In anticipation for the announcements of the Nobel Prize 2017, we will finish up the stories behind the particles included in the Nobel Prize Collection reflective slap bracelet. If you missed the beginning, go here for part 1.
Reflective slap bracelet with the Particle Zoo Nobel Prize collection of elementary particles.
1988 – The Muon Neutrino
Colleagues Leon M. Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger shared the Nobel Prize “for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino“. Neutrinos have no charge, very little mass and limited willingness to interact with and leave tracks in particle detectors. The research trio used a multistep process to produce a neutrino beam by creating showers of pi mesons from a proton beam and then let the mesons decay in layers of thick battleship steel. …
For our fellow science nerds around the world, we teamed up with The Particle Zoo and designed an ultra-reflective slap bracelet with elementary particles related to the Nobel Prize in physics. Order it in here webshop, or in our German webshop. In our previous blog post, we discussed the significance of the Photon (1921), the Neutron (1935) and the Electron magnetic moment (1955). That means we are up to the antiproton!
Two difference views of the reflective slap bracelet with the Particle Zoo Nobel Prize collection of elementary particles.
1959 – The Antiproton
Emilio Gino Segrè and Owen Chamberlain “for their discovery of the antiproton”. An antiparticle is a “mirror image twin” of the particle and Paul Dirac’s theory predicted every particle has its antiparticle. The positron, the antiparticle of the electron, had been discovered in 1932 but the creation of the antiproton, required a more powerful machine followed by new techniques to detect and measure the result. They announced the discovery of the antiproton in 1955. Read more here> and here>.
Celebrate groundbreaking research in high-energy physics with this collection of happy elementary particles from discoveries that brought home the Nobel Prize. In cooperation with the ParticleZoo, we have created a highly reflective slap bracelet (order it here) that doubles as a cheat sheet for Nobel Prize trivia while waiting for the 2017 Nobel Prize announcements.
Reflective slap bracelet with the Particle Zoo Nobel Prize collection of elementary particles.
The Particle Zoo Nobel Prize Collection
For the curious, the Nobel Prize website lists all awarded prizes and below are the first three selected for our reflective slap bracelet:
1921 – The Photon
Albert Einstein was awarded “for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect”. Electromagnetic radiation, which is visible light, infrared, ultraviolet, radio waves, radar, x-rays, microwaves, etc. behaves both as a wave and a particle, the photon. When light (photons) hit a metal plate, they knock out electrons from their atoms. That is called the photoelectric effect and the emitted electrons are called photoelectrons.
Last week, we posted about how prismatic safety reflectors work and some fun science projects to better understand retroreflectors. The posts were inspired by an order we recently shipped to a Seattle school for a reflector safety project.
Yesterday, I received this awesome story:
“Elisabeth,
The reflectors were a big hit. A parent and I did a safety talk and demonstration with a flash camera. I was in the school the next day and I heard a kid whispering “that’s the reflector lady”, so it must have made an impact.
At the assembly, we turned off the stage lights and I wore all black and walked across the stage, and then I turned and walked back the other way, but I had the star reflectors pinned on that half of the coat. Then the parent took a series of flash pictures to illuminate me in the dark. It was a quick and fun demonstration. We then delivered reflectors to each classroom.
Tomorrow at “Science Friday” the kids will be looking at reflectivity and retroreflectivity. Thanks for some of your science ideas.
Thanks for the fast turn around of my order.” Monica Sweet, Seattle Safe Routes to School project Safety Reflector demo by Monica at a Seattle School
Thanks, Monica, for the story and photo and for letting us share it with our readers! Elisabeth
If you were to wear a small mirror instead of a funflector safety reflector on your jacket, the light from the cars would reflect back all over the road, trees and buildings, instead of to the driver as is the case with safety reflectors. In our last blog post we described how safety reflectors (retroreflectors) works. To better understand, a craft project to make a model of a retroreflector might help. This is what you need:
2-3 empty cereal boxes
ruler
marker
scissors or knife
aluminum foil
3 pipe cleaners or thin drinking straws in different colors
5 twist ties
And this is how you do it:
Measure the same distance on the three sides from one corner and connect with a line to cut along.
