Friday Flyer - November 8, 2024
Spotlight on the Boston QuarkNet Center
This has been another active year for Boston Center and it has also been their year of relativity (and some quantum physics). It all kicked off last year, actually, in December 2023, with an evening workshop built around lead teacher Rick Dower's presentation on "Relativity and GPS: How Einstein Helps You Find Your Way Home". It was a rich evening that set a theme for the following year. QuarkNet staff picked up on it and collaborated with Rick to develop the Relativity Workshop that was offered to centers last summer. At the same time, lead teacher Mike Wadness began work on quantum physics activities, leading to the Quantum Physics workshops last summer as well.
The Boston teachers brought about 30 students to their CMS masterclass at Northeastern University and had a great day. Later in the spring, the Large Hadron Collider Physics (LHCP) conference came to Boston and Northeastern. Members of the Boston Center were able to take advantage by joining a tour of the MIT Media Lab arranged by LHCP participant and previous QuarkNet Advisory Board member Steve Goldfarb after which they had dinner out and attended the LHCP public presentation at the Boston Public Library.
AAPT also came into town in July: Rick gave an invited presentation on 25 years of QuarkNet at the Boston Center. That's right: QuarkNet officually started in 1999 and Boston was one of the first intake of centers that year! The summer finished with a full two-day workshop returning to Relativity but expanding the topic with greater elaboration and accompanying Data Activities.
News from QuarkNet Central
Registration for International Masterclasses 2025 has begun! Fermilab-based International Masterclasses will be held from March 10 to April 11, 2025. Circular 4 came out on the first of this month and has the information masterclass leaders need to get the ball rolling.
But wait! There's more!
Upcoming Dates:
- World Wide Data Day (W2D2): The big day is this coming Thursday, November 14. Registrations are closed but watch this space for news on how it went and what the results were.
- QuarkNet Educational Discussions (QED): The next meeting is on Wednesday, November 20 at 8:00pm EST. Our guests will be Dave Fish and Elena Stratopoulos from Perimeter Institute, who will present a spotlight on their quantum resources, including an activity we can do. After all, we've got the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ) coming up!
- CERN 7x101: Dr. Luciano Musa will give a presentation on behalf of APS, available via Zoom, on "CERN: 7 Decades of Scientific Achievements and Innovation" on November 21. Read more and register!
- International Cosmic Day 2024: The 13th International Cosmic Day will take place on November 26, 2024. Click here for more information, including how to register.
- AAPT Winter Meeting 2025: The AAPT WM 2025 will be held January 18-21, 2025, in St. Louis, MO.
- Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics Teacher Conference: The 2025 KITP Teacher Conference will focus on particle physics, and will take place in Santa Barbara on February 8, 2025. For more information, including how to register, please see the conference page. As the website indicates, financial aid for travel and lodging is awarded on a rolling basis.
Physics Experiment Roundup
CERN has some news for us, as they often do. First, the LHC 2024 heavy ion run began just two days ago. The four major experiments have prepped for this and everyone is looking forward to some great data. Thus the 2024 proton run is at an end - with record luminosity. Elsewhere, the Baryon Antibaryon Symmetry Experiment (BASE) experiment has transported a box of protons across the CERN main site, paving the way to be able to similarly transport antiprotons. No kidding.
To round out the Roundup, APS Physics reports that axions may be found by searching in a polarized gas.
Resources
Tourist season, even fall leaf-peeping, is pretty much over in the northern hemisphere but there are still ways to tour. For example, it is possible to make an on-site tour of Fermilab (next dates: November 18, December 16, and January 6) or, for more of an armchair tour, Symmetry can show you 17 U.S. national laboratories. And from your classroom, you can travel online to CERN for ATLAS and CMS virtual visits.
Speaking again of CERN, Symmetry explains how U.S. physicists are prioritizing study of the Higgs while the CERN 70 series looks back to the Higgs discovery. (Already a dozen years ago!)
Looking to physics-yet-to-be, CERN Bulletin discusses the future of neutrino experiments and APS Physics mashes up classical physics and parallel quantum universes. Yes, we totally understand that.
Just for Fun
Of course, it is understood from the data that Casablanca is the greatest film ever made. (In the interest of open and rigorous scientific inquiry, no contradictory arguments will be entertained.) But there are other movies, it is true, and some are good and some are great. In that spirit we note that this past Sunday, November 3, was - CERN, step aside just for a moment - the 70th Anniversary Godzilla Day. This is important for physics because special Godzilla-train interactions (example +1 and example -1) and because of the natural particle beam that the King of Monsters can exhale at will (multiple examples). And because of this and this. 70 years ago: it was the start of a beautiful, if somewhat destructive, friendship.
Learn more, kaiju fans.
QuarkNet Staff
Mark Adams: adams@fnal.gov
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Spencer Pasero: spasero@fnal.gov
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu