Month: May 2016

2016-05-29 (Söndag)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Idag lärde jag mig, att:

Den stora partikelreaktorn Large Hadron Collider (LHC) vid Cern i Schweiz fortsätter att producera intressanta resultat, som kanske kan komma att visa sig väl så viktiga som bekräftelsen av Higgspartikeln i juli 2012.

Efter en uppgradering så kan LHC nu åstadkomma ännu högre energinivåer och nu har det observerats något som man ännu inte vet vad det kan vara. Om man kan repetera resultaten så kan man också kan komma närmare på spåren om vad denna partikel är för något. Kanske är det den första partikeln i en ny grupp av tunga partiklar, eller är det en slags ny Higgsliknande partikel, 6 gånger så tung som den tidigare? Lyssna på Vetandets värld, referens 1 nedan, och läs mer i Chalmersartikeln i referens 2.

LHC

En bild på Atlas-detektorn, som registrerar och mäter de partiklar som genereras i den 27 km långa Large Hadron Collider, lokaliserad på gränsen mellan Schweiz och Frankrike.

På onsdags i nästa vecka, 2016-06-01, är det så dags att inviga världens längsta järnvägstunnel, Gotthardstunneln. Det rör sig egentligen om två parallella tunnlar på hela 57 km vardera som har byggts under 17 år mellan Schweiz och Italien. Invigningen kommer att förrättas av invånarna i byarna i tunnelns ändpunkter som kommer att närvara på de två tåg som samtidigt kommer att färdas genom tunnlarna i motsatta riktningar. Lyssna till historien på Vetandets värld, referens nummer 3 nedan.

Gotthard

Den nya Gotthardtunneln har sina portaler vid Alpernas fot. Foto: Mats Carlsson-Lenart

… Slut för idag, tack för idag !

Refs.:

1: Partikeln som kan förändra fysiken

2: Hints of unknown elementary particle explained using Swedish theory

3: Världens längsta järnvägstunnel går under Alperna

+: What did you learn in school today ?

2016-05-22 (Sunday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

The Brazilian-Swedish seminar I attended earlier this week, see my post of 2016-05-18 , was in fact the fifth of the same type that SACF (Swedish Academic Collaboration Forum) arranged. Earlier, it had been hosted in Korea, Singapore, China, and Indonesia, all with the aim to promote the exchange of ideas and opinions in academic matters and scientific research. In February, 2017, there is planned another event, where the participating countries of these five seminars will gather in Stockholm, Sweden, for a follow-up.

Today, I will concentrate on the seminar in Brazil and hope to be able to comment on the earlier four on a later occasion. The two days in Brasília were packed with interesting presentations and networking opportunities. And the earlier weeks of commotion in the federal capital could not be seen here, on the contrary. There were many positive and inspiring comments on what happens when Brazilians and Swedes join forces in advancing the frontiers of science.

Basically, there were four kinds of seminars in one:

  • Top level management sessions, where the most prominent representatives from the Brazilian and Swedish universities discussed “Internationalisation and Collaboration in Higher Education”, “Funding for promoting world class research collaboration”, and “Brazil-Sweden: Importance of University & Industry collaboration”.
  • 5 different series of academic sessions, namely “Imaging and Visualization in Life Science”, “Novel Functional Materials and Nanotechnology” (2 parallel sessions due to the number of topics presented),”Inclusive Education: Gender & Ethnicity”, “Sustainable Development: Energy, Environment and Biodiversity”, and “Machine Intelligence and Autonomy” (also 2 parallel sessions due to the number of topics presented).
  • A funding seminar, where funding agencies and universities interchanged ideas and suggestions about various aspects of funding of scientific research.
  • An innovation seminar, where the Swedish innovation agency Vinnova presented programs for funding and gave various examples of successful Swedish-Brazilian projects.

I decided to dedicate my time of the academic sessions to learn more about new materials and nanotechnology, to follow up the knowledge I had acquired through the MOOC about graphene in 2015, see also my post of 2016-02-01. Below are some pictures I took of the event.

I wish to extend my sincere gratitude for inviting me, to the organizers of this extra ordinary seminar with so many brilliant minds gathered in one place, Gustaf Cars (Uppsala University), Helena Balogh (Linköping University), and Åsa Valadi (Chalmers University of Technology)!

CAPES

Update 2016-05-29:

On the web site of CAPES, there is further information, with photos, of the two days of seminar. Please consult references #2 and 3 below.

