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.
Record number UK physics teachers in training
The number of physics teachers in training in the United Kingdom has reached a record high, according to census data published at the end of last month. The statistics from the Training and Development Agency for Schools [TDA] – which have been taken since 1979 – report that 864 people are in training to become physics specialists this year, and increase of 30 per cent from 2010.
“We hope that these very impressive numbers represent the beginning of the much-needed sea change in recruitment to physics teaching,” said Peter Main, the Director of Education and Science at the Institute of Physics…
Featured in EPN
Featuring in the recent issue of EPN:
Space Exploration Technologies
Pegases – a new promising electric propulsion concept
by A. Aanesland, S. Mazouffre & P. Chabert
‘Space represents a unique vantage point for both exploring the universe and looking down onto our own planet, enabling major discoveries with regard to our origins and the environment we live in. To observe, communicate…’
EPL article highlighted in French newspaper Le Monde
An article published in EPL was featured in the French daily newspaper Le Monde on 29 November. The piece, ‘Comment la goutte d’eau lévite sur le fil de la scie’, concerns the article ‘Viscous mechanism for Leidenfrost propulsion on a ratchet’, by G. Dupeux, M. Le Merrer, G. Lagubeau, C. Clanet, S. Hardt and D. Quéré, which was published in volume 96, issue 5 of EPL.
“An evaporating drop placed on a ratchet self-propels, as discovered by Linke et al. in 2006. Sublimating platelets do the same, and we discuss here a possible viscous mechanism for these motions. We report that the flow of vapor below…
Physics podcast project seeking participants
Passionate physicists are wanted as interviewees and panellists for an up-and-coming series of physics podcasts, aimed at the general public.
The project plans to develop an educational and high quality physics resource – covering a wide-variety of topics within the field – looking at research and developments from across the globe. The first podcast is intended to be released early in 2012.
Volunteers need only a microphone and a skype account to take part. To get involved, please email…
European Physical Society responds to ERA Consultation
The European Physical Society has responded to the ERA Framework Public Consultation: ‘Areas of untapped potential for the development of the European Research Area’. The European Physical Society would like to thank its members for providing their comments and insights.
The response by the European Physical Society, along with those made by other interested individuals and organisations and individuals, will soon be published on the European Commission website. The final version of the European Physical Society’s response can also be downloaded directly here.
Celebrating Madame Curie in Warsaw
The ‘Marie Sklodowska-Curie Symposium on the Foundations of Physical Chemistry’ was held at theCopernicus Center in Warsaw, the birth town of Marie Sklodowska-Curie, on 18-19 November this year. The event was held in celebration of this extraordinary scientist, on the occasion of the International Year of Chemistry and the Polish Presidency of the European Union Council.
The symposium, which featured many distinguished chemists and physicists – including Nobel laureates Gerahrd Ertl and Claude Cohen Tannoudji – was organized by a number of prestigious French, German and Polish institutions…
Editorial
Dear Readers,
The year 2011 comes to an end with fireworks from CERN.
On 13 December a special seminar was held in CERN’s main auditorium, where the spokespersons of the two major experimental collaborations at the Large Hadron Collider [LHC], Fabiola Gianotti (ATLAS) and Guido Tonelli (CMS), presented their results from the search for a new particle, a fundamental and desperately wanted ingredient of the Standard Model: the Brout-Englert-Higgs-Guralnik-Hagen-Kibble boson, currently called ‘the Higgs’…
9th annual SESAME Users’ Meeting
The 9th annual Synchrotron Light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East [SESAME] Users’ Meeting was held in Amman, Jordan on 12-14 November this year. 130 people attended the event – including 50 local participants – during which the SESAME community gathered to discuss current developments and upcoming collaborative efforts.
SESAME, which is being built in Jordan under the umbrella of UNESCO, will be an international synchrotron radiation source.
The meeting programme covered such topics as: archaeology and cultural heritage; atomic, molecular…
Call for nominations for the 2012 Lise Meitner Prize
Nominations are now open for the 2012 Lise Meitner Prize for Nuclear Science, which is given biannually by the European Physical Society’s Nuclear Physics Board in recognition of outstanding work in the fields of applied, experimental or theoretical nuclear science.
The Lise Meitner Prize – which is named after the Austrian physicist who gave a fundamental contribution in the discovery of nuclear fission – is sponsored by CANBERRA. Nominations, which may be put forward for individuals or groups, are hoped will represent the breadth of nuclear science in Europe…
Photon12
Photon12 is being held on 3-6 September 2012 at Durham University, England. The conference – the sixth in the on-going series – is being organised by the Optics and Photonics Division of the Institute Of Physics.
Photon, the largest optics conference series being held in the United Kingdom, is an umbrella series which embraces a large number of important and interconnected topics.
For more information, please visit the Photon12 website.
EASPA launches: European Physical Society a founder
The ‘European Alliance for Subject-Specific and Professional Accreditation and Quality Assurance’ [EASPA] was founded during a meeting at the ASIIN offices in Düsseldorf, Germany, on 29 November this year. EASPA is a pan-European platform for quality assurance in higher education, uniting eight member professional associations in Europe, which act as European field-specific networks.
The common goal of the alliance is to maintain and further develop Europe-wide disciplinary learning outcomes, competence profiles and qualification frameworks; as well as corresponding quality assurance tools; thereby making…
