Friday Flyer - January 29, 2016

Spotlight on the University of California, Riverside QuarkNet Center: This group is and should be known for its great participation in International Masterclasses. Not only were they an early adopter—Mark Bonnard traveled to Portugal to cement a relationship with institutes there—but they are still going strong. Last year, they expanded the program as part of university outreach to community college students. Undergraduate Connor Richards won an award to expand it to a yearlong tutoring program. Meanwhile, UC Riverside jumped back into the thick of the cosmic ray collaboration with a three-day workshop in July facilitated by Rose Emmanuel and Elisa Gatz.  

News from QuarkNet Central: Important! QuarkNet plans to transfer the entire e-Lab website from servers at Argonne National Lab to new servers at the University of Notre Dame over this weekend, January 30-31, 2016. All processes will be halted and servers will not be available. When the transition is complete, everything should appear exactly the same as before to users. The URL remains the same: (https://www.i2u2.org).

Our two reminders from last week still apply:
(1) Masterclass season is quickly approaching; centers involved need to either have an orientation (if new to masterclass) or an orientation update (if an experienced masterclass center). Leaders, register for an orientation or update (at least a week before your preferred date) using the Google form. Any questions . . . contact Ken Cecire.
(2) Applications for U.S. teachers are due on January 31 for the CERN High School Teacher Program.

Physics Experiment Roundup: When is a vacuum not a vacuum? Learn how nature still abhors a vacuum in symmetry. However, no one abhors data (or they shouldn't). So . . .  thanks, the Dark Energy Survey! 

Resources: CERN has just completed its new Microcosm exhibit. Watch it build. And here is a sneak preview of the new International Masterclasses poster for students. (Thanks, Cyndi, for the idea. Thanks, Lotta, for the graphic arts.)

Just for Fun: Will you be in northern Illinois this Sunday? Have children (or think like one)? Head to Fermilab! Feeling a little more old-school? Then see how physicists measured time dilation with cosmic rays the old-fashioned way.

QuarkNet Staff:
Mark Adams: MarkRAdams74@gmail.com
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu