The Society of Physics Students at UC Santa Cruz

THIS WEEK’S MEETING IS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2008 at 5:30 PM in ISB 231

Presenting this week is Professor Enrico Ramirez of the UCSC Astronomy Department.

Prof. Ramirez’s talk will focus on extremem forms of matter found around Black holes and neutron stars.

But these extreme forms of matter cannot be created in terrestrial laboratories. Instead, we have to observe and analyze the experiments that are ongoing in the Universe. The most telling observations of black holes and neutron stars come from dense stellar systems, where stars are crowded close enough to each other to undergo frequent interactions. It is the interplay between black holes, neutron stars and other objects in a dense environment that allows us to use observations to draw firm conclusions about the properties of these extreme forms of matter.

This Week’s Meeting is Thursday, October 30 at 5:30 PM in ISB 231

We will be having elections for this year’s SPS officers. If you are interested in an officer position please come to the meeting.

Then we will be watching the second Futurama Movie: The Beast With a Billion Backs.

Reasons to come:

• Physics Jokes
• Decent Plot
• Recovery from Midterms
• Cool People
• Elections are the cool thing this year

There will be coffee tea and snacks.

-Karl

THIS WEEK’S MEETING IS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23 at 5:30 PM in ISB 231   

Our special guest this week is Professor Michael Nauenburg 

Professor Nauenburg will demystify the paradoxes and conundrums brought up by Quantum Mechanics, as well as debunk the many absurd interpretations of this fundamental theory of Physics. 

 THIS WEEKS MEETING IS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16 at 5:30 PM in ISB 231 

A presentation from our venerable advisor Professor George Brown 

Have you ever wanted to be a ballerina? Cage fighter? Christmas Elf? Well, ambitious ones, come learn about what secret paths physics may hold for you and your future. Professor George Brown will be divulging the inner-most workings of what may be possible for physicists such as you and me.

Bring your questions this Thursday. Please be prepared to be inspired. (”Professor Brown, how much money should I expect to make as a waitress with a physics degree?”)

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Secondly, SPS will soon be holding its annual officer elections. If you have potential interest in becoming an officer, please speak with one of the current officers about this monumental decision. Also, if you think that one of your classmates has great leadership potential, feel free to nominate them by speaking with a current officer.

The positions are not mutually exclusive; rather, officers take on tasks jointly and work together to prepare for the meetings and events. They are as follows:

President

Vice president

Secretary

Treasurer

Events Coordinator

Elections will be held within several weeks. Please consider becoming involved at an authoritative level. :) 

Karl 

This week’s meeting is THURSDAY Oct. 2nd, at 5:30 pm in ISB 231 

Attention all star-gazers, particle-smashers, and thoseotherwise physics-minded individuals:Welcome back to school! We hope that your transitionbetween summer fun and 8:00 morning classes has been trulyenergy-conserving (wait, isn’t everything?) and thatthings haven’t gotten too chaotic (yet).

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For the advent of this new school year, the Societyof Physics Students at UCSC (or SPS) would like to invite youto turn your potential energy into kinetic energy andwalk, bike, or collide your way over to our firstmeeting. Whether you are a Freshman Astro major eager tofind out: why the dark matter crossed the road, a newtransfer student still discovering how awesome theuniversity is, or a recently graduate sticking around to dosome research, come meet some new faces and reconnect with familiar ones.

THIS WEEKS MEETING IS THURSDAY, MAY 29 AT 6:00 pm in ISB 231

It may be Spring, and you are hoping for more and more sunny weather, but that shouldn’t stop you from joining us for a presentation from Prof. Patrick Chuang about the physics of clouds.

Clouds are central to the complexity of the climate system.  In order to
understand how and why, he will first discuss the life cycle of clouds: how
they form, evolve, dissipate and sometimes even reproduce!  Then he will
discuss the key roles that clouds play in the climate system, focusing on
the complexities that have emerged over the past one to two decades of
research.

There will be coffee, tea and snacks as always.

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If you are interested in running for an officer position we have elections in the Fall every year so start thinking about it. If you have any questions ask a current officer after the meeting this week.

-Karl

THIS WEEK’S MEETING IS THURSDAY, MAY 22 at 6:00 pm in ISB 231

It’s almost the end of the year, and as Physics students we all know that between midterms and upcoming finals all of our lives may be a little out of equilibrium. Unfortunately SPS can not at this time take care of your work load issues, but this week at SPS Onuttom Narayan will be discussing the statistical mechanics of disordered systems.

