Light Fair

Posted on 25/10/201515/01/2016 by YM Webmaster

In October 2015, the Young Minds Section of Naples organized a two-days activity, the LIGHT FAIR to promote the International Year of Light 2015.

The first day was organized a workshop, where the most important professors of our university gave long lectures (2 hrs each) about relevant topics involving light and its applications. We opened the partecipation to this school to people who study outside of our department and also to people who study related subjects such as mathematics or chemistry.

The second day was performed in the biggest activity “Futuro remoto, fisici senza frontiere”, a festival of science who took place in October in one of the biggest square in Naples. The event is designed both for adults,children and school classes of the city, with an interest in science or simply for people which were passing through the square. One day of the festival was totally dedicated to the IYL. There were organized stands where physics students(bachelor and master student) and researcher showed simple experiments regarding light, for examples how to make a 3-D hologram or explain how does work a waveguide. There was also the possibility for people to try playing with light. We also sold t-shirts, linked to the light phenomena , for auto-financing and advertising of our group. To celebrate the IYL during this festival our group wrote a brochure regarding light which was distribuited completely free, with some gadgets, to the partecipants. All the section’s members, together with all the SPIE and OSA chapter’s member,s and other volunteers students belonged to the University of Federico II of Naples were involved in this activity, for a total of 130 volunteers. The number of people which joined the event is much higher than the expected number, there were about 50 peolple for the seminars and 80000 of people during the day in Plebiscito Square, the bigest monumental square in Naples City.

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Rubik’s cube competition @ Fisici senza frontiere

Posted on 20/10/201520/01/2016 by YM Webmaster

The most challenging activity we have organized to celebrate the International Year of Light 2015 was probably Fisici senza Frontiere @ Futuro Remoto.

Futuro Remoto, the biggest science festival in Naples, took place in Piazza del Plebiscito from October the 16th to the 19th and this year more than 100 students of the Naples Department of Physics were involved, as well as tens of researchers and professors from several institutions (e.g. CNR, INFN, CIRA), for a total of about 140 people. The volunteers covered a wide range of scientific activities (e.g., scientific speed date, several educational talks, more than 10 outreach stands), which made it possible to target a diverse audience. As part of our outreach initiative aimed at the youngest, we organized a Rubik cube competition.
Our rooftop summer party, a recent tradition for the Department of Physics, provided us with a setting to test and showcase the format, albeit on a smaller scale. Results were very encouraging, garnering appreciation and generally positive feedback from the students involved. We chose to follow the adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” so we kept the same rules: the fastest solver wins the prize.
According to official sources, about 130.000 people visited Futuro Remoto over the course of its four days. We could thus expose a very large crowd to our activities, at some point even attracting the attention of the Mayor of Naples, Mr. Luigi De Magistris. Even the smallest ones, such as the Rubik’s cube competition, successully managed to attract and fascinate visitors.

Glasgow Science Festival 2015

Posted on 20/10/201520/01/2016 by YM Webmaster

At this year’s Glasgow Science Festival, SCOPE (the Strathclyde Student Community for Optics & Photonics Engineering) organised outreach experiments and workshops for children and adults under the heading “Illuminating the world of light”. Since 2007 the event has grown to be one of the most popular festivals in the United Kingdom, providing a range of science-related events over 2 weeks.
Our group was enjoying two days of fascinating experiences in sharing knowledge with a broad age audience, including children of age 3 up to 60-year old curious onlookers, at a family weekend at the Kelvingrove Museum.
Our three different setups attracted around 200 people, mostly families, who came interested in basic issues of optics and general physics. One of the most attractive parts for the young audience was a 3D glasses workshop. Visitors had the occasion to build their own glasses and play with them watching a short 3D movie as well as 3D pictures. We further took up the challenge of explaining to both parents and children the physics behind IMAX cinema, using a demonstration of polarization of white light with professional 3D glasses and polarising filters from an OSA Optics Suitcase. Apart from learning, children had fun with cutting and gluing their own glasses which they could then take home.
On the other side of the desk we ran a game where visitors had to guess in which applications or everyday items lasers are used (by picking out the correct pictures with brief descriptions on the back of the cards). Each time before starting the game, a small experiment was performed to explain to the audience what the difference between regular light (from a torch) and laser light is. All winners were granted funny stickers for their good answers. Few of the cards included tricky examples and most of the adults, even people working in science, found our game very educational and we received positive feedback from them.
For those more interested in medical physics, we prepared a demonstration illustrating how the human eye works. Two laser pointers and a huge lens borrowed from the Institute of Photonics at Strathclyde University were used to show how the laser light penetrates the human eyeball and where the right place is for their intersection, so that the image received by the eye has the proper sharpness. The audience was following the light beams coming from the other side of the lens using a piece of paper. After the hands-on experiment many children stayed to listen to a short talk about the internal structure of the eye.
All experiments were handled with kind assistance from the coordinators of the Science Festival as well as volunteers from the University of Strathclyde’s Physics Department and the Institute of Photonics.

