Department of Mathematics

The Florida State University

This Week in Mathematics

6 - 10 December 1999

Monday: 6 December 1999

Tuesday: 7 December 1999

Applied Topology Seminar, 3:35 p.m., 104 Love Building

D.M. Stump, University of Queensland, Australia

Supercoiled DNA - A Rope Trick of Nature

DNA molecules can form long, closed loops which are microns in length (e.g. plasmids) and subject to action by a variety of enzymes that add or remove turns of twist from the underlying double helical structure. When a loop is sufficiently undertwisted, the circular shape becomes unstable, and the molecule adopts a more complex conformation known as a supercoil in order to relieve the internal stresses. A similar process can be visualized with a circular loop of rope or plastic tubing which is twisted.
     The large deflection theory of elastic rods is used to model two canonical supercoiled shapes: interwound and toroidal. The results correlate reasonably with simple experiments on elastic rod analogues and available DNA data. The primary purpose of the analysis is to understand how the solid mechanics drives the process rather than to obtain a comprehensive catalogue of all possible molecular confirmations.

Applied Mathematics Seminar, 5:15 p.m., 104 Love Building

Balsa Terzic, Florida State University

The Holman and Wisdom Map for the N-body Problem

Wednesday: 8 December 1999

No Graduate Student Seminar, 1:15 p.m., 204B Love Building

(Real) Analysis Seminar, 2:30 p.m., 201 Love Building

Denise Szecsei, Florida State University

The Hausdorff Dimension of Self-Similar Fractal Sets

Complex/Symbolic Seminar, 3:35 p.m., 102 Love Building

Mika Seppälä, Florida State University

Schottky Uniformization of Real Hyperellijptic M-Curves

No Scientific Visualization Seminar, 3:30 p.m., 204B Love

Thursday: 2 December 1999

No Algebraic Coding Theory Seminar, 2:00 p.m., 104 Love Building

QUANTUM! Seminar, 3:35 p.m., 104 Love Building

Phil Bowers, Florida State University

The Continuous Dirac Calculus and Fourier Transforms

Applied Mathematics Seminar, 3:35 p.m., 200 Love Building

Katarina Conrad, Florida State University

Preisach-Type Models of Hysteresis

Friday: 3 December 1999

Mo Colloquium Coffee, 3:00 p.m., 204 Love Building
No Colloquium, 3:30 p.m., 101 Love Building

No Scientific Computing Seminar, 4:30 p.m., 200 Love Building

Seminars and colloquia at "that other" university [a.k.a. the University of Florida]

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