Physics News from the AIP Term 1, No 6, 2011
Table of Contents
1. Girls and Physics: Vicphysics Resources
2. Physics Success Stories: Free Posters
3. Mapping Background Radiation on Google Maps and more on Fukushima
4. VCE Assessor's Report for Nov 2010 paper
5. AIP Website: New Feature
6. 100 years of Superconductivity: Free download of April edition of Physics World
7. Forthcoming events for: Students and the General Public *
a) What's with all these earthquakes? 7pm Weds 13th April, University of Melbourne
b) Swinburne school holiday AstroTours, 13 – 21 April, Swinburne University
c) The Multiwavelength Atlas of Galaxies, 6:30pm Friday, 15th April, Swinburne University
d) Electronics and Photonics: Our modern World, 6pm, Thursday 5th May, University of Melbourne
e) Gemini Schools Astronomy Contest: Entries due 13th May
8. Forthcoming events for Teachers *
a) Beginning Physics Teachers' In-Service: 9:30am - 1pm, Monday 11th April at Kew High School
b) Workshop for VCE Astrophysics and Astronomy: Thursday 28th April at VSSEC & Scienceworks
c) The Square Kilometre Array: 7pm, Thursday, 28th April, Royal Society of Victoria
d) Astronomy from the Ground Up!, 20- 22 May, Parkes Observatory, NSW
9. Physics News from the Web
a) Heaviest ever antimatter discovered
b) Shedding more light on graphene with inelastic light scattering
c) Knocking on the Higgs' door: An audio interview
* Events listed for the first time are in bold with details below. The details of the other events can be found on our website at www.vicphysics.org/forthcomingevents.html or in previous newsletters at www.vicphysics.org/AIPnews.html
This newsletter is compiled by the Australian Institute of Physics (Victorian Branch) Education Committee.
This year the AIP Education Committee will be meeting at Kew High School, normally on the second Tuesday of the month from 5pm – 7pm, the next meeting is on Tuesday, 10th May. All teachers are welcome to attend this or any other meeting. You don't need to be a member of the AIP to get involved. If you would like to attend, please contact the chair, Sue Grant, at .
1. Girls and Physics
A webpage has been set up on our AIP website on Girls and Physics, www.vicphysics.org/girlsandphysics.html . The content is organised in the following categories: i) Resources, ii) Research, iii) Reports, iv) Commentary, v) News stories and vi) Images and Videos. There are over 30 links or documents. The page can also be found from the home page by hovering over "issues".
Worthy of particular mention are the strategies, resources and reports from the Institute of Physics (IOP) in the UK. If you know of any other useful material, please send it to the AIP at
2. Physics Success Stories: Free Posters
The American Institute of Physics has produced a set of posters to promote physics, initially to US members of Congress. They highlight the link between basic and applied research and development, and their economic benefits to society. There are six two page full colour posters that can be downloaded from http://www.aip.org/success/ . The topics are:
· Physics Clears the Air - the Environment
· Physics Stimulates Industry - Lasers
· Astrophysics Launches Technology - Astrophysics
· Physics Shows the Way - Global Positioning System
· Physics Saves Lives - Medical Imaging
· Physics Creates an Industry - Computers
The posters are designed to be printed as A4. The first or front page contains text and images, while the second or back page gives examples of applications and a timeline of the developments in the topic. There is occasional acronymic reference to various US government initiatives (e.g. NASA, NSF, DOE, etc) that fund science initiatives as a reminder to the US politicians of what has been achieved with previous funding.
3. Mapping Background Radiation on Google Maps and more on Fukushima
· Background Radiation Google Map: http://glo.li/gNmNgi . A group of physics teachers in Scotland have set up a website for teachers to enter the background radiation reading in counts per minute, in their locality using the equipment in their schools. It was quickly realised that the accuracy of such measurements will depend on the brand and size of the GM tube, the voltage at which it operates, etc. So the website was modified to ask contributors to give details of the equipment used and how it was used. However given that schools have comparable equipment, the exercise still has merit. So if you wish to make a contribution from the Southern hemisphere, please taking a reading and add it to the website. You will need a Google account to sign in, but it is easy to obtain.
· Interview with Alexander Yuvchenko, the chief mechanical engineer of Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant at the time of the accident. Yuvchenko was in the Reactor 4 control room at the time of the accident. The interview was originally published in New Scientist. http://www.chernobylee.com/blog/2009/03/alexander-yuvchenko-interview.php
· How 'The Internet of Things' helps us understand radiation levels (see link below). This is on the website of 'ReadWriteCloud'. The article is mainly about data visualisation, but down the page there is a map of Japan showing the radiation levels in microsieverts per hour in various locations. Click on 'Failed Robot' for more information and a more detailed graphic. http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2011/04/ow-the-internet-of-things-help.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+readwriteweb+%28ReadWriteWeb%29
4. VCE Assessor's Report for Nov 2010 paper
The Chief Assessor's Report for the November 2010 exam is now on the VCAA website at http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/physics/exams.html#H2N1002D . It comments on the students' performance overall and on each question for the two core Areas of Study. It also includes the percentage of students who were awarded each of the possible marks for each question. For each of the Detailed Studies there is a table showing the percentage of students who selected each of the four alternatives for each question. Some questions also have a comment of the students' performance. The data from the report has been incorporated into the solutions on the AIP website at www.vicphysics.org/examsolutions.html
The distribution of grades for last year's exams and the coursework are at http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/statistics/2010/section3/vce_physics_ga10.pdf .
5. AIP Website: New Feature
The list of categories down the left hand side of our website, www.vicphysics.org, has been augmented. In addition to the categories: Forum, Events Teachers, Students, Careers and News, there is an additional category "Issues" in which can be found 'Misconceptions', Girls and Physics' and 'Climate Change'.
Also links are now coloured and change when hovered over. This applies to navigational links within the website, links to documents and links to other websites.
6. 100 years of Superconductivity: Free download of April edition of Physics World
The April 2011 issue of Physics World celebrates the centenary of superconductivity. The issue relives the key events of the last 100 years. It presents the top five applications of superconductivity with the biggest impact on society today. There are articles on high-temperature superconductivity and the global collaboration to reveal the next generation of high-temperature materials. There is also a superconductivity timeline.
The offer is only available for a short time (duration unspecified!) from http://physicsworld.com/cws/download/apr2011 , however you will need to provide your name and email address.
7. Forthcoming events for Students and General Public
b) Swinburne school holiday AstroTours, 13 – 21 April
The Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing will be running 3D AstroTours for the general public (including children 6+) featuring the stunning work of Swinburne Astronomy Productions. As part of the Discover SKA series of events being conducted nationally in April, the AstroTours will also include some of the exciting projects planned for the international Square Kilometre Array and its Australian Pathfinder, which is currently under construction in outback Western Australia.
The 50-minute school holiday sessions will be held on: 2.00pm - Wed 13 April, 11.00am - Tues 19 April . 2.00pm - Wed 20 April, 7.00pm - Wed 20 April, 2.00pm - Thurs 21 April
AstroTours are held in the Swinburne University Virtual Reality Theatre, ground floor of the AR building (AR104)., see: http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/outreach/?topic=directions
See http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/astrotourfor more information.
RSVP: Bookings are essential and can be made via email to or call Elizabeth Thackray on 9214 5569. Cost is $10 per person which can be made at the door.
d) Electronics and Photonics: Our modern World, 6pm, Thursday 5th May, University of Melbourne
Presented by Assoc Prof Alex Mazzolini, Centre for Atom Optics, Swinburne University
The School of Physics of Melbourne University is offering a series of free lectures specifically designed to assist VCE Physics students. Each is of about 1 hour duration, and will be held fortnightly during semesters 1 and 2, on Thursdays at 6 pm in the Laby Theatre of the School of Physics. Some light refreshments are available before the lectures.
8. Forthcoming Events for Teachers
c) The Square Kilometre Array: 7pm, Thursday, 28th April, Royal Society of Victoria
Prof. Jeremy Mould from the Astrophysics Research Group, School of Physics, University of Melbourne will give a public lecture as a joint meeting of the AIP Vic branch and the Royal Society of Victoria. The RSV is located at 9 Victoria St. Melbourne, enter from La Trobe St. There is no cost, but pre-lecture refreshments from 6:15pm are available for $20 with a RSVP for refreshments only by 9am 27th April to or (03) 9663 5259.
The details of the other events can be found in previous newsletters, which are also available on our website at www.vicphysics.org/AIPnews.html
9. Physics News from the Web
Items selected from the bulletins of the Institute of Physics (UK) and the American Institute of Physics.
a) Heaviest ever antimatter discovered
b) Shedding more light on graphene with inelastic light scattering
c) Knocking on the Higgs' door: An audio interview
a) Heaviest ever antimatter discovered
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/45544
Physicists at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in New York say they have created nuclei of antihelium-4 for the first time – the heaviest antimatter particles ever seen on Earth.
Antimatter nuclei are built from antiprotons and antineutrons but of all the various two- and three-quark combinations that can arise in particle collisions, it is rare that multiple antiprotons and antineutrons appear near enough to one another that they bind into anti-nuclei. Although the first antiprotons and antineutrons were discovered in the 1950s, the construction of heavier nuclei has been extremely taxing as each additional anti-nucleon makes the anti-nucleus 1000 times less likely to appear in a particle collision. Up until now, the largest anti-nuclei observed were capped at three anti-nucleons.
But RHIC is an experiment that can generate the right conditions for the formation of antimatter by smashing gold ions together in an effort to simulate conditions shortly after the Big Bang.
The article includes a link to an in-depth article on antimatter.
b) Shedding more light on graphene with inelastic light scattering
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/45545
A new technique for manipulating the way light scatters in graphene has been proposed by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and the University of California in the US. They say the breakthrough could help to uncover more information about the structure of the "wonder material" and could lead to the development of nanodevices such as medical sensors.
The technique uses inelastic light scattering spectroscopy, which involves shining laser light onto a material to glean information about the interior from the quantum transitions therein. Photons hitting the sample first excite a set of intermediate electronic states that, in turn, generate phonons (vibrations of the crystal lattice) and so-called energy-shifted photons (those with a higher or lower energy than the incident photons). The intermediate electronic excitations therefore play an important role as quantum pathways in inelastic light scattering.
c) Knocking on the Higgs' door: An audio interview
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/indepth/45561
Based at Harvard University, Lisa Randall is a leading theoretical physicist working in particle physics and cosmology. Included in TIME magazine's 2007 list of "100 most influential people", Randall is also involved in a variety of art-science collaborations from writing an opera libretto to curating an art exhibit for the Los Angeles Arts Association.
In an audio interview (11 min), Michael Banks (PhysicsWorld) met up with Randall to talk about the future of particle physics and what the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN may uncover.