Friday Flyer on Tuesday - January 10, 2023
Spotlight on the Southern Methodist University QuarkNet Center
This past year (2022) marked a big change for the SMU center as new mentor Durdana Balakishiyeva stepped into this role after many years with Simon Dalley as lead mentor. We thank Simon for his great work and leadership over many years! The SMU teachers met for an action-packed five days in late June, mostly consisting of CMS and Neutrino Data workshops. LHC Fellow Marla Glover joined on Friday for a Higgs@10 workshop, and participants heard talks from SMU faculty over the course of the week on topics such as black holes, dark matter, and the Higgs. The share-a-thon provided an opportunity for teachers to share great ideas with one another, including a variation on Rolling with Rutherford (thanks, Bruce Boehne!) and the use of fluid-filled accelerometers (thanks, Joel Palmer!).
News from QuarkNet Central
International Masterclasses: We start the year with a reminder about IMC 2023.
Registration! IMC registration is now by email. To register, masterclass leaders should check the Fermilab videoconference schedule or one of the other schedules and pick a day and time that works for you. Then contact Ken, Spencer, or Shane with your choice.
Teachers! Please note that you will be eligible for a stipend for participating in a masterclass orientation or for bringing students to a masterclass on a non-school day. Orientations begin at the end of this month: please watch for them.
New offerings! There is now a Pierre Auger Observatory masterclass. They offer one videoconference at 15:00 CT on March 28 for the Americas. As you know, Pierre Auger is the massive cosmic ray observatory in the Argentine pampa. In addition, QuarkNet mentor Jake Bennett at Ole Miss is leading Belle II masterclasses for the Americas, again on one day. Details are forthcoming after the new year begins. Belle II is the electron collider at KEK in Japan used for B physics. Contact Ken to inquire about these opportunities.
Yet more news! Read the latest IMC circular here!
Center Leads: QuarkNet staff will be in touch by late January regarding planning for QuarkNet center activities in 2023. It's not too early to start thinking about potential meeting dates for teacher workshops and other QuarkNet events! If you have not yet submitted your annual report for 2022, please do so ASAP. Here are instructions for submitting your report. If you have any questions, please let Ken or Shane know.
2023 AAPT Winter Meeting in Portland: There will be several QuarkNetters attending the AAPT meeting in Portland coming up. Are you going? Let Shane know!
Cosmic Ray Help Sessions: The Cosmic Ray fellows are in the process of organizing periodic help sessions via Zoom. The first session will likely be on January 18. CRMD users, watch for an email from the Cosmic Ray e-Lab listserv for more information, or you can contact Nicole Preiser if you are interested in joining or if you have any questions.
Physics Experiment Roundup
Have a look back at 2022 with some highlights from CERN and Fermilab (video and article) from the year. More year in review from Quanta magazine, from APS Physics, and the most popular Physics Today articles in 2022. And of course 2022 brought us many amazing images from the James Webb telescope.
More from CERN: "LHCb Brings Leptons Into Line" and "ATLAS Moves Into Top Gear for Run 3"
From the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Lab: A new way to "see" details inside of nuclei.
And from the black holes department: An article from Advanced Science News on attempting to detect dark matter using black holes and from Scientific American on using neutrinos to learn more about black holes.
Resources
We start with a couple of videos from Fermilab, including a public lecture from Don Lincoln, "The Birth, Life and Death of the Universe," and a video from some Fermilab technicians in "Behind the Science." Read about "The Sounds of Atoms" from APS and about the emptiness of space from Nautilus.
More from Don Lincoln...this time from Big Think on "negative energy." Symmetry brings us an article about using art as a way to, "turn science from something to be explained into something to be experienced."
The January 2023 issue of The Physics Teacher is out, and it includes many free articles, including one on the optimal throwing angle, "Using Space Junk to measure G," and "Global Voices in Science: Are We Listening?"
Just for Fun
As we mark the passage of time with the new year, we consider a few interesting--dare we say "fun"?--points about this "fourth dimension."
Let's start with the basics: What is time? Turns out physicists are still trying to answer that question. How about time dilation? Don Lincoln has something to say about that, and how people get time dilation wrong.
Ever wake up just ahead of your alarm? You're not alone!
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has something to say about time, and xkcd asks, "Is it Worth the Time?"
And finally...this Friday Flyer came out a few days late, but keep in mind that in geologic time, a few days is basically nothing! :-)
QuarkNet Staff
Mark Adams: adams@fnal.gov
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Spencer Pasero: spasero@fnal.gov
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu