Friday Flyer - September 23, 2016

Spotlight on the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez QuarkNet Center: Persistence pays off. A few years ago, the QuarkNet center at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM) had two detectors that were not working very well. Hector Mendez reassessed the situation and worked with the teachers to put the detectors where they would be best used while he got help from QuarkNet to renew the equipment. He also enlisted the help of a UPRM student to work with detectors. The center had a workshop in October last year to get reacquainted with using detectors in the classroom. They are having another this weekend with Mark Adams, who leads the cosmic ray studies program, to sharpen skills with detectors, EQUIP, and the Cosmic Ray e-Lab. In the end, they will have four working and well-used detectors in Puerto Rico.

News from QuarkNet Central: Signed up for International Cosmic Day yet? If not, learn more and then register. Deliverables done yet? They are overdue and we still need them. Contact Ken or Shane.

Watch this space! (Are you watching?) We will soon announce the dates for International Masterclasses!

Physics Experiment Roundup: The LHC usually runs with tight beams to maximize head-on collisions, but not right now; read why the beams are wider for TOTEM and ATLAS/ALFA. At another end of the universe, astronomers seem to have found a dark matter galaxy, short on stars and long on what we cannot see.

Resources: Speaking of the elusive 27%, this article takes on the matter with dark matter while another addresses those not-so-elusive, long-lived particles. Two eye-openers for students: this day in the life video from Fermilab and an article by CERN Director General Fabiola Giannotti taking on the fallacy of "useless knowledge."

Just for Fun: If you've been to the second floor of Wilson Hall at Fermilab, you've seen exhibits of the art of physics . . . or is it the physics of art? On more of J-pop-art note, consider ILC, kawaii, symmetry ni. And a hat tip to teaching and learniing leader Jeremy Smith for this tour of how Americans talk: small words, big data.

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