Editorial – Twitter Physics!
Twitter has over 280 million active users who send around 500 million tweets a day. These are impressive statistics, and we all hear regularly of some news or controversy that starts and spreads via a tweet. Given the extensive reach of the Twitter network, one would think that it might be useful for serious science. However, most scientists tend to think that Twitter is at best not especially relevant or indeed that it’s a complete waste of time! That said, there are a number of high profile scientists (e.g. Brian Cox, Neil de Grasse Tyson) and research institutes (e.g. CERN, NASA) with over a million followers, so there are clearly many people who wish to hear what scientists have to say.
EPS Historic Site – the Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory and the Instituut-Lorentz
On 9 February 2015, the European Physical Society [EPS], the Nederlandse Natuurkundige Vereniging – the Netherlands Physical Society [NNV] and the University of Leiden unveiled a plaque commemorating the former location of the Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory and the Instituut-Lorentz as an EPS Historic Site. A series of talks preceded the unveiling ceremony, preside by Johannes Maria van Ruitenbeek, the President of the NNV.
Dirk van Delft, the Director of the Boerhaave Science Museum in Leiden gave an overview of the life work of Professor Kamerlingh Onnes, as well as the achievements of the University of Leiden. Carlo Beenaker from the Lorentz …
The new team of the Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics commission (C15) at IUPAP
At the 28th general assembly of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, held in Singapore November 5-7 2014, the new teams of the different IUPAP Commissions have been elected, and complete information can be found at http://iupap.org/.
In the new Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics commission (C15), a few members belong to European Union and the chair of the EPS Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics Division [AMOPD], Dominique Vernhet, has been nominated as Secretary. Dominique Vernhet is also the new chairperson of the EPS Conference Committee. They started their …
International Year of Light news
Opening Ceremony in Morocco
On 26 February the Opening Ceremony of the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies [IYL 2015] in Morocco took place in Rabat, at the University of Sciences of Rabat. In addition to the participation of researchers, students, institutional partners and journalists, the main audience of this ceremony was children and teenagers, largely represented by student associations, astronomy clubs and UNESCO’s associated schools, amounting to a total of 300 attendees. – Read the full report on the IYL 2015 website.
LIGHT2015 Young Photonics Entrepreneur Award and Young Women in Photonics Award
The International Year of Light in Europe 2015 [LIGHT2015] is an outreach and education initiative – coordinated by the European Physical Society and funded by the European Commission under the H2020 Programme. It promotes the importance of photonics to young people, entrepreneurs, and the general public in Europe during the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies [IYL 2015]. Within this framework, the European Optical Society and the LIGHT2015 project are pleased to announce that nominations are open for 2 new prizes sponsored by the EOS …
EPS Council 2015
The annual meeting of the EPS Council took place on 27-28 March 2015 at the Physik Zentrum in Bad Honnef, Germany. It was attended by around 50 delegates, representing EPS Member Societies, Associate Members, Individual members, Divisions, Groups and Committees.
The review of the activities of the EPS in 2014 demonstrated that it is active and lively in federating the European Physics Community. The EPS also contributed to many policy debates throughout the year.
Outreach to high school students
The University Jaume I of Castellón regularly organizes career orientation sessions for high school students called “Connecta amb la ciència”,which publicises the opportunities for study and training offered by the university in scientific disciplines. The GOC Young Minds section joined this effort and visited several high schools in order to explain everyday phenomena of nature related to light.
Workshop on physics education at ICTP, Trieste
The International Center of Theoretical Physics [ICTP], the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO Office Venice], the European Physical Society- Committee of European Integration, the Southeastern European Network in Mathematical and Theoretical Physics [SEENET-MTP], the European Science Education Academy organised a workshop on Science Education to discuss and organise future actions and initiatives in the framework of the International Year of Light 2015 mainly focusing in Balkan countries. The workshop was held at the ICTP in Trieste, Italy, from and supported by the Central European Initiative (CEI Trieste) …
The first ever photograph of light as both a particle and wave
Light behaves both as a particle and as a wave. Since the days of Einstein, scientists have been trying to directly observe both of these aspects of light at the same time. Now, scientists at EPFL have succeeded in capturing the first- ever snapshot of this dual behavior.
Quantum mechanics tells us that light can behave simultaneously as a particle or a wave. However, there has never been an experiment able to capture both natures of light at the same time; the closest we have come is seeing either wave or particle, but always at different times. Taking a radically different experimental approach, EPFL scientists …
Novel Technologies bag the 2015 King Faisal International Prize
The King Faisal Foundation in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia has awarded the 2015 King Faisal International Prize (including endowment of US$200,000) for Science in the field of chemistry to Michael Grätzel of Switzerland and Omar Mwannes Yaghi of USA. Michael Grätzel (born in 1944 in Dorfchemnitz, Saxony, Germany) the Director of the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces (Institute of Physical Chemistry), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland. The prize committee stated that ‘Michael Grätzel is recognized for his foundational and practical discoveries in the development of photo-electrochemical systems for solar energy conversion. His world-famous Grätzel solar cells are simple …
Governments Agree the Negotiating Text for the Paris Climate Agreement
p>A key milestone towards a new, universal agreement on climate change was reached in Geneva following seven days of negotiations by over 190 nations.
Nations concluded the Geneva Climate Change Talks by successfully preparing the negotiating text for the 2015 agreement. The agreement is set to be reached in Paris at the end of 2015 and will come into effect in 2020.
Delegates from 194 countries convened in Geneva to continue work following the Lima Climate Change Conference …
FAceS project – call for participation
Since 1 March 2014, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the credit line “performance evaluation in science,” the project “The Many Faces of academic achievement and performance : “incentives for research and teaching “. The aim of this research project is to develop a set of quantitative and qualitative indicators to measure performance in research and teaching, and to analyse the intended and unintended consequences resulting from performance measures.
The FAceS research team needs the input from the scientific community in order to generate representative data.
