Smith College - Physics

Summer internships in the lab!

Oops!

Magnet Fishing

The ten-way tie was judged a ten-way tie, so no one won the grand prize, a rare fishing monopole

Title for an upcoming thesis defense at Stockholm University: “why nothing matters: a tale of vacua in the early universe”

The journey is the reward !

Brain work : Stockholm University provides its grad students in the physics department with boxes of fresh fruit each day. Free to all (paid for by university). And as much coffee as they can drink. they are physicists and It is Sweden, after all.

Hooray for physics majors and the class of 2026!

Flight of fancy!

New Physics Model Helps Engineers To Create Nanoscopic Patterns, Just Like Butterflies Do A new model can help scientists predict the length of nanoscopic patterns and control them to create structural color in nanoengineering.

We thought they flew!

Tiny treadmills show how fruit flies walk A method to force fruit flies to move shows the insects’ stepping behavior and holds clues to other animals’ brains and movement.

Hey, we go outdoors. Sometimes. And when we do, we go outside at Smith!

FSU grad named new director of National MagLab in Tallahassee 'I am elated to be returning to my alma mater to run the world’s largest and highest-powered magnet lab,' Kathleen Amm said in a statement.

What Peter really wanted was an Ampere

This Pi Day Let's Celebrate The First Black Woman To Earn Her PhD In Mathematics | Essence In 1943, Martha Euphemia Lofton Haynes graduated from the Catholic University of America with her PhD in mathematics.

Physicists had better hair in those days!

🎂 Born in 1768, Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier made it possible to analyze a sound mathematically to determine its component frequencies known as a Fourier transform. Learn more in : https://go.aps.org/369AUuR.

Smith faculty and students regularly carry out experiments here. We’re excited to welcome Dr. Kathleen Amm as the new MagLab director.

Distinguished physicist Kathleen Amm named director of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory - Florida State University News Florida State University has named acclaimed researcher and industry leader Kathleen Amm as the new director of the National High […]

https://xkcd.com/2904

Physics vs. Magic

What about thermo-meter?

A three point shot makes a beautiful trajectory

FOUR-PEAT COMPLETE! Smith Topples Babson in NEWMAC Title Game - Smith College Athletics NORTHAMPTON - Senior Jessie Ruffner (Rocklin, Calif./Rocklin) scored 20 points with eight rebounds and five assists and the No. 2 seed Smith College basketball team (25-3) secured the program's fourth consecutive conference title with a 90-59 victory over fifth-seeded Babson (15-13) in the New Engla...

We were at CuWIP!

Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Whose 1967 Discovery of Pulsars Landed Her Supervisor a Nobel, Tells Young Physicists, “Don’t Second-Guess Yourself” CUWiP’s 2024 keynote speaker addressed thousands of attendees across the U.S.

Plenty to choose from- why limit yourself?

In honor of Taylor Swift's 34th birthday, here are 34 Taylor series.

Good thing physics is everywhere!

😂

Quite the reaction!

ON THIS DAY in 1942, the world’s first self-sustaining controlled nuclear chain reaction took place at the University of Chicago.

Here are 9 intriguing facts that you might not know about the world’s first controlled release of nuclear energy.

➡️ Chicago Pile-1 was the world’s first nuclear reactor to go critical.
➡️ 49 scientists led by Enrico Fermi, were present for the event. Leona Marshall was the lone female researcher.
➡️ The reactor was built with graphite blocks, some of which contained small disks of uranium.
➡️ Scientists monitored the reaction on instruments named after Winnie the Pooh characters—Piglet, Tigger and Pooh.
➡️ Scientist George Weil withdrew the cadmium-plated control rod unleashing the first controlled chain reaction.
➡️ The reactor had three sets of control rods. One was automatic and could be controlled from the balcony. Another was an emergency safety rod. The third rod (operated by Weil) actually held the reaction in check until it was withdrawn the proper distance.
➡️ The group celebrated with a bottle of Chianti that was poured into paper cups. Most of the participants signed the wine bottle’s label. This was the only written record of who had taken part in the experiment.
➡️ In the lead up to this experiment, a letter from Albert Einstein to President Franklin D. Roosevelt helped lead to the Manhattan Project—a government research project that produced the first atomic bombs. It was also the seed that grew into the modern U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory system.
➡️ The Energy Department’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is named in honor of Enrico Fermi for his contributions to nuclear physics and scientific success at nearby University of Chicago.

Get the drift?

Their subduction was timeless...

[Sgt Scholar Actual]

Got a second?

“I like to think of atoms as the world’s most exquisite and precise musical instruments! In atoms, the interplay between the forces exerted by protons, neutron and electrons — as well as gravitational, electric and magnetic fields — govern the movement and energy of electrons within the atom.”

-- NIST researcher Tara Fortier

We use atoms to define time, and the definition of the second will change in the coming years. Luckily, you likely won't notice. But your GPS may be able to pinpoint your location even more accurately, and we could see other advancements in communications and computing.

Take a second (the current version) to learn more with Tara in our latest Taking Measure blog post: https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/think-you-know-what-second-it-will-likely-change-next-decade

It’s an ongoing process- join us!

Smith College Earns Award From Physics and Astronomy SEA Change Program - AIP.ORG P/A SEA Change celebrates first awardee, opens applications for next cohort.

Is a card in order ?

These need to be a thing.

https://phys.org/news/2023-10-scientists-philosophers-nature-evolutionary-law.html

Scientists and philosophers identify nature's missing evolutionary law A paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes "a missing law of nature," recognizing for the first time an important norm within the natural world's workings.