Rika Takahashi | 24 July 2008
On the first day of a three-day weekend with a Japanese national holiday, Day of the Sea, about 300 people changed their destination from seaside to science. They enjoyed talks on cool science on a hot Saturday afternoon in Tokyo at a symposium called “Denshi-koraidah ga toku ucyu sousei no puzzle (Solving the puzzle of the universe with electron-positron colliders),” organised by KEK. The symposium introduced the science to be delivered by future electron-positron colliders to a non-scientific audience. The symposium was a two-part event. The first part consisted of talks by three top-notch scientists – Hitoshi Murayama, Director General of Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU), Shoken Miyama, Director General of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and Atsuto Suzuki, Director General of KEK. The second part was a panel discussion with those three scientists and Shinji Kimoto, a science-fiction novelist who wrote the award-winning novel 'Kamisama no Puzzle', and was moderated by Shigehiko Nakajima, Editor-in-Chief of Nikkei Science Magazine, the Japanese edition of Scientific American.
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Feature | Tagged:
Japan, KEK, outreach
Rika Takahashi | 19 June 2008
On June 11, the executive officers of leading Japanese companies, important dignitaries, and a physics Nobel Prize winner gathered at Kasumigaseki, Tokyo, Japan to celebrate the establishment of a forum for promotion of advanced accelerator technology and science (official English name yet to be determined). The forum aims to develop the structure which will be the core of the industry- government-academia alliance to pursue R&D for next- generation accelerators. The organising committee was formed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industrial Ltd. (MHI), Toshiba, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric Co., and KEK. Companies from across various industries, laboratories and universities
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Feature | Tagged:
AAA, Accelerator Association Promoting Science and Technology, Japan
Rika Takahashi and Nobuko Kobayashi | 5 June 2008
On the last day of May, ILC scientists and engineers enjoyed a barbecue, sushi and Ton-jiru miso soup with pork and vegetables in front of the ATF (Accelerator Test Facility at KEK) container. This gathering, called the ATF end-of-run party, has been a routine event for over ten years.
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ATF, KEK
Rika Takahashi | 15 May 2008
Accelerators have featured in some movies, Terminator 3, for example. But people outside of the physics world did not notice much. In this summer, cult director Takashi Miike will make the accelerator quite visible in his newest film "Kamisama no Puzzle" (God's Puzzle). Miike, who allegedly influenced Quentin Tarantino, is best known for his grotesque horror films including Ichi the Killer, Audition, Gozu, and One Missed Call. This time, fortunately, it is not his usual line; the movie is a sci-fi romantic comedy based on a prize-winning, bestselling novel by Shinji Kimoto. The story is about twin brothers, one a physics student and the other an aimless self-proclaimed rock musician. The latter agrees to attend physics class for his brother and is obliged to team up with a 17-year-old girl genius to unlock the secrets of the universe and to create one of their own, using an accelerator.
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Around the World | Tagged:
Japan
Rika Takahashi | 10 April 2008
India's Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT) is a leading institute for research and development in lasers, accelerators and their applications. In the Indian government's current five-year plan (April 2007-April 2012), building infrastructure and developing the technology of niobium superconducting radiofrequency (SCRF) cavities are the two major objectives for high-energy physics and accelerator-related projects. Following this plan, RRCAT wants to build its own electropolishing (EP) facility in India, and three scientists visited Japan to participate in the commissioning of the new EP system at KEK.
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India, India-Japan collaboration, Japan, RRCAT, SRF technology
Rika Takahashi | 27 March 2008
Superconducting cavities are the core, the heartbeat of the International Linear Collider. Their inside will be polished to literally make them sparkle without any speck of dust or crack because these could cause a decline of performance of the accelerator. There are several methods to polish the inside of the cavities, and electropolishing (EP) is one of them. The new EP system at KEK has started its test-run in January, and scientists are gathering basic data to evaluate the machine's capability.
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Around the World | Tagged:
electropolishing, KEK
Rika Takahashi | 28 February 2008
Kazuko Toyomura has been assisting KEK's ILC activity for four years, and since Sakue Yamada was appointed as a Research Director last October, her involvement has become even deeper. “She is not 'officially' assigned as secretary for the International Detector Advisory Group (IDAG), but she has been taking care of my activities,” says Yamada. Toyomura is a secretary for the Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies at KEK. Other than her new role in ILC detector community, Toyomura is managing the day-to-day activities for KEK's ILC detector and ZEUS experimental groups, including travel arrangements, guests and visitors support, and helping post-doc students.
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Around the World | Tagged:
IDAG, KEK
Rika Takahashi | 21 February 2008
At the ILC, roughly 16,000 superconducting RF cavities made of pure niobium will accelerate electrons and positrons to the high energy of 500 GeV. Each one-metre-long cavity consists of nine cells, polished to provide micrometre-level surface smoothness and absolutely no impurities. The inside of the cavities need to literally sparkle since any surface blemishes or dust could cause them to lose their superconductivity, making them unable to sustain the electric field needed to accelerate particles. ILC scientists around the world are devoted to trying to get a higher yield rate for producing good-quality cavities by improving surface treatment methods and inspection procedures. A group of scientists from Kyoto University and KEK jointly developed the novel inspection system to take a close look at the interior surface of the cavities, and produced remarkable results.
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cavity, cavity inspection, KEK, Kyoto camera, Kyoto University, superconducting cavity
Rika Takahashi | 24 January 2008
From 7 to 11 January, the first school on the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) technology was held at the China Center for Advanced Science and Technology (CCAST) in Beijing. Over 50 students, young scientists and senior researchers from Asia and the rest of the world gathered to learn and discuss about TPC Technology for the International Linear Collider.
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Around the World | Tagged:
CCAST, TPC
Rika Takahashi | 29 November 2007
Blogs, Social Network Services, Podcasting, Social Bookmarks -- these types of social media have become influential sources of information. Some might say that they have as much influential power as the conventional media. Scientists working on the International Linear Collider are catching on too and realise that podcasting is another way to promote the proposed project to a non-scientific audience.
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Around the World | Tagged:
Japan, podcast
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