New insights in accelerator-driven systems
As part of EUCARD2 activities, and co-sponsored by EPS Technology and Innovation Group (TIG), a workshop on the status of new developments in Accelerator-Driven Systems or ADS was held at CERN on February 7-9.
2011 Dark Workshop at GGI
The 2011 Dark Workshop will be held at the Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics (GGI), in Arcetri, Florence, between the 25-27 October this year.
The workshop, a joint initiative by the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare commissions II and IV, will bring together the fields of astrophysics, cosmology and particle physics for a discussion on the future of research into dark energy and dark matter – culminating in a roundtable on the nature of dark energy on the afternoon of the 27 October…
EC publishes consultation on the ERA Framework
The European Commission has published its ‘Consultation on the ERA Framework: Areas of untapped potential for the development of the European Research Area (ERA)’; the EPS is preparing a response.
The consultation, in the form of a questionnaire, covers the following areas sections: cross border operation of research actors, coordination of science and technology actions, knowledge circulation, respondent identification, managing and monitoring the ERA partnership, researchers and research infrastructures…
Editorial
Dear Readers,
There has been plenty of breaking news in physics this month; from the Nobel Prize awarded to our American colleagues, Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess, for their discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe; to the intriguing results, obtained in Europe, on the velocity of muon-neutrinos.
The neutrino velocity has been measured with unprecedented precision in the OPERA experiment…
100 years of superconductivity
In commemoration of 2011 – the 100 year anniversary of the discovery of superconductivity by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes – the European Physical Society would like to highlight some fascinating websites which offer information on superconductors, one of the most exciting fields within condensed-matter physics.
All about superconductivity is a website by the Institut de Physique du CNRS, the Triangle de la Physique, and the Société Française de Physique, offering an interactive and exciting look into the world of superconductors…
The SIF awards 2011 Enrico Fermi prize
The 2011 Enrico Fermi prize of the Italian Physical Society (Società Italiana di Fisica, SIF) has been awarded, for work in the field of experimental particle physics, to Dieter Haidt of the DESY Laboratory at Hamburg and to Antonino Pullia of the University of Milano Bicocca and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, “for their fundamental contribution to the discovery of weak neutral currents with the Gargamelle bubble chamber at CERN”.
The prize is awarded yearly to members of the society who especially honour physics by their discoveries. The prize was first awarded in 2001, to commemorate the centenary of the great scientist’s birth…
Gautam Desiraju elected president of the IUCr
Gautam Desiraju has been elected president of the International Union of Crystallography [IUCr] during the IUCr General Assembly, in Madrid, on the 27 August this year. Desiraju, whose term will last three years, hails from the Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit of the Indian Institute of Science, in Bangalore.
“I am pleased and honoured to be elected President of the International Union of Crystallography. The IUCr is unique among scientific unions in the success of its publishing activities, the educational slant in many of its endeavours and in its ability to cater to the priorities of scientists in both developed and developing nations,” said Desiraju…
IoP publishes new booklet on ‘The age of the qubit’
‘The age of the qubit – A new era of quantum information in science and technology’ is a new booklet published by the UK’s Institute of Physics, which examines the innovative research being undertaken in the field of quantum information processing.
The behaviour of physical systems at the quantum level is being used to process and transfer information in a new and powerful way, which could potentially lead to the creation of a new type of information processing device – the quantum computer – with many applications for society…
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Symposium
The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Symposium on the Foundations of Physical Chemistry will be held on 18-19 November this year at the Copernicus Science Center, in Warsaw. This event – held during both the International Year of Chemistry as well as the 100th anniversary of the presentation of the Nobel Prize to Marie Skłodowska-Curie – aims to present an overview of modern physical chemistry, with an emphasis on its highly interdisciplinary character.
Topics which will be discussed include concepts of modern catalysis, molecular switches and the optical and chemical behaviour of nanoparticles. Financial support – covering accommodation and travel costs – will be available for…
Consultation on the future of European Union Research
The outcome of the consultation on European Union research and innovation funding was discussed, at a major conference in Brussels, on 10 June this year. The consultation – which the EPS contributed to – was based on a European Commission Green Paper, which was published earlier this year, on 9 February.
The Green Paper proposed major changes to EU research and innovation funding, in order to increase the scientific and economic impact, to make participation easier and to provide better value for money…
Physicists encouraged to consider carbon footprint
Physicists are being encouraged to take a look at the size of their carbon footprint. In the October issue of Physics World, University of Oxford astrophysicist Phil Marshall calls on his colleagues worldwide to be an example in the fight against climate change.
Not only must one consider the impact of large scientific facilities – such as ground-based telescopes and particle accelerators, which can often have considerable energy demands – but also the effects on an individual scale. Marshall’s research shows that – in the field of astrophysics alone – researchers themselves average 23,000 air miles each year…
Passion for Light workshop
The Passion for Light workshop was held on the 16 September in the Villa Monastero, in Varenna, Italy. The event – which was jointly organised by the European Physical Society and the Italian Physical Society – saw the official launch of an initiative by the EPS Quantum Electronics and Optics Division to declare 2015 the International Year of Light, under the auspices of the United Nations.
Following the opening addresses, a comprehensive series of light-themed lectures followed, covering a wide variety of topics from ‘Passion for precision’, by Theodor Hänsch; ‘Trapping the light fantastic’, by Diederik Wiersma…
