Scientific night at the Aachen University
Last Friday, November 11th, there was a scientific night at the Technical University of Aachen (RWTH).
That day in Germany was the start of the carnival (which takes place for several months up to the Great Lent in the spring); it starts on 11.11 at 11:11, I finished a big poem just a few minutes after that and felt free to spend the evening carelessly.
Thanks to my colleague Philipp, I knew where the building was; in front of that I found several telescopes with large queues that I avoided. To be precise, there were about 15 people in these queues, so they were relatively small compared to some others I’ll write about later.
The first things after the entrance I didn’t like at all: there was a lot of coloured laser light, so it was not possible to read there. For me science is very connected to reading, though I heard that the “scientific night” is a very popular event, and accepted that. Fortunately, on the third floor there were many calmer places, and I was ready to get my share of scientific knowledge.
There were indeed many people; the light was not very simple for photographs, so I shall mix the chronology here and start with the place that made me take out my camera and really fascinated me, which is the room with liquid nitrogen.
1. Magnetic levitation of a superconducting material. Thick cold-protecting gloves strongly remind me a forge, or, to say, an anti-forge.
2. Here the levitation is visible. According to a legend, Muhammad's coffin was floating in the air; I realised that there would also be such magic sparks all around that.
3. A levitating brick over a magnetic railway. It is being cooled with nitrogen (not fuelled).
4. The experimenter pushes the brick, and it returns almost to the same position. Unfortunately, it loses some energy and becomes slower on the top, but this is due to air friction. The magnificent thing about superconductivity is that the resistance is not zero zero zero…, but only one pure zero. Currents in superconductors don’t experience any measurable weakening for years. A similar thing is with superfluidity; both phenomena are out of this world and are grounded in quantum physics (though we observe them in our macroworld). The guy at the stand was very excited about the topic and told me that in Japan they are waiting for a real superconducting railway in around 10 years.
5. Ice cream with liquid nitrogen. I usually don’t even drink from the fridge, so I was a bit scared to taste it (nitrogen boils at about -196 Celsius). However, the ice cream was very tasty; it was pure milk, frozen strawberry and very little sugar. I remembered that there is a huge tank of liquid nitrogen not far away from out canteen; however, they never seem to use that. The girls at the stand explained to me that nitrogen is used only for cooling, and it quickly evaporates from prepared ice cream. I asked for the second portion.
6. The same stand with more tools and a sign “It is forbidden to eat here”. Security rules in that room required everyone to wear protecting glasses.
7. Many glasses. A bit earlier new people could not enter the room, because there were no free glasses.
8. Lea’s box experiment. That was my first room and first experience that night: having approached a familiar waving hand, I was offered to lift, move, rotate and by all means disturb the peacefully standing box. While I was doing that, it felt like there were many small balls inside, some non-Newtonian liquids also came to my mind, but there was also a strange sound during more powerful movements. Fortunately, the box had a lid that we could open and find a gyroscope (a quickly rotating disk) inside.
9. My scientific advisor Christopher Wiebusch demonstrates a real-time detector for natural radioactivity. In the liquid (I forgot the exact material) there were many traces from ongoing decays; for beta particles (electrons) they were thin, while for alphas (which are massive helium nuclei with charge +2) traces are thicker and shorter. Unfortunately, I could not get a good photograph of the traces themselves.
10. Magnetic domains in a material (the physicist was unsure which one that was). When two different magnets approached the object, magnetic domains gradually became all yellow or brown (depending on the magnet), and when the magnets were removed, the other lines returned (the whole pattern slightly changed after that, though it remained stable when not affected). I found these lines very beautiful and they reminded me of a geometrical problem I was solving this summer (though I could not remember exactly).
11. My colleagues from the Ice Cube collaboration. To see high energy neutrinos at the South pole, the experimenters have to drill the ice with melting water (to insert light detectors, or photomultipliers). Aachen University, however, proposes to use electric heating instead of water (see the devices on the table). This could be useful when there is no hot water, for example on icy comets or planets.
12. Old-fashioned technology.
13. This was my favourite stand before I got the ice-cream. It had no experiment at all, but there were many candies instead, and I took one, for I was really hungry. The presenter also gave me a long speech in German, from which I understood everything; it seems it depends very much on the person we’re talking with. The university of Aachen is the second largest technical university in Germany, and it has many different faculties besides the physical one: medical, informatic, etc. etc. On the photo with gyroscope one can see another half of the building, where many biotechnological stands took place. There was also a room mostly intended for children and families. Indeed, biology must be really easier for small kids than physics. However, there were also many children or teenagers in physics rooms, and for me as a scientist it was great to see that not only I do it because I like it, but also many other people are really interested in that. Many children will get inspired by science after visiting events like that.
14. These are two guys who got the last two Waffels.
15. Just a moment before that place was full of people from the queue for waffles. On the second floor there are several lecture rooms (also from some corporations); I could see a piece of a slide that one doesn’t have to use pesticides, but insect traps instead; my friend from Vaals, who works in biotechnology, said that one can also use insects against other insects.
There were also electric and laser shows in some rooms, but I was not very interested in them and the queues were really big there.
I went out into the refreshing night street, and through the telescopes I could see Saturn rings, Jupiter satellites Io, Callisto and Ganymede (Europe was hidden behind the planet). We also saw the Moon. This is not as rare, but through the telescope one can see many more details. While we usually see it as a smooth shiny object (at least I have such an impression), in reality its surface is rather rough with craters and channels. The old lady has experienced pretty much in its life.
Last time I watched stars with aided eye in Puschino at an astrophysical school about ten years ago. I chose my research topic on which I work for about 12 years after learning about supernovae; stars really fascinate me (even more than frosty bricks). I even thought that one poet/composer became one of my favourite also because she often mentions them. If you know cultural figures loving stars, please share with me. I can remember only “Astronomy” by Metallica (cover of Blue Öyster Cult).
I also met some people from Russia (and Mariupol) that evening; it was nice to speak some Russian, and already a bit unusual; it was exciting to know that they somehow knew about my talks on Russian activism (recordings will be published soon!)
The scientific night was great, and I was so more interested to participate that I didn’t make many photos; however I’d like to add here that you want to make a portrait session, then I would gladly do that after this week. I use a zoom lens and I don’t process photographs (neither I take money for that); I can share my first (and last) photo session with a friend in comments.
Sorry, vk doesn't allow more than 10 photos, so if you are interested, please see my facebook or telegram!
