Work that Joe has been a part of:click here for my resumé.click here for my "fluff" pieces (i.e., those that don't pay rent!) Science and Technology PolicyRecently, I have left astrophysics for the world of science and technology policy. After getting my MA in Astrophysics from the UC Berkeley Department of Astronomy, I am now a PhD student at UC Berkeley's School of Information (iSchool) where I work on issues in high technology policy, law and economics.Some of my recent contributions in this field include works such as
the paper "Columbia and
Challenger: Organizational Failure at NASA" as well as "Privacy Issues in an
Electronic Voting Machine". I work on electronic voting
technology, law and policy as well as cyberlaw and the quality of
information. My advisers include Peter Lyman, Deirdre
Mulligan, and Pam
Samuelson. I have been involved with the Samuelson Law, Technology and
Public Policy Clinic at the Boalt Hall School of Law since
Fall 2003 and have consulted with the Electronic Frontier Foundation to
produce a series of electronic
voting machine information sheets for the November 2004
election. I've also started keeping a blog
called "Not Quite a Blog" (v2.0, v1.0) where I write
frequently. PublicationsPlease see my CV/Resumé. Joe's Astrophysical ResearchMy research interests have largely been centered in planetary science (the science concerned with the occupants of our solar system and other systems like it). I have done specific investigations into the atmospheric characteristics of the largest moon of Saturn, Titan with my undergraduate mentor, Caitlin Griffith.Titan is one of only four rocky bodies in our solar system with a significant atmosphere (Can you guess what the other three are? Hint: you live on one of them. click here for the answer). It is the second largest moon in the solar system (after Ganymede of Jupiter) and is bigger than both Mercury and Pluto. One thing that has been puzzling scientists since astronomers started to study Titan, is Titan's massive atmosphere. The pressure at Titan's surface is about one and a half times what we feel here on Earth. Titan is large as moons go ( click here to see a comparsion of Earth, Titan and the Moon from this website), but it does not have enough gravity to hold on to its atmosphere... just think, it takes the gravity of the whole earth to hold on to our atmosphere and Titan's is roughly 1.5 times the size of ours!!! So, either we happen to be seeing Titan at a very special time in it's life, or there must be something that is replenishing Titan's atmosphere that we don't know about. Without something continually supplying the atmosphere, all the gases and stuff in the atmosphere would literally float away into space in a short amount of time (compared to how long Titan will be around). With the research I and my collegues have done, we are starting to understand that Titan, more than likely, has an atmospheric cycle similar to the Earth's hydrologic cycle. What is the Earth's hydrologic cycle? It's the processes that allows water to change in and out of it's many forms (water, ice and gas) here on Earth. For example, water from lakes and seas evaporates to form clouds which eventually rain out in the form of water or snow (a form of ice) on to the ground... which will probably evaporate once again. We think a similar cycle takes place on Titan but with Methane (CH4) forming seas, lakes, clouds and rain. Stay tuned!!! The Cassini/Huygens mission will visit Saturn and Titan starting in 2004. The Cassini spacecraft has many interesting experiments, cameras and spectrometers as well as a probe (the Huygens probe) that will actually drop into the atmosphere of Titan! Last updated on:
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