This coming week, the plan is to show off our bowling talents with a trip to Hollywood Bowl in Surrey Quays.
We meet in the Physics foyer at 2pm this Wednesday (10th), the bowling is in Surrey Quays 'Hollywood Bowl', nearest tube Canada Water (Zone 2). Price is £2.25 per game if you bring your student card, beer is £8.95 for a pitcher (4 pints). Decathlon is very nearby and is fun!
We'll be down at the Fresher's Fayre on the 19th and 20th of September so come along and say "Hi!". PS: We'll have sweeties.....
Have a good look around the website, it'll tell you what we're all about, what we get up to and what you can expect from us in the coming year if you JOIN US.
First Event will be on Wednesday 26th. We invite you all to the physics museum for tea and jaffa cakes (and other snacky foods) from 1pm. Come meet the committee, members of the department and other members of PsiStar.
If that's not up your street, come join us on the 3rd with a trip to Wing's Chinese Buffet (which is just down the road, a rather tasty all-you-can-eatery.) Usually £5.90 excluding drinks. How many meats will Steve have on his plate this year? Who knows.
The week after that will be Beer and Bowling, more details will follow nearer the time.
With Exams finishing soon, we at PsiStar have decided there's time for a trip before everyone heads back to their parent's to earn some cash.
So. on Wednesday 30th May we're going to Thorpe Park.
"PsiStar has the remedy for those exam blues and we want to take you all away with us to Thorpe Park! The date is not yet fixed but if we go before 31st May then we get a discount, £18 each or £16.20 if we have 10 or more. The catch is we need to book in advance. We may be able to get a mini bus to take you down there too! So if you are interested and want to come then send me an email _NOW!_ with your name and a contact number. We may have to limit places, but it will be a first come first serve basis.
You have been warned...
Steve 'jumped into a bush on sunday, hurt my leg a bit' Hudziak "
Contact Steve, Nic or Rosie if you want a place :o)
There is only one week left of lectures this academic year. Yes thats right, after Friday no more lectures for a whopping 6 months!!! And why is that? No not because its exam time, thats just a coincidence, its because its Easter (spelled E-Star or E* in the new PsiStar Dictionary)!
So lets celebrate by having an E* egg challenge, not the old hunt for eggs left behind by the E* bunny that you may remember from child hood (unless you're French/Belgium in which case a giant bell from Rome left the eggs, if you're from the Netherlands you may remember running around setting fires in which case stay clear of the Poles who just have a huge water fight (possibly to keep back any dutch fires?)). We're just going to through eggs a'plenty from the Physics building...
But wait, there's more; We start at 2pm in UG4 (?) with an annual general meeting. If you want to be on the PsiStar committee next academic year then you should nominate yourself and come to the meeting. If you want free pizza then you should come along to the meeting and vote for the nominated candidates. Then we hurl eggs.
The rules are simple: No devices that slow down the egg’s fall, this includes parachutes, propellers, flying toys, helium balloons, ropes and bungees. No bubble wrap.... SPANKer’s ruling is final.
Whats the point? Prizes for: Egg that most resembles the owner, Happiest little mess, Best egg lander design, ‘The James Award’ and egg lander made of most edible material.
The idea is to try _NOT_ to break your egg by making a special little landing pod.
Enjoy!
Steve 'E* is also a religious holiday lest we forget' Hudziak
Next wednesday, 21st of March, Dr Bill Gillin will be giving speaking on 'Organic Optoelectronics' on behalf of PsiStar. Here is a short abstract:
Organic materials (plastics) are being increasingly used for a range of applications from diodes for displays to transistors for radio frequency tagging or biological sensors. This talk will introduce some of the work being done at QMUL on organic optoelectronics. This includes research towards making optical amplifiers and lasers and recent results on modifying the optical and electrical performance of devices using magnetic fields.
Our talk will be held in room 112 with a start time of 2.30pm. All welcome, non-PsiStar members are asked to donate £1 if they would like any of the refreshments made available.
You may be aware because I've hassled you already, but for those not aware, 14th March is Pi Day!
Some Pi facts....
~ Pi is an imaginary, transcendental number. ~ Pi is defined as the circumference of a circle divided by it's diameter, but can also be detemined through various geometric progressions and summations. ~ Calculating decimal places of pi is used as a test for new supercomputers. ~ Currently, pi has been determined to over a trillion decimal places. ~ The value of pi has been a known quantity since the 19th century BC but the greek letter pi was first associated with the value in 1706. This practise was popularised by Euler ~ March 14th is also Einstein's birthday. Pi is used in the formula for the calculation of Einstein's Cosmological Constant. ~ 22nd of July is Pi Approximation Day, as Pi is approximately 22/7 ~ In The Bible, Kings 1 7:23, it is claimed that Pi = 3. ~ Calculating the circumference of the Earth at the equator from it's radius and using Pi to only 10 dp yields an error of only 0.2mm ~ In 1610, German mathematician Ludolph van Ceulen calculated Pi to 35 decimal places and was so proud of his achievement, he had them inscribed on his tombstone. ~ Pi to 50 dp: 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510
And lastly, only in America: ~ In 1897, the Indiana General Assembly passed a bill deducing that pi = 3.2. The Indiana Senate posponed the Bill indefinitely, preventing it from becoming law.
Dr Eram Rizvi has kindly made available his recent talk on Hera to the LHC and I've just uploaded it to the site.
It can be found here in pdf and here in open office format.
Any problems opening the files let me know. When the past events page is updated I shall add a link there next to the date of the talk to enable the downloading if people miss this news post.
Our seminar this Wednesday (7th) will be given by Dr Eram Rizvi from our particle physics group. Abstract as follows:
From HERA to the LHC
In July 2007 the HERA electron-proton collider will shutdown after 15 years of operation. It has provided us with a wealth of information on the behaviour of fundamental particles including searches of new exotic phenomena. However the legacy of HERA will be the map of the proton it has provided, by studying the interactions of quantum chromo-dynamics and the structure of the proton at the smallest distance scales achievable. This will be a crucial input to understanding the data from the LHC proton-proton collider which will switch on in December 2007 for the first time after a 20 year period of planning, design and construction. It will open up a new energy domain with the possibility of finding new physics Beyond the Standard Model.
We aim to start at 2.15pm promptly in the Physics Lecture Theatre (PLT), some refreshments will be available from 2pm and after the talk. The talk is free for anyone to attend, but non-PsiStar members are asked to contribute £1 if they want some food.
Greetings once again from PsiStar. We know its been quiet for a while and you probably miss your weekly emails from us, sorry about that...
Anyway onto some business: This coming Wednesday (7th) PsiStar invite you to our seminar/talk/jaffa cake meeting in the PLT ((P)hysics (L)ecture (T)heatre) from 2pm. The talk will start at 2.30pm and will be given by Dr Eram Rizvi, a member of our Particle Physics group working on the H1 experiment (http://www-h1.desy.de/). Before, during and after the talk feel free to snack on some fine cuisine (maybe pizza, probably jaffa cakes = student type food) which is as always free to PsiStar members and friends of PsiStar, and £1 for anyone else. More information will follow...
One more thing, it will soon be time for us to have our AGM ((A)nnual (G)eneral (M)eeting), this is where we get together over pizza and jaffa cakes and discuss the year in full with ideas for next year. It is also where next years committee will be elected, so if you want to run for president, treasurer, spanker or something completely new that we may or may not need/want/heard of before then now is the time to think about getting together a good argument to win the votes! Look out for further emails confirming the dates...
Thats all for now, except to say Happy (belated) Birthday to Rosie Rosling!
Ciao
Steve 'I'm gonna miss next weeks seminar 'cause I'll be in NYC (N)ew (Y)ork (C)ity)' Hudziak