We all have them in our photo albums: the photos taken with a flash straight into a window. The reflection of the harsh flash hovers over the heads of your friends because you forgot to take a step to the side and shoot a little bit diagonally into the window. If the window was a retroreflector, like a funflector safety reflector or a road sign, you would have got the flash bouncing back into your camera lens no matter where you were shooting from. Below and in our next post are some easy and fun ideas for a science project for schools or scout groups. These will help understand how retroreflectors work and why they can be so effective despite their small size.
Science Project with Safety Reflector & Laser Pointer
This video shows how a laser beam gets reflected right back to where it came from by a safety reflector. Watch how it lights up the laser pointer and the hand holding it! (Please make sure the laser pointer is handled by an adult.)
Higgs boson safety reflector by Particle Zoo and funflector
The existence of the Higgs field was predicted 50 years ago to provide an explanation for the origins of mass. It was hypothesized to fill space and interact with the most basic particles in a way that gives them mass when otherwise they would have none. An invisible field that fills all of space might seem odd, but right now there is an invisible gravitational field keeping you from floating away. There is also an invisible electromagnetic field that keeps you from simply passing straight through the floor. Find a way to put some extra energy into a field and you can “shake loose” particles. We do that all the time with electromagnetic fields, for example in a light bulb. We call he result light and the particles that emerge are photons, bearers of light.
After years of trying, an international team of physicists managed to show that the Higgs field exists. Instead of turning on a light bulb and observing the light, they smashed protons together in the LHC at CERN and “shook loose” some of those long-sought Higgs particles, which were recorded by huge particle detectors to, after quite some work, be observed on computer screens.
We know of no better way to visualize the Higgs field than this beautiful animation by Nigel Holmes:
Congratulations to François Englert and Peter Higgs and to all our friends and former colleagues, who tirelessly have kept building and tweaking the LHC and the Atlas and CMS detectors, long after our careers headed elsewhere!
Flying to the moon is a dream for many, reality for only 12. Buzz Aldrin, the lunar module pilot on Apollo11, is one of the lucky. On July 21, 1969, he walked on the moon following mission commander Neil Armstrong. The Swedish American Museum in Chicago is celebrating Buzz’s Swedish heritage with new permanent exhibit, “Exploration: Buzz Aldrin, Space Visionary,” at the Brunk Children’s Museum. They will blast into space for the first time on October 27th 2013 and children will be able to imagine what it would feel like to be an astronaut when they count down to blast off, collect moon rocks, and explore the moon. Click here for details about the Buzz Aldrin Exploration Exhibit Launch. Not only was Buzz’s mother’s maiden name Marion Moon, his Swedish ancestors on his fathers side came from Stjernsforsbruk, which means “The Mill at Star’s Rapids”!
Over the summer, we had our own blast off at the glimling office and launched a rocket ship funflector reflector! White and red rocket ships are available in the funflector webshop and at the gift shop at the Swedish American Museum. Hang them on jackets and backpacks to inspire big dreams and to increase your visibility in traffic at night. Reflectors are must-haves for Halloween and all other dark nights – and there a quite a few of them ahead.
funflector rocket ship safety reflector going for the moon and hanging on zipper pulls of fleece jackets waiting for the next neighborhood walk.
We can’t write about Swedish astronauts without mentioning Christer Fuglesang. He was the first Swedish citizen to go into space when he blasted off with the STS-116 Space Shuttle mission on December 10, 2006. He was also the first engineer and physicist in Sweden with a rock star status, which was amazing to witness. Even preschoolers knew everything about Christer’s space walks and his record of keeping a frisbee floating longer than anyone else. What an inspiration for kids who hadn’t given much thought to science and engineering before!
Christer Fuglesang greeting Sweden, Norway and Europe from the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
We have one more amazing image to share below! Look (you might need your glasses) how the earth and our moon are hanging out together with no close neighbors. It’s taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft close to Saturn. Dream big and stay safe!
The funflector team
Earth and moon from Saturn. Image courtesy of NASA.
We are thrilled to launch our first line of licensed pedestrian safety reflectors – designs from The Particle Zoo! The personalities reflected in the charming plushies teach us so much about the elementary particles. Now you can get the proton and the photon as safety reflectors to hang on your jackets and backpacks!
Some of our favorite particles – neutrino, gluon, quarks, the Higgs, nucleons, electron and dark matter – from The Particle Zoo
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