Out of equilibrium disordered systems often behave in ways that one does not see in equilibrium. He will present examples in granular materials, magnets with impurities, and river networks.

THIS WEEKS MEETING IS THURSDAY, MAY 15, 2008 at 6:00 pm in ISB 231

It’s getting hot and summer is coming up. Cool down before your midterms on Europa, the icy moon of Jupiter, with Professor Nimmo in the UCSC Earth Science department.

Europa has an ocean beneath a thin ice shell, while Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, has active geysers blasting water vapour into space.

He will discuss three main topics of active research: Why are the Enceladus geysers at the south pole? What is driving them? and Is Europa’s ice shell rotationally stable?

If 2,000 leagues under Europa doesn’t sound refreshing enough there will also be coffee, tea and snacks.

-Karl

This week’s meeting is Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 6:00 pm in ISB 231

Attention: Pranksters, jugglers, painters, bongo players and physicists:Come celebrate the 90th birthday of the physicist who was all these things, Richard Feynman.

Sadly, a talk by Professor Feynman himself is out of the question, but we can celebrate his life and all of his contributions to the wonderful field of physics….. with scientific birthday partying, cupcake decorating, coloring and more!

This is our 3rd annual Feynman Birthday Celebration and as usual Feynman diagrams in edible form, coffee, and snacks will be served.

Joining us is Prof. Dave Dorfan who will speak about all the things Feynman has taught the physics community.

***If you have pictures from the Zone Meeting we want the good ones so we can post an album on the website.***

-Karl

The Zone Meeting/ Big Physics Day is this Saturday, May 3rd

The festivities of the Zone Meeting begin this Friday, May 2nd with a Movie Night.

Come Watch Bender’s Big Score in Thimann 1, Friday at 9:00 pm

THE BIG PHYSICS DAY STARTS SATURDAY AT 10:00 AM

The ZONE MEETING will take place in the BASKIN ENGINEERING AUDITORIUM (101)

Check out the awesome schedule of events here.

THIS WEEKS MEETING IS THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2008 at 6:00 PM in ISB 231

With no further atmospheric interference it is our pleasure to present:

RONALD SHEFFIELD, an aerospace engineer/consultant who has been working on the Hubble Space Telescope project since its design and launch in 1990.

• His presentation will highlight the physical description, characteristics, and historical data that describe the building of the Hubble Space Telescope from 1985 to the present 2008 Servicing Mission. It will show and discuss the on-orbit highlights of the extra vehicular activity (EVA) activities of STS-109, the last servicing mission in 2002.

• He will highlight the planned hardware replacement, repair, and upgraded capabilities of the on-orbit the STS-125, the servicing mission presently scheduled for not earlier than September 23, 2008.

And describe the awesome discoveries the Hubble Telescope has made over the years.

THIS WEEK’S MEETING is on Thursday, April 10th, 2008, at 6 PM in ISB 231.

Welcome back to Santa Cruz, I hope your Spring Breaks were fantastic and this quarter’s classes are off to a great start.

To kick off the Spring SPS meetings Alexander Morisse, a Physics Graduate student here at UCSC wants to make sure that you hear

• Everything you wanted to know about STRING THEORY but were too afraid to ask.

This will be the first of many awesome physics talks this quarter, don’t miss it!

–Karl

Thursday, March 13, 2008 — ISB 231 — 6:00 PM

Study…?

Tired…?

Hungry…?

Physics…?

Hungry…?

…Solution…

SPS

Come and relax in ISB 231 with SPS. For that study break on Thursday we are going to have a Pizza party. Also we will watch a sweet 1950’s physics film about reference frames.

See you there.

…or you’ll see me there?

It depends on whose reference frame you are in.

Don’t forget about the Zone Meeting / Big Physics Day this Spring.

And a cool article about Magnetoreception in Animals is here.

–Karl

Thursday, March 6, 2008 — ISB 231 — 6:00 PM

Like beer?

Bubbles?

Fizz?

Physics???

