Friday Flyer - June 16, 2023
This is the last Friday Flyer of the 2022-2023 academic year. See you in September!
Spotlight on Summer 2023
Summer workshops are already underway. Yes, summer actually begins with the solstice this coming Wednesday at 9:57 am Central Time, but that has not stopped QuarkNet centers: Kansas State and Alabama have already had workshops, and Ole Miss started theirs today. "Alabama?" you might ask. Yes: we have two new QuarkNet centers this year: the University of Alabama and the University of South Dakota. Welcome to both!
There are also some new and interesting workshops at centers. In a addition to Higgs@10 (now called Higgs Discovery) and the NOvA flavor of Neutrino Data Workshops developed last year, we are adding Just in Time W2D2, Belle 2 Data, and New Questions in Particle Physics. As staff and fellows come around to facilitate these, we will also learn from QuarkNet teachers what works, what does not, and how to make them better. (One anonymous staff member calls this "development-by-roll-out".)
Not just workshops but camps too! The new Coding Camp 0 starts next week (see below) and Coding Camps 1 and 2 are scheduled and well-subscribed. The same can be said for Data Camp. And we just completed a small Lead Teacher Camp at Notre Dame to assist the staff in assisting Lead Teachers and lead the way for future Lead Teacher Camps for more participants.
News from QuarkNet Central
New QuarkNet Site - we need your help: Our QuarkNet website will upgrade from the current (and expiring) Drupal7 to the new D9. The developers want learn how you use the current site. Will you fill out this short survey this month?
Coding Camp 0: Are you interested in introducing Python and Google Colab to your students? If so, this virtual event might be for you! This opportunity will take place virtually on June 20-21, 2023. Learn more, including how to register on this Coding Camp 0 informational page.
Courses for Teachers: Perimeter Institute informs us that they have three courses coming up that still have room for participants. Take a look and see if one is right for you.
Reminder for Center Leadership: Summer workshops are upon us! Please keep in mind that there are several workshops that QuarkNet staff and/or fellows can bring to teachers at your center. Questions? News of your plans? Your QuarkNet staff members are here to help! Please contact us!
Physics Experiment Roundup
We have some news from outer space courtesy of APS Physics. First, our algorithms do not catch everything, so citizen scientists have spotted astrophysical transients - short electromagnetic bursts - for the ThunderKAT survey using Zooniverse. And folks at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics are working on a way for future gravitational wave detectors to study accretion by massive black holes.
On the particle side of things, APS Physics informs us that physicists at Shanghai Jiao Tong University have demonstrated the linking of curved laser wakefield accelerators (LWFAs) to boost acceleration energy of particles. LWFAs are considered to be a key technology for a new generation of accelerators that are smaller and more efficient than current accelerators. The Black Hills Pioneer has an article about the expected completion of excavation for DUNE this month. APS News reveals plans for new cosmic ray muography studies of the Great Pyramid at Giza. (Don't forget that our own Mark Adams is part of a pyramid study at Chichen Itza!)
CERN Bulletin keeps us up-to-date with a report on the anti-proton program and two "hands-across-the-ring" news items from both ATLAS and CMS: first-ever four-top quark events and first evidence of a rare Higgs decay to a Z boson and a photon.
Resources
Videos! We have videos! First on the list: CERN and Fermilab produced a livestream yesterday all about DUNE. We may have missed the original but we can watch the recording.
For more videos, let's start by revisiting some classics. First, we have "Big" examples by Don Lincoln from way back that still hold up well in terms of the physics and Don's unique style:
- Big Mysteries: The Higgs Mass (oldie-but-goodie)
- Big Mysteries: Dark Energy
- Big Questions: Dark Matter
- Big Questions: The Ultimate Building Blocks of Matter.
While we are at it, here are some classic episodes of Even Bananas by Kirstie Duffy:
Just for Fun
Summer fun! Or...this is different: time crystals. Really. We have a video of Don Lincoln discussing time crystals. Time crystals are actually a thing in condensed matter physics. And we have another video (from the future) of a time crystal in use. [The preceding sentence is purely fictional but does alter the balance of terror.] Xkcd has another view.
What were we talking about? Summer fun? Right! Have a great break! See you at your center workshop!
QuarkNet Staff
Mark Adams: adams@fnal.gov
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Spencer Pasero: spasero@fnal.gov
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu