ON THE BIG SCREEN ... Some Silicon Valley scientists can now see their work in a whole new light — and so can millions of visitors — at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington. The Smithsonian's Dynamic Sun Video Wall, which was designed and built by scientists at Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto and colleagues from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, combines six 50-inch monitors to create a 7-foot-by-6-foot display of the sun in super high-definition: 4,096 by 4,096 eyepopping pixels. To compare, a high-definition TV can only display 1,920 by 1,080 pixels. The video wall will demonstrate to visitors why images at this resolution are needed to study and predict solar behavior. "We're honored that our work in Silicon Valley is part of the nation's leading aerospace museum," said Karel Schrijver, NASA's principal investigator for the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly and a Lockheed Martin Senior Fellow. "Our systems use precise optical technologies to analyze a star that's nearly 93 million miles away, and we use tremendous computing power to visualize the data, to understand the sun's ever-changing magnetism and the solar storms that it powers. That's important because the sun's behavior can disrupt and damage satellites and power grids."

SINGAPORE SPRING ... Palo Alto Superintendent Max McGee and a group of 12 Palo Alto and Gunn high school students (six from each school) will be spending their spring break in Singapore working on research projects on topics like "identification of novel anti-biofilm compounds" and "two-dimensional materials as catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction." The high-level science research projects and very-extended field trip are part of a pilot research partnership McGee launched this year, connecting the Gunn and Paly students with students at the National Junior College in Singapore. The 12 students will be working for a minimum of 30 hours in the college's labs over spring break, but the entire project extends through next year, McGee said at the March 24 school board meeting, at which the board gave its official blessing to the trip. McGee gave a proposal of the program to the schools' science departments and asked them to send his way any students who would be interested in participating. The purpose of the program and trip, McGee said, is "to pursue advanced scientific research and learn what real research is like ... as we prepare (students) for careers that don't exist, which will include working with peers and colleagues around the world." The students will learn how to read and analyze scientific literature, develop a formal research proposal, conduct lab research and prepare final papers on their research, which McGee said ideally will be submitted for publication. They will also present their research to the school board this fall.