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Ab initio simulations in investigating the origin of life

Posted on 02/10/201511/01/2016 by YM Webmaster

Computer simulations are nowadays an irreplaceable tool in predicting and exploring phenomena which occur at regimes difficult to achieve in ordinary laboratories. Moreover, they are capable to identify with an atomic resolution molecular re-arrangements or important chemical reactions elucidating inter alia the underlying delicate mechanisms. Only recently, it has been possible to simulate in a microscopic detailed fashion chemical reactions which may be occurred in some specific environments in the prebiotic era; these reactions, previously not known, represent another important route by which the bricks of life (i.e., the amino-acids) could formed on Earth.
Prof. Marco Saitta is one of the most important scientist in this interdisciplinary field since he is even developing with his group at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) – Sorbonne Université in Paris (France) new numerical tools which will be of extreme help in order to reproduce the energy landscape of any chemical reaction in a smart and simple manner.
In order to amplify the audience of this topic which can be tackled from many scientific points of view an in order to give the possibility to our University to host an high-profile scientist, we organized this Seminar. Although our primary targets were graduate and undergraduate students, a great participation of established scientists was appreciated. Prof. Saitta, by using on average an informal approach, has treated with meticulous clarity and depth this fascinating topic, stimulating important and delicate discussions at the end of the talk which involved many scientists present at the event. At the beginning and at the end of his presentation, Prof. Saitta did not lose the opportunity to acknowledge our YM Section and the general YM philosophy. Indeed, almost surprisingly, he has also shown a YouTube video made by another YM Section in which our colleagues “play” with different physical fields in which Prof. Saitta himself is deeply involved. Finally, Prof. Saitta, being a co-organizer of two important Schools on related arguments (i.e., computer simulations), has invited students and researchers to participate obtaining an enthusiastic response.
Just after the ending scientific discussions moderated by an our member as chairman, a refreshment was offered by our section to the participants. During this latter, informal scientific interactions were catalyzed by a convivial environment and the students had also the opportunity to interact directly with Prof. Saitta and discover different approaches to the study of physics present at the UPMC in Paris, one of the most recognized scientific institutions in Europe.

The seminar was hosted on the 2nd of October 2015 by the Messina YM Section.

Researchers Night Budapest

Posted on 30/09/201511/01/2016 by YM Webmaster

The Budapest YM Section participated in the international outreach initiation called “Researchers Night” by organising a physics related event at the Eötvös University. This was an open and free event for any curious person, but our main focus was on families, teenagers and younger children. Altogether in the end we had around eight hundred participants during the night, most of the visitors were families and student groups with teachers.

There were a couple short, easily understandable and entertaining scientific presentation. The presentation were presented by renewed researchers and students alike, with topics from the most novel and interesting research areas, showcasing the methodology of scientific research. During the whole afternoon and evening (for seven hours) there were five thematic demonstration stands with over a 100 different experiments (the five themes were: thermodynamics, electromagnetism, modern physics, mechanics and liquids). The participants were able to try out most of the non-dangerous experiments themselves, many of which can be easily reproduced at home. Some grand experiments were presented on the bank of the Danube on an hourly basis . There were two to four presenters at each table, mostly physics students.

