Barbara Warmbein | 16 August 2012A new stage show based on accelerators and accelerator physics is taking off in Germany this month. Conceived by two ILC scientists at DESY, it shows the basic ingredients of a particle accelerator, complete with all the fun stuff, to schoolchildren ages 12 and up. It even gives a live audience-involving demonstration of the fundamental acceleration principle of the ILC.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: accelerator, DESY, outreach, show
Kaoru Yokoya | 26 July 2012With the news of the Higgs, public interest in particle physics in general and the ILC in particular is at an all-time high. Kaoru Yokoya, Asian Regional Director, says that now is the time to foster this interest and find the next generation of particle physicists in Japan.
Category: Director's Corner | Tagged: Japan, KEK, outreach
Barry Barish | 19 April 2012Most of us belong to a professional society that serves many of our professional needs throughout our career as practicing scientists. I have belonged to the American Physical Society since I was a graduate student in Berkeley, and last year I had the privilege of serving as APS President for 2011. It has become customary for each outgoing President to summarise his or her presidential year for APS, and I repeat my summary in order to give a picture of the activities of such a professional society.
Category: Director's Corner | Tagged: APS, education, outreach, physical society, science policy
10 November 2011Last month, a true tabletop electron accelerator was shown to the public for the first time during the CNRS exhibition Entrée en matière in Trocadéro's gardens in Paris, France. This model was built to serve as a general introduction to the understanding of the principles underlying accelerator operations in general and more specifically colliders. The public can actually see and manipulate the controls and therefore easily grasp what is happening. The model is a small replica of the Orsay storage ring (Anneau de Collision d’Orsay, ACO) at LAL. ACO was in service as a collider from 1965 to 1980 with an energy of 500 MeV for each beam. The real accelerator is now a museum, listed on the French heritage register. Learn more (in French) about the model called "Electrons' dance".
Category: Image of the week | Tagged: CNRS, Orsay, outreach
Perrine Royole-Degieux | 31 March 2011March is particle hunting season for more than 8,000 students who participated in the International Hands on Particle Physics Masterclasses. And this year features a premiere: they analyse real high-energy proton collisions from 2010’s events at the Large Hadron Collider.
Category: Feature | Tagged: international, LHC, masterclasses, outreach
Perrine Royole-Degieux | 5 August 2010How do you gather 2,000 Parisians and tourists in the middle of summer to talk about particle physics during a whole night? Probably following this recipe: find a magic venue, invite fascinating speakers and well-known artists, explore the frontier between science and cinema and advertise, advertise, advertise. Well, at least this is how the "Nuit des particules" – Particle Night – organised on 27 July at the Grand Rex theatre in Paris by the International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP2010) this year happened to be a success.
Category: Feature | Tagged: France, ICHEP, outreach, Paris, public event, public lecture
29 April 2010Do you enjoy explaining to friends and family what you do and why you do it? Would you like to share your knowledge about superconductivity, string theory, governance, the Higgs, beam steering, particle detectors or whatever else you are an expert in? With the LHC running and delivering the first physics results, more people wonder what will come next – and some of them use the 'Ask a scientist' service on www.linearcollider.org. We are looking for experts from all areas of the ILC who would like to volunteer to take part in the 'Ask a scientist' service.
Category: Feature | Tagged: outreach
Rika Takahashi | 11 March 2010The word quantum beam, or Ryo-shi beam in Japanese, defined as high-quality beams produced with accelerated leptons or hadrons applying quantum mechanics, isn't really an academic word, but rather a key word for advanced technology. But it is gradually getting its recognition in Japan as a technology that will achieve breakthroughs in many fields, such as new materials developments, nanofabrication, or medical applications.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: Japan, outreach
Barbara Warmbein | 5 November 2009Even though University of Oregon professor and Americas regional contact for the ILC physics and detectors studies Jim Brau had specifically invited a young audience to his public lecture on 1 October in the University of Albuquerque, he thought of teenagers and university students rather than seven–year–olds. But Brau gave particle physics one of its youngest fans — little Abigail Zwartz was so gripped by his talk that she took notes eagerly and even presented them in school the next day.
Category: Feature | Tagged: outreach, public event, public lecture