Then come to this weeks SPS meeting and learn about bubbles…well…bubble chambers at least. We will be watching a Berkeley Lab Summer Lecture Series Video about:

Don Glaser, who won the 1960 Nobel Prize for Physics for his 1952 invention of the bubble chamber at Berkeley Lab, a type of particle detector that became the mainstay of high-energy physics research throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He discusses how, inspired by bubbles in a glass of beer, he invented the bubble chamber and detected cosmic-ray muons.

While we cannot serve beer, there will be coffee, tea and snacks.

–Karl

The Winter SPS Undergrad Symposium — Part 2 of 2

Thursday, February 28, 2008 — ISB 231 — 6:00 PM

Upset that you didn’t get into 133 for the spring? Then come listen to hear about these students’ research and Senior thesis projects… and don’t worry 20-40 page reports are only optional.

This weeks speakers were chosen through a rigorous, challenging process to ensure you the the most interesting 12 min. conference style presentations possible.

This week’s undergraduate experts are

• Chris Paulson
• Ahmed Mahmoud
• Chris Meyer

With Professor David Williams as Faculty moderator.

Tea, coffee and snacks will be present.

You’re now looking at the beautiful new website, with a new link for info on the May 3rd Zone meeting (Big Physics Day) hosted by SPS@UCSC.

See you Thursday.

–Karl

The Winter SPS Undergrad Symposium — Part 1 of 2

Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008 — ISB 231 — 6:00 PM

Come by to hear what your fellow undergrads have been researching.

This week’s presenters:

• Glenn Gray
  
• Paul Mekhedjian
  
• Greg Horn

Moderator: Professor George Brown

There will be snacks, coffee and tea.

Part II of Undergrad Symposium next week.

Planning of the Zone meeting is really starting to take off, want to be a part of the magic, let us know after Thursday’s meeting.

And honestly we want a cool SPS@UCSC shirt for this year, isn’t anyone a talented artist, I know I’m not, but I’m sure there is some one who can write SPS@UCSC in bubble letters below a physics pun, that’s really all we are asking.

And here is little blurb about physics and music.

–Karl

If you do not already have plans this Valentine’s Day no need to worry. Stop by ISB 231 to make Valentine’s for your most beloved Physicist, be it Richard Feynman or Stefano Profumo.

We will be hanging out and professing our love for Physics, and Astrophysics of course.
Coffee, tea and snacks for all.

Next week will be part one of our second Undergraduate Symposium, with Prof. George Brown as our moderator. Find out what your fellow undergrads are doing with their time and expertise, get ideas for your senior thesis next year and learn cool physics stuff.

Also I’m serious about those T-shirt designs, we need to have cool SPS at UCSC shirts by the Zone meeting in May so we can all look awesome.

– Karl

This week we are lucky to be joined by Professor Stefano Profumo from the UCSC Physics department and SCIPP.

The matter content of the Universe appears to be dominated by a form of matter whose existence is inferred on the basis of its gravitational effects, and whose fundamental microscopic nature is at present unknown. This form of matter must be qualitatively different from the ordinary matter (neutrons, protons, electrons) that accounts for planets, stars and galaxies, and must couple very weakly to the known particles of the Standard Model. I will review and outline the wide ensamble of evidences for dark matter, the best motivated dark matter candidates, and the undergoing experimental and theoretical effort in the quest for the identification of this elusive, yet fundamental constituent of the Universe.

There will be snacks, coffee and tea.

… and to see beautiful pictures of Mercury…

MESSENGER Photo Gallery

– Karl

WEIRD DAY: WEDNESDAY, January 30, 2008
WEIRD TIME: 4:30 PM
WEIRD ROOM: ISB 102

This weeks meeting will feature a Giant Tesla coil demonstration courtesy of the SCIPP outreach program.

If you have never seen this before you do NOT want to miss it!

And if you have, then you already know why you’re going to be there.

Remember this is a different day and time and room than usual, due to space needs.

Not unusually, however, are the presence of snacks, coffee and tea.

Hope to see you there.

– Karl

That’s right a game night.

Bring your favorite PHYSICS AND SCIENCE RELATED games over to ISB and play them with your fellow physicists. (Strategy games like connect 4 okay too, the point is that we are scientists and thinking is fun.)

To make sure there are enough games for everyone to play please bring what you’ve got, we promise they won’t be mistreated.

There will be snacks, coffee and tea as usual.

… And to see some sweet gravitational lensing check out

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/13682267.html

Hope to see you there.

– Karl