In cooperation with the Roland Eötvös Physical Society, the two local universities (Eötvös Loránd University and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics) and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Research Institutes we organised a professional and interesting Physics Researchers Night event in Budapest. With the help of the Hungarian Astronautical Society, we also had a poster session in front of the experiments hall, where the participants could get a broad view of Hungarian scientific achievements in space.

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Scientific documentary

Posted on 27/09/201511/01/2016 by YM Webmaster

In order to disseminate the science of optics and photonics within the International Year of Light 2015, we have developed a documentary in collaboration with Vector Productions.
The documentary focuses on the history of optics in Spain from the first treaties in the Arab world to state of the art research today.
The documentary was filmed in Murcia, a Mediterranean city in southeastern Spanish. It explains issues such as reflection, refraction, diffraction, wave-particle duality and some properties of lasers. It speaks, in an accessible form, on where we can find the light based technologies in our daily lives, to bring all public the importance of light in our technological development. The documentary also contains an interview with Dr. Pablo Artal, director and founder of the Research Centre in Optics and Nanophysics at the University of Murcia. He talks about his visual simulator, how they are able to perform measurements that help us better understand the fundamental dynamics of the eye and that will, in the future, improve aspects such as refractive cataract surgery.
The documentary was developed for projection on schools, colleges, universities, conferences… It was recently premiered at Valencia IONS congress, held during the 24th, 25th and 26th September, a conference organized by the University Jaume I Young Minds Section and co-financed by EPS. In December it will be screened in Granada, at “Desgranando Ciencia”, a national event dedicated to the dissemination of science in all fields. In the following months, we will be projecting the documentary in our University, in several schools in Castellón, etc.
From January 2016 the documentary will be free and it will be available online for download so that any teacher can download it and show it to their students at school or university.
Here there is a picture that we took after its projection at Valencia IONS congress.

Light from other worlds

Posted on 26/09/201504/01/2016 by YM Webmaster

Within the framework of “European Researchers Night 2015” organized by the Science Museum of Valladolid, Physics League has organized a big-workshop related to light because of the IYL2015. Taking advantage of many popular films, the basics of the physical principles can be shown in an attractive and stunning way.

Seven workshops were carried out in parallel in a big space in the Science Museum of Valladolid. The success of the activity was recognized by its directress with more than 500 participants during the event.

Avatar: Different kinds of luminescence have been explained using the Pandora’s universe: Bioluminescence (natural algae), Chemiluminescence (bracelets) and fluorescence (different paints,minerals).
Star wars: The holograms are reproduced by a ‘real’ hologram which can be seen with a laser and an ‘optical illusion’ performed by an acetate pyramid. A ‘fight’ between the Jedi (red laser) and Sith (blue laser) sides is performed with tinted fluorescents and plasma balls. How to lead the light is addressed solving a ‘laser khet’ puzzle with only 3 available mirrors.
Entrapment: a portable laser maze has been built with an Arduino, lasers, and photo-detectors. The light-matter interaction was explained in the entrance.
Spy kids: some ways to send information are explained. For instance, a spectra sound was built to transmit music using a laser. Polarization of light is shown using 3D-glasses.
Up: what happens when solar radiation crosses the top of the atmosphere? The radiative effect of clouds and aerosols is shown by a laser, a glass of water, and sugar. Different kinds of aerosols are introduced and a sandstorm is performed in a big box. The role of aerosols as cloud condensation nuclei is proved by the formation of clouds in a bottle with hairspray and warm water.
Inside Out (workshop I): with 5 atomic spectrum lamps we can explain why we can see colours: Sodium
(‘Joy’, yellow), Zinc (‘Sadness’, blue), Neon (‘Anger’, red), Thalium (‘Disgust’, green), Cesium (‘Fire’, purple). The different aspect of a rainbow inside each box helps to understand the colour absorption/emission. Diffraction is also addressed.
Inside Out (workshop II): how do our eyes work? With a laser kit the human eyes are visually explained. Some problems related to the vision are also detailed. White light is formed by Newton’s disc and decomposed using a prism. Different colour fires go in depth to colour absorption/emission.

