Friday Flyer on Monday - June 9, 2025
Spotlight on Summer 2025...A Look Ahead
Summer 2025 is shaping up to be another exciting and active season for QuarkNet! More than 30 centers across the country are planning to host workshops and meetings, many featuring National Workshops presented by QuarkNet Central. Not sure when your local center’s events are scheduled? Reach out to your mentor, lead teacher, or a QuarkNet staff member to get connected. Highlights this summer include Data Camp at Fermilab, July 13-18, and Coding Camp 1, which will be held virtually the week of July 21. In addition, eight QuarkNet teachers will travel to Europe to take part in one of CERN’s summer programs for educators. And don’t forget—the AAPT Summer Meeting takes place August 2–6 in Washington, DC, with several QuarkNeters participating in a variety of roles. Hope to see you there!
This will be the final Friday Flyer of the 2024-2025 academic year. We'll be back in September with more updates, opportunities, and news from across the QuarkNet community. Have a great summer!
News from QuarkNet Central
Opportunity for Teachers/Students: Collaborating with Life Lab in India, QuarkNet can offer an opportunity this summer and possibly beyond for a few of our teachers and their students to attend an international online class on particle physics. The first three sessions will meet in two week intervals starting July 15. Interested? Email Ken!
Tune-up Time for Cosmic Ray Detectors: Summer is a great time to check your cosmic ray detector (CRMD) and make sure it’s in top shape. If you're experiencing any issues, or if you're no longer using your detector and would like to return it so others can benefit, please reach out to your local QuarkNet support, the Help Desk, QuarkNet staff, or Dave Hoppert at Fermilab (hoppert@fnal.gov). Please remember: QuarkNet CRMDs are the property of Fermilab and must be returned if not actively in use. Thanks for helping keep our resources in circulation and in good condition!
Center mentors and lead teachers: Summer is here, and we know some centers are still making plans for the summer. Remember that QuarkNet has several National Workshops that QuarkNet staff and/or fellows can bring to your center. New offerings include workshops on Cosmic Watches and on AI. If you have any questions, please contact your QuarkNet staff member.
Physics Experiment Roundup
The Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab announced their third and final result last week with the most precise measurement of the magnetic anomaly of the muon. You can watch a recording of the very nice presentation that accompanied this announcement, or read about it in this Fermilab press release.
Symmetry brings several recent articles: Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a new class of small "little red dot" galaxies that may transform our understanding of black hole growth and galaxy evolution. The upcoming NSF-DOE Vera Ruben Observatory and its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will bring the potential to dramatically escalate gravitational lensing research. ALICE researchers at the LHC have observed that "near-miss" lead-ion collisions can produce trace amounts of gold. Physicists are increasingly confronting "null results," prompting them to reassess and broaden their foundational assumptions and experimental approaches in fundamental physics.
CERN deepens its partnership with the Einstein Telescope gravitational-wave observatory. Physicists with the ALICE experiment at CERN leveraged downtime during LHC Run 2 to record over 165 million cosmic muon events, helping to shed light on a puzzle surrounding cosmic muons. LHCb physicists report their first dedicated measurement of the Z boson mass, marking a milestone in precision physics at the LHC.
Scientific American takes a field trip to the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Resources
The May 2025 issue of The Physics Teacher is out with a few articles that are free for all to access. One article explores how to extend the usability of CASTLE kits using banana-to-banana plug test leads, offering a simple and flexible solution for circuit setups. Another article examines the motion of spinning rings and washers on a vertical rod, providing a surprising demonstration that is visually appealing and of interest for students of all ages. Finally, if you're looking to boost the impact of your lab instruction, check out this article on promoting both conceptual and procedural understanding in physics labs.
CERN's IdeaSquare is piloting an innovative education program—IdeaSquare Planet—that has students imagine colonizing an exoplanet and then applying their designs-thinking back on Earth to tackle real-world challenges.
A reminder that CERN offers an online 16-chapter Particle Physics Course for High School Students...perhaps something to check out this summer, if you haven't yet had a chance.
Just for Fun
CERN makes an appearance in the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest.
From xkcd, a clever heat pump set-up—though your neighbor might not be a fan. Also...types of bridges and what people must have done before the bathroom scale.
Have a great summer!
QuarkNet Staff
Mark Adams: markadams74@gmail.com
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Spencer Pasero: spasero@fnal.gov
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu