The Society of Physics Students at UC Santa Cruz

This week’s meeting is THURSDAY Oct. 2nd, at 5:30 pm in ISB 231 

Attention all star-gazers, particle-smashers, and thoseotherwise physics-minded individuals:Welcome back to school! We hope that your transitionbetween summer fun and 8:00 morning classes has been trulyenergy-conserving (wait, isn’t everything?) and thatthings haven’t gotten too chaotic (yet).

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For the advent of this new school year, the Societyof Physics Students at UCSC (or SPS) would like to invite youto turn your potential energy into kinetic energy andwalk, bike, or collide your way over to our firstmeeting. Whether you are a Freshman Astro major eager tofind out: why the dark matter crossed the road, a newtransfer student still discovering how awesome theuniversity is, or a recently graduate sticking around to dosome research, come meet some new faces and reconnect with familiar ones.

THIS WEEKS MEETING IS THURSDAY, MAY 29 AT 6:00 pm in ISB 231

It may be Spring, and you are hoping for more and more sunny weather, but that shouldn’t stop you from joining us for a presentation from Prof. Patrick Chuang about the physics of clouds.

Clouds are central to the complexity of the climate system.  In order to
understand how and why, he will first discuss the life cycle of clouds: how
they form, evolve, dissipate and sometimes even reproduce!  Then he will
discuss the key roles that clouds play in the climate system, focusing on
the complexities that have emerged over the past one to two decades of
research.

There will be coffee, tea and snacks as always.

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If you are interested in running for an officer position we have elections in the Fall every year so start thinking about it. If you have any questions ask a current officer after the meeting this week.

-Karl

THIS WEEK’S MEETING IS THURSDAY, MAY 22 at 6:00 pm in ISB 231

It’s almost the end of the year, and as Physics students we all know that between midterms and upcoming finals all of our lives may be a little out of equilibrium. Unfortunately SPS can not at this time take care of your work load issues, but this week at SPS Onuttom Narayan will be discussing the statistical mechanics of disordered systems.

Out of equilibrium disordered systems often behave in ways that one does not see in equilibrium. He will present examples in granular materials, magnets with impurities, and river networks.

THIS WEEKS MEETING IS THURSDAY, MAY 15, 2008 at 6:00 pm in ISB 231

It’s getting hot and summer is coming up. Cool down before your midterms on Europa, the icy moon of Jupiter, with Professor Nimmo in the UCSC Earth Science department.

Europa has an ocean beneath a thin ice shell, while Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, has active geysers blasting water vapour into space.

He will discuss three main topics of active research: Why are the Enceladus geysers at the south pole? What is driving them? and Is Europa’s ice shell rotationally stable?

If 2,000 leagues under Europa doesn’t sound refreshing enough there will also be coffee, tea and snacks.

-Karl

This week’s meeting is Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 6:00 pm in ISB 231

Attention: Pranksters, jugglers, painters, bongo players and physicists:Come celebrate the 90th birthday of the physicist who was all these things, Richard Feynman.

Sadly, a talk by Professor Feynman himself is out of the question, but we can celebrate his life and all of his contributions to the wonderful field of physics….. with scientific birthday partying, cupcake decorating, coloring and more!

This is our 3rd annual Feynman Birthday Celebration and as usual Feynman diagrams in edible form, coffee, and snacks will be served.

Joining us is Prof. Dave Dorfan who will speak about all the things Feynman has taught the physics community.

***If you have pictures from the Zone Meeting we want the good ones so we can post an album on the website.***

-Karl

THIS WEEKS MEETING IS THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2008 at 6:00 PM in ISB 231

With no further atmospheric interference it is our pleasure to present:

RONALD SHEFFIELD, an aerospace engineer/consultant who has been working on the Hubble Space Telescope project since its design and launch in 1990.

• His presentation will highlight the physical description, characteristics, and historical data that describe the building of the Hubble Space Telescope from 1985 to the present 2008 Servicing Mission. It will show and discuss the on-orbit highlights of the extra vehicular activity (EVA) activities of STS-109, the last servicing mission in 2002.

• He will highlight the planned hardware replacement, repair, and upgraded capabilities of the on-orbit the STS-125, the servicing mission presently scheduled for not earlier than September 23, 2008.

And describe the awesome discoveries the Hubble Telescope has made over the years.

THIS WEEK’S MEETING is on Thursday, April 10th, 2008, at 6 PM in ISB 231.

Welcome back to Santa Cruz, I hope your Spring Breaks were fantastic and this quarter’s classes are off to a great start.

To kick off the Spring SPS meetings Alexander Morisse, a Physics Graduate student here at UCSC wants to make sure that you hear

• Everything you wanted to know about STRING THEORY but were too afraid to ask.

This will be the first of many awesome physics talks this quarter, don’t miss it!

–Karl

Thursday, March 13, 2008 — ISB 231 — 6:00 PM

Study…?

Tired…?

Hungry…?

Physics…?

Hungry…?

…Solution…

SPS

Come and relax in ISB 231 with SPS. For that study break on Thursday we are going to have a Pizza party. Also we will watch a sweet 1950’s physics film about reference frames.

See you there.

…or you’ll see me there?

It depends on whose reference frame you are in.

Don’t forget about the Zone Meeting / Big Physics Day this Spring.

And a cool article about Magnetoreception in Animals is here.

–Karl

Thursday, March 6, 2008 — ISB 231 — 6:00 PM

Like beer?

Bubbles?

Fizz?

Physics???

Then come to this weeks SPS meeting and learn about bubbles…well…bubble chambers at least. We will be watching a Berkeley Lab Summer Lecture Series Video about:

Don Glaser, who won the 1960 Nobel Prize for Physics for his 1952 invention of the bubble chamber at Berkeley Lab, a type of particle detector that became the mainstay of high-energy physics research throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He discusses how, inspired by bubbles in a glass of beer, he invented the bubble chamber and detected cosmic-ray muons.

While we cannot serve beer, there will be coffee, tea and snacks.

–Karl

The Winter SPS Undergrad Symposium — Part 2 of 2

Thursday, February 28, 2008 — ISB 231 — 6:00 PM

Upset that you didn’t get into 133 for the spring? Then come listen to hear about these students’ research and Senior thesis projects… and don’t worry 20-40 page reports are only optional.

This weeks speakers were chosen through a rigorous, challenging process to ensure you the the most interesting 12 min. conference style presentations possible.

This week’s undergraduate experts are

• Chris Paulson
• Ahmed Mahmoud
• Chris Meyer

With Professor David Williams as Faculty moderator.

Tea, coffee and snacks will be present.

You’re now looking at the beautiful new website, with a new link for info on the May 3rd Zone meeting (Big Physics Day) hosted by SPS@UCSC.

See you Thursday.

–Karl

The Winter SPS Undergrad Symposium — Part 1 of 2

Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008 — ISB 231 — 6:00 PM

Come by to hear what your fellow undergrads have been researching.

This week’s presenters:

• Glenn Gray
  
• Paul Mekhedjian
  
• Greg Horn

Moderator: Professor George Brown

There will be snacks, coffee and tea.

Part II of Undergrad Symposium next week.

Planning of the Zone meeting is really starting to take off, want to be a part of the magic, let us know after Thursday’s meeting.

And honestly we want a cool SPS@UCSC shirt for this year, isn’t anyone a talented artist, I know I’m not, but I’m sure there is some one who can write SPS@UCSC in bubble letters below a physics pun, that’s really all we are asking.

And here is little blurb about physics and music.

–Karl

If you do not already have plans this Valentine’s Day no need to worry. Stop by ISB 231 to make Valentine’s for your most beloved Physicist, be it Richard Feynman or Stefano Profumo.

We will be hanging out and professing our love for Physics, and Astrophysics of course.
Coffee, tea and snacks for all.

Next week will be part one of our second Undergraduate Symposium, with Prof. George Brown as our moderator. Find out what your fellow undergrads are doing with their time and expertise, get ideas for your senior thesis next year and learn cool physics stuff.

Also I’m serious about those T-shirt designs, we need to have cool SPS at UCSC shirts by the Zone meeting in May so we can all look awesome.

– Karl

This week we are lucky to be joined by Professor Stefano Profumo from the UCSC Physics department and SCIPP.

The matter content of the Universe appears to be dominated by a form of matter whose existence is inferred on the basis of its gravitational effects, and whose fundamental microscopic nature is at present unknown. This form of matter must be qualitatively different from the ordinary matter (neutrons, protons, electrons) that accounts for planets, stars and galaxies, and must couple very weakly to the known particles of the Standard Model. I will review and outline the wide ensamble of evidences for dark matter, the best motivated dark matter candidates, and the undergoing experimental and theoretical effort in the quest for the identification of this elusive, yet fundamental constituent of the Universe.

There will be snacks, coffee and tea.

… and to see beautiful pictures of Mercury…

MESSENGER Photo Gallery

– Karl

That’s right a game night.

Bring your favorite PHYSICS AND SCIENCE RELATED games over to ISB and play them with your fellow physicists. (Strategy games like connect 4 okay too, the point is that we are scientists and thinking is fun.)

To make sure there are enough games for everyone to play please bring what you’ve got, we promise they won’t be mistreated.

There will be snacks, coffee and tea as usual.

… And to see some sweet gravitational lensing check out

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/13682267.html

Hope to see you there.

– Karl

Have you ever asked yourself if our Universe is the only one?

Okay, maybe only after watching Futurama, but I know you’re thinking about it now?

So Thursday, after briefly reviewing what we know about the observable universe (it can’t take that long), Professor Anthony Aguirre will discuss several lines of thought in modern physics cosmology suggesting that this observable “universe” may be just one tiny corner of a stupendously large and diverse “Multiverse”.

If you can please try to be on time or early so we have enough time, as there is a section meeting at 7PM in that room.

As usual, there will be coffee, tea, and snacks.

Remember that’s ISB 231, you know in Santa Cruz, California…

…Earth, Solar System, Milky Way, the Universe…

…you mean there may be more than one?

I gotta hear this!

– Karl

We’re holding a Study Session for this week’s meeting, on Thursday, November 29th, 2007, at 6 PM in ISB 231. Because finals are next week.

Coffee, tea, cookies and homework.

And a HubbleSite press release about speedy white dwarfs in the ancient globular star cluster NGC 6397 is here:

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2007/42/

– James

What do you know about ultracold gases? Maybe you did the liquid helium / second sound lab in 134. I did. Maybe you had a good time. I did. Maybe you learned enough about the theory to motivate the experiment. I did. But did you *completely understand* the theory behind the effect? I didn’t.

Dr. Marcos Rigol, a postdoctoral researcher here in the UCSC Physics Department, studies strongly correlated quantum many-body systems (and related topics), and he’s agreed to come and talk at this week’s meeting — which takes place on Thursday, November 29th, 2007, at 6 PM in ISB 231 — about ultracold gases and what they have to do with quantum statistical mechanics. And maybe if we ask nicely, he’ll explain a little about second sound.

Coffee, tea, soda, and some food will be available, as usual, but the coffee will most certainly *not* be ultracold. I swear.

Also, please join me in another huge round of electronic applause for all of our SPS Undergraduate Symposium presenters and moderators. The event was a great success, and we’re already planning for the winter quarter incarnation. In fact, there are still a few spots left, so if you think you’d like to talk, let us know. We promise to get faculty moderators as good as Young and Haber (even though that might not be physically possible).

And an article about using a Bose-Einstein condensate for quantum information storage is here:

http://tinyurl.com/2mjlv6

– James

Last week’s session of the SPS Undergraduate Symposium was an extraordinary affair, full of ejected planets and elegant wedge products, and there’s no way we could ever possibly top it.

But we’re going to try.

The second session will be held this Thursday, November 15th, at 6 PM in ISB 231, and includes four more UCSC physics undergrads giving fifteen minute presentations about some kind of research or project they have been or will be working on, complete with a Q&A period and a faculty moderator. This week’s speakers are

and the faculty moderator is Howard Haber.

Your attendance is, once more, humbly requested.

As always: coffee, tea, and snack-type food.

And a new article called “Electromagnetic Wormholes and Virtual Magnetic Monopoles from Metamaterials” is here:

http://tinyurl.com/2lprxe

– James

The UCSC Physics Department does an extraordinarily good job teaching its undergraduates. We all know this.

But here’s something you might not know: UCSC physics undergrads think about more than just free body diagrams or passing a 116 midterm. They often pursue independent projects and ideas. They sometimes do things that look a lot like research.

And they sometimes like to talk about this work in public.

To that end, the Society of Physics Students at UCSC is pleased to announce that the first SPS Undergraduate Symposium will be held on November 8th and November 15th, 2007. Each meeting will feature four UCSC physics undergrads giving fifteen minute presentations about some kind of research or project they have been or will be working on, complete with a Q&A period and a faculty moderator.

The first session of the symposium occurs this Thursday, Nov. 8th, at 6 PM in ISB 231, and the speakers will be as follows:

The faculty moderator for this session will be Peter Young.

Your attendance is humbly requested.

And it wouldn’t be an SPS meeting without coffee, tea, and snack-type food.

And an article about the experimental potential of the International Space Station is here:

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/indepth/31259

– James

Are you thinking about grad school after graduation? Are you in the process of applying right now? Do you have any idea what you’re getting yourself into?

This Thursday’s SPS meeting — which takes place on Thursday, November 1st, 2007, at 6 PM in ISB 231 — features a special panel of physics and astrophysics grad students talking about grad school, and promises to answer many of your questions and remedy much of your confusion about all Graduate School Issues: the application process, letters of recommendation, the Physics GRE, fellowships, qualifying exams, etc.

And even if you think you’re mastering the application process, there’s probably something you’ve overlooked. Our panel can help.

And we will also be electing new officers! The nominees are as follows:

And as a preview, the meetings of November 8th and 15th will be host to the first annual SPS Undergraduate Symposium. Each meeting will feature four of your fellow undergrads giving fifteen minute presentations about some kind of research they’ve been doing, complete with a conference-style question period and a faculty moderator. More info later.

And an article concerning new info about the origin of cosmic rays is here:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2007/accelerated_rays.html

– James