astronomy

Niles Pierce

Niles Pierce is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Niles Pierce rather than just read about it. In short: Niles A. Pierce is an American mathematician, bioengineer, and professor at the California Institute of Technology.

Key takeaways

Niles Pierce belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Niles Pierce to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Niles Pierce from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Niles A. Pierce is an American mathematician, bioengineer, and professor at the California Institute of Technology. He is a leading researcher in the fields of molecular programming and dynamic nucleic acid nanotechnology. His research is focused on kinetically controlled DNA and RNA self-assembly. Pierce is working on applications in bioimaging. Pierce graduated as the Valedictorian of the Princeton University class of 1993 with a BSE in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. He then attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, an achievement repeated nine years later by his sister Lillian Pierce. He completed a DPhil in Applied Mathematics in 1997. He joined the faculty of the California Institute of Technology in 2000.

Works Choi, Harry M. T.; Beck, Victor A.; Pierce, Niles A. (8 April 2014). "Next-Generation in Situ Hybridization Chain Reaction: Higher Gain, Lower Cost, Greater Durability". ACS Nano. 8 (5). American Chemical Society (ACS): 4284–4294. doi:10.1021/nn405717p. ISSN 1936-0851. PMC 4046802. PMID 24712299. Hochrein, Lisa M.; Schwarzkopf, Maayan; Shahgholi, Mona; Yin, Peng; Pierce, Niles A. (12 November 2013). "Conditional Dicer Substrate Formation via Shape and Sequence Transduction with Small Conditional RNAs". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 135 (46). American Chemical Society (ACS): 17322–17330. doi:10.1021/ja404676x. ISSN 0002-7863. PMC 3842090. PMID 24219616. Zadeh, Joseph N.; Wolfe, Brian R.; Pierce, Niles A. (17 August 2010). "Nucleic acid sequence design via efficient ensemble defect optimization". Journal of Computational Chemistry. 32 (3). Wiley: 439–452. doi:10.1002/jcc.21633. ISSN 0192-8651. PMID 20717905. S2CID 1803200. Zadeh, Joseph N.; Steenberg, Conrad D.; Bois, Justin S.; Wolfe, Brian R.; Pierce, Marshall B.; Khan, Asif R.; Dirks, Robert M.; Pierce, Niles A. (17 November 2010). "NUPACK: Analysis and design of nucleic acid systems". Journal of Computational Chemistry. 32 (1). Wiley: 170–173. doi:10.1002/jcc.21596. ISSN 0192-8651. PMID 20645303. S2CID 33709556. Choi, Harry M T; Chang, Joann Y; Trinh, Le A; Padilla, Jennifer E; Fraser, Scott E; Pierce, Niles A (31 October 2010). "Programmable in situ amplification for multiplexed imaging of mRNA expression". Nature Biotechnology. 28 (11). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 1208–1212. doi:10.1038/nbt.1692. ISSN 1087-0156. PMC 3058322. PMID 21037591. Yin, Peng; Choi, Harry M. T.; Calvert, Colby R.; Pierce, Niles A. (2008). "Programming biomolecular self-assembly pathways". Nature. 451 (7176). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 318–322. Bibcode:2008Natur.451..318Y. doi:10.1038/nature06451. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 18202654. S2CID 4354536. Dirks, Robert M.; Bois, Justin S.; Schaeffer, Joseph M.; Winfree, Erik; Pierce, Niles A. (2007). "Thermodynamic Analysis of Interacting Nucleic Acid Strands". SIAM Review. 49 (1). Society for Industrial & Applied Mathematics (SIAM): 65–88. Bibcode:2007SIAMR..49...65D. doi:10.1137/060651100. ISSN 0036-1445. Dirks, Robert M.; Pierce, Niles A. (18 October 2004). "Triggered amplification by hybridization chain reaction". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 101 (43): 15275–15278. doi:10.1073/pnas.0407024101. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 524468. PMID 15492210. Shin, Jong-Shik; Pierce, Niles A. (17 August 2004). "A Synthetic DNA Walker for Molecular Transport". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 126 (35). American Chemical Society (ACS): 10834–10835. doi:10.1021/ja047543j. ISSN 0002-7863. PMID 15339155.

Resources NUPACK is a growing software suite for the analysis and design of nucleic acid structures, devices, and systems. Molecular Technologies develops and supports programmable molecular technologies for reading out and regulating the state of endogenous biological circuitry.

Startup Company Molecular Instruments, Inc. designs and synthesizes molecular kits for multiplexed quantitative bioimaging in academic research, drug development, and clinical diagnostics.

References

External links "People – Pierce Lab". Pierce Lab. Retrieved 22 November 2022.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Niles Pierce

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Niles Pierce claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Niles Pierce before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Niles Pierce ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Niles Pierce

In research: Niles Pierce appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Niles Pierce in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Niles Pierce is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Alumni of the University of Oxford, American Rhodes Scholars, American bioengineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Niles Pierce outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Niles Pierce in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Niles Pierce means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Niles Pierce out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Niles Pierce in simple terms?

Niles A. Pierce is an American mathematician, bioengineer, and professor at the California Institute of Technology.

Why does Niles Pierce matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Niles Pierce?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Niles Pierce.