As part of Natural Sciences Week, Professor Sacha Kopp gave a lecture on the action/thriller movie 2012, which suggests that the end of the Earth may come December 21, 2012, due to a giant solar eruption of neutrinos which heat the core of the Earth to the point of bringing about volcanic and seismic destruction. While a great deal of fun, the movie bends the truth of solar storm activity and the physics of neutrinos.

You can watch a video of Dr. Kopp’s lecture, read an article in our student newspaper The Daily Texan, and check out the interview of Dr. Kopp on the local TV news.

Students in sophomore Modern Physics completed an end-of-semester research project and treated the department to a poster session of their work. Student groups researched topics and applications of modern physics over the course of Fall semester, and worked with their graduate TAs and undergraduate Learning Assistants to craft effective, clear posters. This is a skill all future scientists and employees in the business sector can benefit from. Their presentations took place in the RLM lobby and hallways over the lunch hour November 16.

In honor of George Sudarshan, who was recently awarded the Dirac Medal for his fundamental contributions to theoretical physics, the UT Tower will be illuminated in burnt orange tonight.

The sun erupts, neutrinos mysteriously accumulate, and the Earth is basically destroyed. Does any of this have any real science behind it? Sacha Kopp recently gave a presentation on the physics (or lack thereof) in the recent movie 2012.

For more details, you can read the full article on UT’s site.

There is also a YouTube video available.

Retired NASA astronaut George Nelson visited UT March 29–31 and gave a class to UT Physics freshmen, as well as a lecture on NASA and careers for the UT community and a lecture on education to UT faculty. Dr. Nelson served on the first shuttle launch after the Challenger disaster in 1986, and was the first astronaut to move around outside his spacecraft untethered to repair a satellite. His public lecture reviewed his personal history of how he turned to majoring in Physics and Astrophysics, and what an education means to him. He pointed out that the jobs of tomorrow haven’t even been invented yet, so the best thing one can learn in college is how to think. Since leaving NASA, he’s been working to develop better training for teachers in science and math.

Meet astronaut George Nelson as he shares his experiences, describes the current state of affairs, and discusses prospects for the next decades in space flight.

Join us for Human Spaceflight: What’s it like now? What will it be like in the future? March 30th, from 4:00 to 5:00 PM in the ACES Auditorium. Food and refreshments to follow!

The Society of Physics Students joined the rest of the UT community in welcoming the public to the biggest open house in Texas on March 6, 2010. SPS students at Explore UT performed demonstrations with liquid nitrogren and other physics fun, and also conducted an egg drop contest for the kids. Children designed and built their own contraptions out of paper, coat hangers, and rubber bands to protect an uncooked egg from breaking when dropped from a 10-foot height. It was a great opportunity to teach a little physics and get the kids interested in a design challenge. In physics, we like to build ingenious contraptions to solve hard problems—or to crack the tough eggs!

Students and faculty partner with neighboring schools this time of year for science fairs around the region. Many schools have science fair competitions in advance of the Austin Regional Science Fair Feburary 27. This year students partnered up with schools in Austin, Round Rock, and Pflugerville. Here, students Joseph Crowly, Rafael Longoria, Jeremy Paster, Rick Korzekwa, Morgann Berg, and Benton Pahlka went to Robert Lee Elementary School in Austin to judge students’ work!

The Physics Department and SPS hosted the band ArcAttack at the UT Main Mall on Wednesday, November 18th. The concert featured their “singing Tesla coils,” whose million volts create electrical arcs that span 20 feet through the air. When the lightning strikes, the air makes a pop sound like thunder, and by modulating the voltage at different frequencies, they can produce musical notes and melodies.

The band, consisting of musicians and UT alumni, played to a crowd of over 1,000 students, faculty, and visitors from the local Austin schools. Besides shocking the audience with their musical prowess, the band demonstrated how the coils produce pitches, how a Faraday cage protects people from the sparks, and how electromagnetic radiation from the coils can light a fluorescent bulb 30 feet away. But mostly, it was a chance to have some fun!

To read more about it, see the article in the Austin American-Statesman or the article in the Daily Texan.

On November 18th, from 6:30 to 7:30 PM, come see the ArcAttack Singing Tesla Coil Show on the Main Mall (in front of the UT Tower)! The concert is free and open to the public.

Search for ArcAttack on YouTube to learn more….

About 300 people gathered on the quad outside RLM to see watermelons dropped off the rooftops of RLM and out of Prof. Duane Dicus’s window. The Society for Physics Students decided to conclude the Open House by getting back at their Physics professors for all those weeks of measuring the acceleration due to gravity during their intro Physics courses.

Professor George Shubeita offered a tour of his biophysics lab to a group of new Physics students and to non-Physics majors. Prof. Shubeita’s lab studies the molecular motors that dive motions within a cell.

Professor Michael Marder showed students the process of how a rubber balloon pops. Prof. Marder’s research has focused of late on the physics of how things break, and on the shock waves that propagate through materials. This also proved to be very useful later, when discussing the watermelon drop.

During the Open House, the ground floor of RLM was packed with 32 undergraduate Physics majors presenting posters of their work to the visitors to the Department. Those interested could then tour the labs in which the students did their work.

Students Elyse Zimmer and Andrew Perrone explained the UTeach teacher preparation program to visitors at the poster session. UTeach is one of the foremost teacher preparation programs in the nation, and is being replicated at campuses across the country. Approximately eight Physics majors entered the UTeach program this year.

Many students took advantage of the opportunity to see the Texas Petawatt Laser Laboratory. The Petawatt is currently the world’s brightest laser, and is being used to explore a variety of topics like fusion energy, plasma accelerators, and ultra-fast imaging of chemical bonds. This group of students from PHY 110C had just learned about the Petawatt the week before in their conference course.

Every Fall and every Spring, the Physics Department and the Society for Physics Students put on a big picnic for all undergraduate and graduate Physics students. It’s held in Eastwoods Park, immediately next to campus. It’s a great time for faculty and students to get to know one another and to look forward to the new year.

Here are some photos of this year’s event. Despite a brief bout of rain, a good time was had by all (especially those who were sporting the free T-shirt that you can get as a Physics major…).

Looking for even more of an incentive to test the waters of Physics? (What, the free T-shirt wasn’t enough?) Well, you just might be in luck. How does $500 sound?

Read the full article on The Daily Texan

Space physicist Dr. Trevor Garner talks to a PHY 110C class about solar flares, solar storms, and the Earth’s protective magnetic field. PHY 110C is a freshman orientation course in which students read papers from faculty and learn to ask questions about the “why.” Faculty then visit in a subsequent class for a Q&A session on their research and their path towards physics and science as a career.

Aerospace Engineering professors Wallace Fowler and Robert Bishop visit the PHY 341: Picosattelite Design class. This course is intended for upper-division students seeking a collaborative research opportunity. Students research and consider compelling scientific topics that can be addressed with small (10 cm × 10 cm × 30 cm) satellites in areas such as Earth climate, space weather, and solar dynamics. The class will develop a group proposal and design critical aspects of the mission hardware. The ultimate goal is the preparation of a 15-page proposal to the National Science Foundatoin, which funds small student-led satellite projects.

Physics Professor Sacha Kopp addressed an audience of undergraduate science and non-science majors about the movie Angels and Demons. Based upon the Dan Brown novel, the movie’s plot begins with the theft of antimatter to be used as an explosive to destroy the Vatican.

Professor Kopp talked about the CERN particle physics laboratory featured in the movie, and about the strange concept of antimatter. He explained that if someone wants to find some antimatter in his or her house, he or she should pull out a banana.

You can read more about it at The Daily Texan.