Spotlight on the Boston QuarkNet Center
The Boston Center—really a composite center sponsored by particle physicists at Northeastern University in Boston and Brown University in nearby Providence—was again very active in 2018. Two highlights were a successful CMS masterclass at Northeastern in March and a unique summer workshop in August. Lead teacher Rick Dower put together an astrophysics workshop for August using his deep background in the field but also making contact with the latest research. The group also got into the possibility of completing the construction of a cyclotron with a Princeton student who had started the project and his father. Evening meetings in February and May in which the participants explored physics ideas and education rounded out the year.
News from QuarkNet Central
World Wide Data Day (W2D2) is upon us. Registration closes in four days, on Tuesday, October 30. Register your class! Check out the latest W2D2 Memo! The big day is Thursday, November 15.
Keep in mind that International Cosmic Day is on November 29; then International Masterclasses registration is not far behind.
Physics Experiment Roundup
New experiments are on the way! To get us started, an article in symmetry surveys the physics building boom. Fermilab just hosted an international symposium on cutting-edge technology for CMS, and the International Linear Collider (ILC) collaboration has released a strong statement in Interactions.org on getting started with the new collider. The next few years can be very exciting!
Resources
Interested in multi-messenger astronomy and neutrinos? (Who isn't?) Physics Today has just the article for you. PT also has an article on Leon Lederman and physics education as well as an archival paper on the whole energy-momentum-mass thing. We round the resources with Fermilab physicist Mike Albrow's take on predicting the future and symmetry's beyond the Standard Model.
Just for Fun
Current experiments can be pretty cool, too. QuarkNet fellow Mike Wadness shows this with a Fiestaware plate, his cosmic ray detector, and EQUIP. Take a look. (Hat tip to fellow Dave Trapp!) And speaking of thermodynamics—were we? really?—xkcd explains the Carnot Cycle and, uh, more.
QuarkNet Staff:
Mark Adams: adams@fnal.gov
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu