Physics Buzz

At this week’s American Physical Society Meeting in Washington, DC, researchers from an observatory in Mexico unveiled unique images featuring a kind of shadow of the moon and sun. The images don’t contain a lot of new information about the sun and moon, but are a way of studying charged particles known as cosmic rays that move at really high speeds—their properties, interactions with magnetic fields, and even a bit about where they come from.

Last summer, a group of scientists from Georgia Institute of Technology initiated one of the few Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) of its kind. Their approach has inspired other physics educators locally and internationally. Michael Schatz, a professor of physics at Georgia Institute of Technology, along with a group of colleagues is now nearing completion of the third class of their MOOC on introductory physics. The course, called “Your World is Your Lab” and offered through the education technology company Coursera, offers its fair share of recorded lectures, discussion boards and problem sets, but in order to pass the class students must also complete a series of lab assignments. Logo for the MOOC "Your World is Your Lab." Credit: Michael Schatz Most professional scientists can recall their undergraduate days and the many hours spent with Bunsen burners, microscopes and diffraction gratings. However, many who enroll in MOOCs do not have the same access to lab

Last weekend over 1250.0 physicists from around the world converged onto the mile high city of Denver Colorado. Some of the greatest minds in the field converged not for the city's legendary buffalo burgers, but the annual April Meeting of the American Physical Society. Ironically it was held this year in May. Maybe some physicists are just more concerned with answering the big questions about black holes and the universe than the difference between months of the year. Anywho, this year's meeting featured many talks on topics ranging from quantum gravity to arms control to philosophy. Here's just the first part of some of the highlights from the Mile High City. The physicists were easy to spot roaming around Denver because of their name tags. Many students presented their work at the meeting during the poster sessions. Here we see a physicist asking a student why there is not a yellow box around a particular equation. While many physicists at the meeting were pres