Back on Jan. 13 at MIT, the senior captain established a Bates record in the 60-meter dash by just one one-hundredth of a second. A few days later, we asked the new record-holder if he could describe what 0.01 second looks<\/em> like. Meaning, if he had defeated a foe by just a centisecond, what would the margin be at the finish line?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAbout 10 centimeters,\u201d said Stakun-Pickering, replying quite quickly, in fact, because he\u2019s known the answer for about a year and because he has a mind for such things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A mathematics and physics double major, Stakun-Pickering has finished a thesis, in physics, and is now starting a capstone project, in math.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Initially unsure of sure what he wanted to investigate for his physics thesis, he sought out a faculty mentor, Associate Professor of Physics Aleksandar Diamond-Stanik. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “He said was working on this project investigating the rate of star formation in distant galaxies, said Stakun-Pickering, who was a member of Diamond-Stanik’s student research group last summer and, with fellow Bates physics majors, attended the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena, Calif., last June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Intrigued, he embarked on a thesis project with Diamond-Stanic, looking at surprising recent research showing that fewer stars are forming than scientists originally thought. \u201cIt’s a lot less,\u201d says Stakun-Pickering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you make a simulation of a galaxy \u2014 here’s a bunch of gas and dust evolving over time \u2014 you might expect there to be, say, 100 new stars given the amount of mass and matter out there. But what we see is maybe only about 5 percent of that, or five stars that form.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are a few theories to explain the phenomenon, one having to do with the fact that the first stars that form then expand and ultimately explode. \u201cI don’t know if you’ve heard but our sun is eventually going to expand and explode.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Yep, we\u2019re aware!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat explosion disturbs and disrupts the cosmic gas that needs to condense to form stars. If you disturb all that settling gas, then you can’t make a star anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stakun-Pickering is now taking his senior capstone mathematics course, with Professor of Mathematics Peter Wong. \u201cIt should be pretty fun,\u201d he says. It involves integrals, which is a way of assigning numbers to functions to describe area and other properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2023\/02\/2022-10-25_Bates_Track-287-2.webp\")
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