最炫酷的幾個美國大學實驗室，簡直太贊了

The Coolest University Laboratories in the United States

George Washington University： National Crash Analysis Center

A t the NCA C， every student in the school’s transportation-safety graduate program gets a car and instructions to tear it down to piles of nuts and bolts，struts and glass sheets. Then the student rebuilds the vehicle in a computer model so he can virtually crash it again and again. （Students also help with real crash tests.）

T he lab w ork s w i t h aut o manufacturers① and the Department of Transportation to inform safety standards for cars and \"roadside furniture，\" such as light poles， barriers and signs. The current curriculum②confronts a recent problem on the freeways： the huge population of SUVs， minivans and other small trucks. Students are trying to figure out whether objects like highway barriers should be changed to reflect the size of the vehicles likely to be plowing into them in the future.

University of Alabama at Huntsville： Propulsion Research Center

Each year， 20 aeronautical③- and mechanical-engineering students get eight months to design， construct， and fly a rocket to a height of exactly 5，280 feet. These aren’t hobby④rockets， which typically fly to less than 1，000 feet （any higher requires an FAA permit）. \"Consider that an ’A’ engine is half as strong as a ’B’ engine， and so on，\" says engineering professor Marlow Moser. \"The rockets you shoot off in the park： A and B engines. Our rockets： Lengines.\"

Last year’s class built a 37-pound， 8.5-foot-long carbon-fiber projectile with advanced data-collection systems onboard. T he nosecone carried a video camera and avionics to record the rocket’s flight path and other information； the aft end， temperature and strain sensors. Students enter their rocket in a NA SA -sponsored student rocket-launching competition and present a report to the space agency’s scientists and engineers as if they were a company vying for a contract. Although the presentation is just an academic exercise， several rocket-crew alums go on to work for NASA， which has its Marshall Space Flight Center just down the road from UAH. \"Here， students are playing with fire and explosives⑤ all day，\" Moser says. \"It doesn’t get much better than that.\"

Northern KentuckyUniversity： Barton Lab

If you want to be one of the six lucky

undergrads to get off the waiting list and into Hazel Barton’s course， you’d better like tight spaces， heights， the dark， bats and getting dirty—and that’s just to get to the bacteria. Unlike microbiology majors at other schools， the ones laboring over microscopes and petri dishes all day， Barton’s students study extremophile microbes where they thrive： caves.

Most of Barton’s students cave close to home， measuring groundwater pollution and studying links between microbes and cav e f ormations. But some， with NA SA assistance， accompany Barton to explore the longest quartzite cave on the planet， a rare 10-mile-long labyrinth of pink and amber sandstone on Venezuela’s Roraima plateau. It teems with microbes that researchers think could provide clues to what life might look like on Mars. Most caves are formed by limestone， a carbonate rock. The rock of Roraima， however， is mostly silicate， which is also found on Mars. The team will collect the nitrogeneating， ammonia-spewing microbes and other strange organisms that live in the walls. Back at the lab， students will observe the bacteria’s behavior under varying conditions， gathering information that could help NASA hone its search for extraterrestrial life.

喬治華盛頓大學：國家碰撞分析中心

職業：安全工程師

學習內容：將一輛時速約96公里的轎車撞向路邊設施

在國家碰撞分析中心，每個學習運輸安全研究生課程的學生將得到一輛汽車，以及一張拆卸說明書，教你如何將車子拆得支離破碎。然后，學生在計算機中重建車輛模型，并一次又一次地撞毀它。學生也協助進行真正的碰撞測試。

該實驗室與汽車制造商以及運輸部合作，以確定汽車和路邊設施（如路燈桿、柵欄和標志牌）的安全標準。現在的課程對準的是高速公路最近面臨的一個問題：數量龐大的越野車、小型貨車和其他小型卡車。學生們試圖解答這個問題，公路柵欄這樣的路邊設施是否應該隨著可能會撞向它們的車輛的大小而改變。

阿拉巴馬大學亨茨維爾分校：推進

研究中心

職業：火箭科學家

學習內容：讓火箭飛得又快又遠

每年，20名航空和機械工程專業的學生可以用8個月時間來設計建造和試飛火箭，而且必須達到精確的5280英尺。業余愛好者的火箭，飛行高度通常低于1000英尺（并且需要獲得美國聯邦航空局的許可）。“假設一個‘A’引擎只有‘B’引擎一半的能力，‘B’引擎只有‘C’引擎一半的能力，以此類推，”工程教授馬洛？莫澤（Marlow Moser）說，“你在公園看到的火箭就屬于‘A’和‘B’引擎。而我們的火箭是‘L’引擎。”

去年的學生建造了一支約16公斤重，約2.6米長的碳纖維火箭，搭載有先進的數據收集系統。火箭的“鼻錐”上裝有一個攝像頭和航空電子設備，來記錄火箭的飛行路徑和其他資料；在尾端，裝有溫度和壓力傳感器。學生可以用自己的火箭參與美國航天局贊助的學生火箭發射競費，并提交一份報告給航天局的科學家和工程師，就像一個公司競標一份合同一樣。雖然這次報告只是一個學術活動，但是一些火箭團隊的校友會留下來繼續為美國航天局工作。美國航天局的馬歇爾太空飛行中心和阿拉巴馬大學亨茨維爾分校就在一條街上。“在這里，學生整天玩火，擺弄炸藥，”莫澤說。“沒有比這更棒的了。”

北肯塔基大學：巴頓實驗室

職業：地質學家

學習內容：在地球上研究火星的生存條件

如果你想進入海柔？巴頓的課程名單，并最后成為6個幸運的本科生之一。你最好喜歡狹窄空間、高空、黑暗、蝙蝠和被弄得臟兮兮——這一切僅僅是為了得到細菌。和其他學校整天擺弄顯微鏡和培養皿的微生物學專業不一樣，巴頓實驗室學生的學習場所在極端微生物茁壯成長的地方，那就是：洞穴。

大多數巴頓的學生在離家較近的洞穴，測量地下水污染和研究微生物及洞穴結構之間的聯系。但是，在美國航天局的協助下，有一些學生隨著巴頓對這個星球上最長的石英巖洞穴進行探索，這是一個罕見的16公里長，由粉紅色和琥珀色砂巖構成的迷宮，位于委內瑞拉的洛力莫高原。研究人員認為洞穴中盛產的微生物，可能為我們了解火星上生物的生活方式提供線索。大多數洞穴由石灰石形成，這是一種碳酸鹽巖。但洛力莫高原的巖石，主要成分是硅酸鹽，與火星上發現的巖石相同。該小組收集吃氮型和排氨型的微生物和其他居住在洞穴壁上的奇怪生物。回到實驗室里，學生將在不同的條件下觀察細菌的行為，并收集信息，以協助美國航天局尋找外星生命的研究。