Small dust grains consisting of aggregates of spherical monomers are seen with increasing frequency in fields such as dusty plasmas and observational astronomy. In many cases the only possible experimental data that can be collected from these aggregates is via the light they scatter or transmit, making it difficult to determine characteristics such as size and shape. This paper investigates a method for modeling the optical properties of aggregates created by computer simulated BCCA (Ballistic cluster-cluster aggregation) and BPCA (Ballistic particle-cluster aggregation).

Methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) is an oxygenate that allows the complete combustion of gasoline. Although it is not carcinogenic, there is rising concern about its effects on human health because of its high water solubility and some proven systemic toxicities in animals. MTBE has become a target for many bioremediation studies with some microbes already proven to be effective in bioremediating it. Recently we isolated a Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (BA) strain from pooled, MTBE-contaminated agar that can be used as a potential bioremediant microbe for MTBE.