Editorial – Insignificant details, pleasure and discovery
Marcel Proust, the great French writer, is best known for his book À la recherche du temps perdu. Memories take the central role in the novel, where apparently insignificant details prove to be the most important. A well-known scene is when a madeleine cake allows the narrator to experience the past completely, as a whole, in resonance with his present existence. Marcel Proust showed, though his wonderful writing, that recognising the importance of apparently insignificant details is a source of pleasure and happiness.
EPS Distinctions 2015
The 2015 Gero Thomas Medal for outstanding contribution to the European Physical Society was awarded to Gerardo Delgado Barrio, from Madrid, Spain for commitment to the EPS in the fields of international scientific cooperation, outreach and education, and physics for development.
As a member of the EPS Executive Committee from 2001 until 2006, G. Delgado Barrio opened up communications channels to Latin America, notably through the creation of the Federation of Latin American Physical Societies. This allowed the development of EPS activities for physics for development. G. Delgado Barrio
The Fasor Lutheran Secondary School of Budapest distinguished as EPS Historic Site
“The fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
This is the motto of the Fasor Lutheran Secondary School of Budapest, Hungary, which was recently recognised as an EPS Historic Site. This school has proved to be very successful in finding and encouraging talent: Both Eugene Wigner (Nobel Prize in physics, 1963) and John von Neumann attended the school and learned the basics of science there.
CERN and the International Year of Light: exploring light as luminosity
One hundred years after the publication of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, the UN General Assembly declared 2015 the International Year of Light and light-based technologies. Around the world, the year is being celebrated with programmes and events showcasing light as the source of life, peace and science. CERN has been joining in the festivities; with events showcasing “light as luminosity” in its High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) upgrade project as well as its involvement in the SESAME synchrotron project in Jordan.
International Year of Light News
iSPEX-EU: A European-wide Citizen Science Campaign for the Measurement of Aerosols with Smartphones
As part of the LIGHT2015 project, coordinated by the European Physical Society, Leiden Observatory is organising a pilot European-wide Citizen Science campaign for the measurement of aerosols with iSPEX, a low-cost add-on and corresponding app for the iPhone. The campaign will run in over 10 major cities across Europe from 1-28 September 2015. With an anticipated 15,000 participants, this campaign therefore is a first step towards a worldwide network of citizen scientists who can provide air quality observations.
NuPECC Brochure “Light to Reveal the Heart of Matter”
NuPECC, the Nuclear Physics European Collaboration Committee (http://www.nupecc.org/) is contributing to the International Year of Light [IYL2015] with a brochure “Light to Reveal the Heart of Matter”.
We would like to show the many facets how the electromagnetic spectrum – light in its broadest sense – is featured in nuclear physics research, from high-energy gamma-rays down to scintillation light and lasers, looking into nucleons and nuclei, and connecting to other fields such as astrophysics and medicine.
Two Prestigious Prizes in Quantum Electronics and Optics announced
The European Physical Society is delighted to announce the winners for 2015 of its two most prestigious prizes in Quantum Electronics and Optics. These prizes, awarded every two years, recognize the highest level of achievements in fundamental and applied research in optical physics. The awards will be presented in a special Plenary Ceremony on Tuesday, June 23, 2015 during the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe (CLEO®/Europe) and the European Quantum Electronics Conference (EQEC), held in Munich, Germany.
EPS Plasma Physics Division prizes awarded
The 2015 Hannes Alfvén Prize will be awarded at EPS2015 to Nathaniel J. Fisch (PPL, USA) “for his contributions to the understanding of plasma wave‐particle interactions and their applications to efficiently driving currents with radio‐frequency waves”.
EPS Nuclear Physics Division contributions for the IYL 2015
The International Year of the Light 2015 [IYL 2015] is celebrated worldwide with many events and initiatives. The European Physical Society is one of the founding partners of the IYL2015 and the Board of the Nuclear Physics Division of EPS also contributes to this effort with dedicated publications foreseen in journals like Europhysics News and through other actions in different media.
SkyLight – a Global Science Opera
During 2015, hundreds of students from schools in up to 30 countries within the Galileo Teacher Training Program, the Global Hands on Universe (GHOU) and leading cultural institutions will collaborate to create and simultaneously perform a Science Opera inspired by Cosmic Light together with the support of real-time technological collaboration. This will provide a platform for both creative science learning as well as cross-border friendship and cooperation.
A new platform dedicated to photonics in Europe
Leti is an institute of the CEA (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission), a French research-and-technology organization with activities in energy, IT, healthcare, defence and security. Leti is focused on creating value and innovation through technology transfer to its industrial partners. It specializes in nanotechnologies and their applications, from wireless devices and systems, to biology, healthcare and photonics.
Higgs boson: the winner takes it all?
This article is a republication from the CERN Bulletin. Since its discovery in 2012, the Higgs boson has been in the spotlight for both experimentalists and theorists. In addition to its confirmed role in the mass mechanism, recent papers have discussed its possible role in the inflation of the universe and in the matter-antimatter imbalance.
