Physics TheoryNet Meeting, September 30, 2023
In Person at Northeastern University
MINUTES
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Attending:
Mike Wadness, Medford HS
Matt Heising, Billerica Memorial HS
Tomasz Taylor, Northeastern University
Ken Olum, Tufts University
Excuses:
Michael Hirsh, Needham HS
Scott Goelzer, Coe-Brown Northwood Academy NH
Nishant Agarval, UMass Lowell
Per Berglund, UNH
We welcome Matt Heising from Billerica HS. His school is very close to Lowell, so he is already in touch with Nishant who will visit soon.
As Mike W expressed it, it was the smallest but most effective Theorynet meeting ever. Over the last couple of weeks, Ken tested our new 57 lb telescope (I guess the weight is more impressive than aperture :). He also wrote up some useful hints how to handle it. All four of us assembled >10 accessories on my desk and carefuly fit them into a protective suitcase. According to the reviews, the suitcase is good enough for Katarina-strong extreme events. Then we put everything in Mike's car and wished him good luck in assembling it in Medford. The first star night should happen in Medford school in November -- Mike will send out more info when he is ready and I hope that some of us will be able to attend.
Since there were only four of us at the meeting, we decide to keep pairings as they were. The foliage season is a great time for visits, so teachers please find openings in your schedules and invite us. Everyone is available. There will be many new things to talk about: gravitational waves, free-falling antimatter at CERN, the forthcoming Nobel Prize and certainly Oppenheimer. I am sure that this movie is worth a class hour - for example, I personally knew Hans Bethe, have many stories about Los Alamos and recorded a podcast about it ... so let's get together!
According to http://cosmos.phy.tufts.edu/mhonarc/physicstheorynet/ , the first meeting, called by our NSF founding father and supporter Fred Cooper and organized by our Quarknet/Northeastern colleagues Darien Wood and Rick Dower, took place on December 13, 2003. For already 20 years we are working together to enhance physics classrooms - to explain what physics research is all about, and how exciting and useful physics is (not only for blowing up the world:). It's time for a slight change. Starting December this year, my colleague Brent Nelson will lead Physics Theorynet into the next decade. He will be organizing meetings, coordinating visits, demonstration equipment, taking care of the stipends, writing up minutes etc. He will take care of day-to-day Theorynet business while I will take a back seat and enjoy coffee and donuts, visit schools and all that fun stuff.
Onward
Tom