Phystec Selects Four New Sites to Share $1.2 Million
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May 2015 • Vol. 24, No. 5 More on the APS April Meeting A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY See pp. 3 and 4 WWW.APS.ORG/PUBLICATIONS/APSNEWS Mapmakers Chart Distribution of Dark Matter Nuclear Needles in Cargo Haystacks By Michael Lucibella By Shannon Palus through terrorism or war. APS April Meeting 2015, Bal- APS April Meeting 2015, Bal- It’s been decades since school timore — Scientists working on timore — Every day, some 60,000 children were advised to “duck and the Dark Energy Survey (DES) ship-borne cargo containers pull cover” to shield themselves from Dark Energy Survey released a map of a section of the into United States ports. Each metal Cold War atomic bombs. According southern sky charting the loca- box is about 2.4 m by 2.4 m by to the National Academy of Engi- tion of matter based on its lensing 12 m, which is plenty of space to neering (NAE), preventing nuclear effects on light from distant galax- hide a nuclear bomb, says Areg terror is still an important goal, and ies. The map, presented at the April Danagoulian, a nuclear scientist at the NAE put it on the list of 14 Meeting, is the first preliminary MIT. In fact, there are bombs that Grand Challenges of Engineering analysis of results from the sur- could blow up several city blocks, to be solved in this century. vey, and the first detailed picture and could fit in a backpack. Dana- “Peaceful energy programs of the distribution of matter in the goulian asks: “How do we detect could mutate into weapons pro- universe out to about seven billion something so small?” grams,” says Danagoulian. “You light years. At the April Meeting, Dana- could use a reactor for synthesizing This new information about the goulian presented data from a plutonium, and [make] a weapon distribution of dark matter com- proof-of-concept demonstration out of that.” Also, weapons can be plements the findings of existing that peers into cargo with beams stolen from existing stockpiles; surveys of luminous matter. “It … of gamma rays. Within the decade, there are 17,000 warheads in the [includes] not only the galaxy and he hopes, the method will be used arsenals of Russia and the U.S. stars we know and love, but also the at ports to accurately scan cargo Today, port inspectors use pas- dark matter,” said Chihway Chang at a rate of about two minutes per sive methods to detect nuclear of the Swiss Federal Institute of Map of total (luminous and dark matter) mass distribution produced by container. His is just one of the contraband, like looking for radia- the Dark Energy Survey team based on gravitational lensing of light from Technology. technologies that physicists are tion coming from a container. distant galaxies. Red indicates higher mass densities and blue the lower That is easy to block with lead if mass density regions. Size of moon is shown in upper left for comparison developing to prevent the prolifera- MAPMAKERS continued on page 7 with the area of sky mapped. tion of nuclear materials, whether NEEDLES continued on page 6 PhysTEC Selects Four New Sites to Share $1.2 Million Particle Physicists Gather to Plan Next Accelerator By Bushraa Khatib “We were pleased to have received By Michael Lucibella construction shortly after this pro- accelerators and technology at The Physics Teacher Education such strong proposals that promise As news broke that the restart of gram ended. CERN. Coalition (PhysTEC) project has to develop new models for physics the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Participants in the meeting, The final design for the FCC is up added four newly-funded compre- teacher education.” The nationwide would be delayed, more than 300 which was organized by IEEE in against a parallel effort to design the hensive PhysTEC sites and also need for physics teachers is acute; physicists, including many of conjunction with the DOE and Compact Linear Collider (CLIC). nine sites that received smaller only one third of physics teachers CERN’s top scientists and admin- CERN, hope to complete the FCC’s The envisioned 42-kilometer long, 3 recruiting grants. Since the project have a degree in the field. istrators, gathered in Washington, technical report by about 2018, in TeV electron-positron linear collider began in 2001, it has funded a total In one of first partnerships of its D.C. in late March 2015 to plan time for the next update to the Euro- would also be located at CERN. of 46 sites (including the newly- kind, the University of Northern for the machine’s successor — the pean Strategy for Particle Physics Once both designs are completed, funded sites) to build model physics Colorado (UNC), one of the top Future Circular Collider (FCC), to (ESPP) in 2019 or 2020. CERN administrators will recom- teacher education programs. Col- producers of science educators in be built at CERN. This meeting was “The LHC is the main machine, mend one of the two options when lectively, these institutions have Colorado, has teamed up with the the second annual design confer- and now we have people looking it is time to update the ESPP. doubled the number of high school Colorado School of Mines (CSM), ence for the FCC, and the first held at what else can be [built],” said Though the FCC planners at the physics teachers graduating from one of the largest physics under- in the United States. Frederick Bordry, the director for ACCELERATOR continued on page 6 their programs. graduate programs in the country. The FCC would surpass the The four new comprehensive Wendy Adams, director of LHC in both size and energy. CERN sites selected to develop their phys- Science Education Programs at Though early in the design pro- ics teacher education programs into UNC, said the PhysTEC grant has cess, the FCC is envisioned as a national models are Rowan Univer- already helped leverage institu- 100 TeV circular collider between sity, Texas State University, West tional support, including a six-year 80 and 100 km in circumference, Virginia University, and a joint commitment for a full-time Teacher- compared to the LHC’s 27 km ring University of Northern Colorado/ in-Residence (TIR), one of the key and 13 TEV energy (after the cur- Colorado School of Mines project. components of successful PhysTEC rent upgrade is complete). Such a Funding for the new sites, up to sites. gargantuan project faces a variety $300,000 per site over three years, Vincent Kuo, director of the of technical, economic, and politi- will begin in fall 2015. Center for Engineering Educa- cal challenges, some likely easily PhysTEC, the flagship APS edu- tion at CSM, and a champion for surmountable, others less so. cation program, aims to improve the PhysTEC, said that as a science “I think for the next collider, education of future physics teach- and engineering school, CSM has we should go to the Moon,” said ers by creating successful models historically not been involved with Bruce Strauss, a physicist in the for physics teacher education producing educators. With this col- U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), programs and disseminating best laboration, the school is uniquely using an Apollo-era metaphor. practices. The PhysTEC program positioned to fill the licensure pool “There are some challenges ahead, is led by APS, in partnership with with exceptionally qualified under- but I think we should go.” the American Association of Phys- graduates. The current plan is to run the ics Teachers, with support from the Texas State University is the LHC through about 2022. Then National Science Foundation and first PhysTEC site in Texas and a major upgrade, completed by APS donors. an institution serving Hispanic 2025, would turn it into a high- Monica Plisch, Director of Phys- students. The program aims to luminosity machine, the HL-LHC, TEC and APS Associate Director produce five physics teachers per which would support a ten-year of Education and Diversity, said, PHYSTEC continued on page 4 science program. FCC would start LHC and one possible successor (dotted line) Revised 06/17/2015 2 • May 2015 Members This Month in Physics History in the Media May 5, 1933: The New York Times Covers Discovery of Cosmic Radio Waves “They wanted to eviscerate the the film “Furious 7,”The Chicago book. … My first thought was, Tribune, April 4, 2015. uch of the outdoor footage for the 1997 film hours and 56 minutes — a property of fixed stars and ‘This is so ridiculous I won’t even MContact was shot on-site at the Very Large other celestial objects beyond our solar system. The respond.’” “This is not built upon trust. Array observatory in New Mexico. Far more people most likely source of the radiation, he concluded, Kenneth W. Ford, reacting to … This is built upon hard-nosed have heard of the film than of the man for whom that was the center of the Milky Way, where the signal the Department of Energy’s desire requirements in terms of limita- observatory is named: Karl Guthe Jansky, known was strongest, in the constellation of Sagittarius. to redact portions of his memoirs tions on what they do, at various among astronomers as the father of radio astronomy. As Cyril later recalled, “The scientist’s problem about working on the hydrogen timescales, and on the access and Born in 1905, Jansky was one of six children. His is to recognize basic facts even though they are bomb, The New York Times, March transparency.” father, Cyril, an electrical engineering professor at obscured by a wealth of extraneous material, and then 23, 2015.