Editorial – Happy Birthday SIF!
One of the oldest, most prestigious and most active member societies of the EPS, the Società Italiana die Fisica (SIF), is celebrating its 120th birthday in 2017.
EPS Physics Education Division Award for Secondary School Teaching 2017 goes to Dr Jozef Beňuška
The Award for Secondary School Teaching is granted every two years to a high school teacher for a specific contribution to teaching, in particular one that might be applicable in a variety of countries. “Teaching” is interpreted broadly and can include activities that encourage students to study physics or improve their access to physics. Nominations are made by the National Physical Societies.
First China-Europe Solar Physics Meeting Accomplished
During May 15 – 19, 2017, the first China-Europe Solar Physics Meeting (CESPM-1) was successfully organised in the city of Kunming, Yunnan Province, China. The European Solar Physics Division (ESPD), on behalf of the entire European solar physics community, strongly endorsed and advocated for this gathering. Contributing to the CESPM-1 organisation, the ESPD was also delighted to participate in its deliberations.
The EPS Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Division is happy to announce the winners of its two 2017 prizes
The Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Division (SNPD) of the European Physical Society (EPS) is happy to announce the winners of the two prizes of the Division:
Report on the 8th International Particle Accelerator Conference
The 8th International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC) took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 14-19 May and was attended by more than 1,550 people from 34 different countries.
Mini-workshop at the Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences
The 73rd board meeting of the Nuclear Physics Division (NPD) of the European Physical Society (EPS) was held on 13-14 June 2017 in Villa Lanna in Prague, the representative residence of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS).
The LHCb experiment is charmed to announce observation of a new particle
Geneva, 6 July 2017. Today at the EPS Conference on High Energy Physics in Venice, the LHCb experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider has reported the observation of Ξcc++ (Xicc++) a new particle containing two charm quarks and one up quark. The existence of this particle from the baryon family was expected by current theories, but physicists have been looking for such baryons with two heavy quarks for many years. The mass of the newly identified particle is about 3621 MeV, which is almost four times heavier than the most familiar baryon, the proton, a property that arises from its doubly charmed quark content. It is the first time that such a particle has been unambiguously detected.
Making a valuable resource usable with water
In oil extraction sites, gaseous methane is simply burned, even though it could actually be a useful precursor material for fuels and products of the chemical industry. One way to make methane usable is to convert it to methanol. Being liquid, methanol is easier to transport than methane, and it can be used both as fuel and as raw material for the chemical industry.
Young Ukrainian physicists who fled the war took part in DPG Spring meetings
This article highlights the difficult conditions in which physicists (and other scientists) from the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces as a consequence of the military conflict in eastern Ukraine that has caused more then 10,000 deaths and over 25,000 injuries.
First Stone Ceremony for ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope
A ceremony marking the first stone of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) has been attended today by the President of the Republic of Chile, Michelle Bachelet Jeria. The event was held at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in northern Chile, close to the site of the future giant telescope. This milestone marked the beginning of the construction of the dome and main telescope structure of the world’s biggest optical telescope, and ushered in a new era in astronomy. The occasion also marked the connection of the observatory to the Chilean national electrical grid.
New from the Institute of Physics
IOP membership changes The IOP is under-going several membership changes this year with the changes being voted upon at the 2017 Annual General Meeting. The changes we are proposing are: Simplifying our membership structure We are simplifying our existing structure from seven to four categories and, by doing so, removing barriers to move through the [...]
An important milestone: Groundbreaking ceremony for the FAIR accelerator facility
The construction of the international accelerator facility FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research) has begun. The start of building construction and civil engineering work is a crucial moment for one of the largest construction projects for scientific research worldwide. On July 4, 2017, the groundbreaking ceremony was held for the large ring accelerator SIS 100, which will be the key component of the future accelerator facility FAIR. The construction site is located to the northeast of GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt.
