 70 papers submitted per month, from all over the world. What I do is take a first look at the paper and decide if it is even appropriate for the journal. The American Journal of Physics has an educational focus, but we often get research papers that have no educational focus at all, and such papers are rejected without review. Ultimately, the decision on what to publish rests on me, but I largely trust reviewers for their opinions on the technical aspects of the article because I am not an expert in all the different areas of physics. Once the reviews come back, I personally go through each paper very carefully, making detailed edits and suggestions for improvement.
stuff in there is a liquid, but it’s a magnetic liquid. I would call that “unpatterned.” It’s just a blob. But, in the presence of a magnetic field, a pattern forms. [Professor Jackson moved a magnet under the black blob in the tube, and immediately the black blob reoriented itself and jumped into cone-shaped forms.] Out of nowhere comes a very structured, organized pattern. That process of how it goes from one [orientation] to another is what I study. What role do Dickinson students play in helping with your research? Lately, I have been working with students in quantum mechanics, which is a theory that governs the very, very small, like atoms, neutrons, electrons, and protons. Such
objects are so small that they can’t be seen, so we have to do careful experiments to learn about how they behave. When we do these experiments, we see results that don’t seem to make sense! At least, it doesn’t make sense with our preconceived notions of the world. With regard to students, in my opinion, the best educational experiences are when students are involved in the every aspect of the project. Then, by the time we get to the end, they will have helped construct the entire experiment, so they will know the purpose of every item, why it was put there, and hopefully they will then really understand the results. What motivated you to write an activities textbook like Explorations in Physics? When I got a job here at
Educational articles can be research articles, but they need to focus on the bigger picture so that someone who is teaching a physics course can say, “Ah! Here is something I can discuss in my class!” Educational articles typically take the time to explain things that would be valuable to physics educators and offer applications of physics concepts.
Outside of physics, what do you like to do in your free time? What is on your bucket list? I love playing soccer and have played for many years. I also coach my son’s team. My wife and I both play guitar, and we often play together. I’d still like to do more traveling. Specifically, I’d like to really see Africa.
What is the basis of your current research here at Dickinson?
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Is there a scientist whose work you particularly admire? I admire Richard Feynman. He was a brilliant physicist who was able to think outside the box in a way that would in some cases essentially eliminate the mathematics from the physics, and still lead to the correct answer. He studied quantum electrodynamics, and he came up with a pictorial way of doing calculations called Feynman Diagrams. In fact, you can add up layers of Feynman Diagrams pictorially to make specific predictions.
What counts as an educational article, versus a research article?
My main research is in pattern formation in magnetic liquids. [Professor Jackson proceeded to grab a tube filled with fluid from a counter in his office. It was mostly filled with clear fluid, but there was a glob of black liquid at the bottom of the tube.] The black
Dickinson, one of the projects I was hired to do was to develop a course for non-science majors using an activities-based format. Explorations in Physics was the result. However, as much as I love science for non-science majors, it appears to me that across the nation, such courses are being devalued. Personally, I think this is terrible. Unfortunately, courses and books like Explorations in Physics are not in high demand. I think the Department of Physics and Astronomy does a good job of offering courses designed to appeal to non-science students and to give them a sense of why science is useful. Examples include the astronomy courses, “Explorations in Physics,” and a new course called “Climate Change and Renewable Energies.”
-Madeleine Gardner ‘18 Photo Courtesy of Cassandra Garcia ’15
Dickinson Science Magazine Vol. I Issue No. 2