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A YBCO superconductor for outreach

Posted on 14/09/201507/01/2016 by YM Webmaster

When the package arrived from Germany, we immediately knew what was inside. We eagerly, but carefully, opened the package to find inside what we had been hoping for. A coated YBCO superconductor, larger than any we had previously used. Naturally, the first thing we did was to fill a container with liquid nitrogen to test it. Once the superconductor was cooled to cryogenic temperatures, we were not disappointed. The magnet floating above it was more stable and could be mounted on a greater distance from the superconductor compared to previously used superconductors. Furthermore, the superconductor itself is shielded from the heat of the air around it, allowing it to be lifted out of the liquid nitrogen for a longer period of time.

Since the superconductor arrived we have visited many high schools in the Netherlands. There we found that the advantages of this superconductor as described above helped us to fascinated the students even more. With this new superconductor, we can properly demonstrate the levitating magnet, even to the students in the back of the class!

Most of our experiments are based on
elementary science, which the students themselves can understand. Therefore, they don’t expect us to show them something that baffles most Physicists. With this experiment we try to explain to students that Physics is not finished yet, and that still a lot of research has to be done to fully understand the world around us. Using this new durable superconductor, we have already sparked enthusiasm in hundreds of students, and will continue to do so for many years to come.

Sleights of mind

Posted on 08/09/201504/01/2016 by YM Webmaster

Within the framework of the “International Year of the Light” the Valladolid YM Section Physics League organized a talk about visual perception and sleights of mind. We invited to neuroscientist Dra. Susana Martinez- Conde, cofounder of the exciting new discipline of NeuroMagic and also member of the Magic Castle, Magic Circle, International Brotherhood of Magicians, and the Society of American Magicians.

Magic tricks work because humans have a hardwired process of attention and awareness that is hackable. By understanding how magicians hack our brains, we can better understand how the same cognitive tricks are at work in advertising strategy, business negotiations, and all varieties of interpersonal relations. When we understand how magic works in the mind of the spectator we will have unveiled the neural bases of consciousness itself. The idea was approach the neuroscience to students and general public in a fun and accessible way.

This talk appeared on the local news programme. A reporter filmed a small part of the talk and a small interview to a Physics League member.

Before the talk, we carried out some experiments in the hall of the College of Science, some tricks that are easily explained with physical laws, like:

Burning hands, a mixture of water, soap and hairspray allows us to burn our hands without damage due to the Leidenfrost effect.
Bending spoons: The superpower of bending metal by just touching it is demystified. A gallium spoon looks like a normal kitchen spoon but it melts at 28 ºC being easily bent in our hands.
Bed of nails: People felt like ‘fakirs’ over this ‘comfortable’ bed of nails. The attendees were invited to prove this and other experiments.

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Lab tour following FUNlight

Posted on 18/07/201507/01/2016 by YM Webmaster

The Copenhagen DTU YM Section helped with arranging a talk, funded by the OSA student chapter and the Department of Photonics, named FUNlight. FUNlight served as an informal lecture in which bachelor students were invited to get a closer look at research being done at the department, with subsequent free food and beverages. An oral presentation was made by Kresten Yvind, group leader of Nanophotonic Devices, who talked about Nano lasers and tunable MEMS lasers for OCT applications.
Directly following the FUNlight talk, students were given the opportunity for a lab tour both by the presenter as well as two EPS members: Ivan-Lazar Bundalo and Simone Gaiarin. They were thus given the opportunity to observe how cutting edge research equipment from different fields can actually look like in practice. The students, numbering around 20 people, were split in 3 groups and taken to 4 different labs from the fields:

Optical chips (interconnects)
Plastic fiber drawing tower
Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) fabrication and testing
High-speed optical communications

In drawing tower lab students were introduced to the whole process of making plastic optical fibers (step index and microstructured). They could see different stages of fiber fabrication as well as most common problems related to that technology and the research focus areas. In FBG lab they were shown how phase mask technique can be used with UV laser light to make FBGs in microstructured fibers. Further on, they have been shown the principle of how fiber optic strain, humidity and temperature sensors work.

The high-speed optical communication lab is mostly focused on system type of experiments using a combination of stock fiber and newly developed specialty fibers acquired from OFS Fitel Denmark and NTT Photonics Laboratories. The basics of long-reach optical communication and imperfections causing problems in transmission systems were explained.