Friday Flyer - April 15, 2016

Spotlight on the Cosmic Ray e-Lab: Want to have your class collect data on cosmic particles from supernovae using high-energy physics detectors? Try the Cosmic Ray e-Lab where students and teachers all over the world collect data on muons they observe that have been created in high-energy cosmic ray air showers. Students develop experiments and can measure the muon lifetime, speed of muons, and muon rates, as well as distributions in time and space of showers of multiple muons. This week, schools are recording muons with identical detector setups during International Muon Week 2016. Lead teachers and mentors: Whether you are part of a center with lots of cosmic ray experience or a beginner, consider a Cosmic Ray e-Lab workshop this summer. Contact Mark to inquire. 

Physics Experiment Roundup: The recommissioning of the LHC has made good progress since the first beam was injected last month. LHC software is now 20 years old, so it's time for a software upgrade. Further along in the future (mid-2020s), physicists have plans to upgrade the magnets in the next version of the LHC.

Resources: Learn more about the neutron in this BBC radio program about the subatomic particle. This Scientific American article discusses a recent measurement that the universe is expanding faster than it "should" be, even when considering what we think we know about dark energy. Learn about physics concepts using art, as demonstrated in this symmetry article. Be sure to check out the "Magnetic Movie"!

Just for Fun: Registration for the 2016 Summer AAPT Meeting in Sacramento opened this week. This guide from PhD Comics may help you determine whether or not you should submit a paper!

QuarkNet Staff:
Mark Adams: adams@fnal.gov
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu