PSU Magazine Fall 1993

helpful in determining the truth of claims about warhead on tents. Likewise, an egg infected with sal– monella will produce the typical egg ignature plu · a higher note. U ing ARS, inspectors will be able to identify contaminated eggs before they reach the market. The e two applications are on ly the first of many potential uses for AR , which has the advantage of being non– inva ive, non-destructive (at the low energies u ed), and relatively inexpen- ive. And because re onance is a universal characteristic of matter, the possibilities are endless. "1 con ider resonance as a very fun– damental principle, or a law of nature in the whole universe," Sinha says. "It tell you something about structure. You can interrogate a system through its resonance characteristics." Sinha and PSU Physics Professor Jack Semura (right) worked together this summer at the Los Alamos lab. Sinha and other researcher · are espe– cially excited about potential biomedi– cal applications. For example, AR can be u ed ro determine levels of fluid pressure in the body, as in glaucoma, where pressures inside the eye must be 8 PSU Magaz ine measured frequently. inha ha· already applied for a patent on uch a device. Another possibility i in measuring intracrania l pressure in patients with head injuries or hydrocephalus. At present, such pressure can only be determined by drilling into the skull. Sinha was asked to explo re ARS's potential by a Pennsylvania neurologist who says a non-invasive method would be the "Holy Grail" of neurology. For these biomedical applications, Sinha envis ions a hand-held device about the size of a television remote contro l or a pocker calculator, not un– like the diagnostic tools u ed by crew members of Star Trek's "Enterprise." "People kid me that I'm trying to design a tricorder," inha say , "but it's not a joke." uch non-contact, non– invasive too l are entirely possible, he believes. Other AR applications in the works range from geological exp lorat ion to sensors for monitoring water pollution. Sinha is working with P U Profes o r Pavel Smejtek on the latter project. Sinha is ab le to imagine thi wide range of u es for AR in part because of his experience in the interdiscipli– nary Environmental Science program at PSU, which is the umbrella program under which physics doctorates are granted. At first, he says, he re ented the curricu lum requirement to cross disciplinary boundaries. " ! have to be honest," he say . "I didn't like the idea that I would have to lea rn chemistry and biology when I wanted to learn physic ."But he made friends in the other specialties, and "Ii tening to them and their enthu– siasm," he add , "] was gradually drawn into it. I con ·ider that the best thing that could happen to me." In fact, inha now chafes at the limitations imposed by disciplinary boundaries. "You can look at the universe, if you open your eye , and you can sec there's no specialty," he ays. What he learned at PSU is that all the sciences are grap– pling with the same problem , but they speak different languages. A genera list like Sinha approaches these problems at a leve l of abstraction that includes the disciplines as subcategories of an all-encompassing cu riosity. This 1nakes him more of an idea person than a methodical worker. He doesn't always complete the step-by– step logic of his idea . "] cannot ·it down and solve a prob– lem by writing an equation," he says,