Finally, I just learned that the mysterious first chord of the Beatles song from 1964,”A hard day’s night”, in fact are three different chords, played by George Harrison, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, joined into one. That is what I call a perfect cooperation project! Reference #1 below, in Portuguese, presents all the facts behind this Magical Mystery Chord, with images and video clips.

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: Um acorde mágico dos Beatles revelado depois de 52 anos de mistério

2: Capes recebe Seminário de Excelência Brasil-Suécia

3: Brasil e Suécia pretendem intensificar cooperação científica entre os dois países

+: What did you learn in school today ?

2016-05-18 (Wednesday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

Although two countries are very distant from each other, they can still learn a lot from each other if they cooperate. That is definitely the case of Sweden and Brazil. I was invited by SACF (The Swedish Academic Collaboration Forum) to participate in a scientific seminar of excellence in Brasília, the federal capital of Brazil. It started yesterday with six different topics, held concurrently, and will continue today. I am participating in topic #2, which deals with ´Novel Functional Materials and Nanotechnology´ and will return later this week with a resume of it. See also reference #1 below. The following photo shows some of the famous buildings of Brasília, taken at sundown yesterday.

Planalto2016

Today is the day when we congratulate persons named Erik, since May 18 is his day. I am proud to have a father (in memoriam), a son, and a nephew who all are named Erik, as well as a Norwegian friend called Eirik, the Norwegian variant of the same old Nordic name, as you can see in reference #2 below. And I also would like to include my daughter Karina in the celebration, because she just received a MENÇÃO HONROSA (“HONORARY MENTION”) from her school, Instituto Federal do Paraná. Congratulations to you all!

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: Top Brazilian and Swedish universities join together for the fifth SACF Excellence Seminar

2: Behind the name Erik

2016-05-08 (Sunday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

Exactly 71 years ago, the World War II ended in Europe. And on the 25-year celebrations on 1970-05-08, I was in Berlin for the first time, together with colleagues and teachers in the final month of elementary school.

It was a fascinating journey, with ferry from Trelleborg to Sassnitz, and from there train through East Germany to West Berlin. One day, we took the S-Bahn into East Berlin and transposed the Berlin Wall. Once there, a colleague and I interviewed people on the streets about life in the East! And on the very day of the war end anniversary, there were of course heavy demonstrations about the current state of division of the German peoples. The following day, we also visited the Olympiastadion, where the West German football squad played against Ireland, resulting in a 2-1 win. Although the German team, coached by Helmut Schön, had top players such as Berti Vogts, Jürgen Grabowski, Wolfgang Overath, Gerd Müller, Franz Beckenbauer and Uwe Seeler, the game was a tough fight. Full details can be found in reference # 1 below.

Then it would take 37 years until I returned to Berlin. The Wall was gone, although quite some things reminded me of what had been. I went on a very interesting sightseeing tour, with guide on foot. The whole event was scheduled to take 4 hours, but we had so many interesting questions that it was prolonged for 2 more hours! Today’s header image shows Berlin’s #1 symbol, Brandenburger Tor, and below are some other photos I took that day. The memorial of the holocaust is located close to there, and just beside the place where Hitler had his ultimate bunker. Seeing those stones, to signify all the people exterminated in the concentration camps, made a deep and very distressing impression on me. See also the other references below for more details about the most interesting city, and I dare to say, Europe´s de facto capital, Berlin.

Berlin25

4 photos I took on 2007-06-09. In the left column, from top to bottom: – The holocaust memorial; – A plate showing where the Berlin Wall used to divide the West and the East during more than 28 years; – Part of the original Berlin Wall. In the right column: Checkpoint Charlie, the famous crossing between West and East Berlin.

Finally, although I am not very fond of the American way of life, I must admit there are many interesting, creative people there. The web site CreativeLive is paying a tribute to some of them, through a series of video interviews, during the month of May, called 30 days of Genius. See reference # 6 below with a link to a subscription to the series, free of charge.

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: West German football team defeated Republic of Ireland 2:1, 9 May 1970

2: Brandenburger Tor

3: Holocaust memorial

4: Berlin Wall

5: Checkpoint Charlie

6: 30 days of Genius

+: What did you learn in school today ?

2016-05-07 (Lördag)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Idag lärde jag mig, att:

I tisdags, 2016-05-03, fyllde Wikipedias svenska webbplats 15 år, STORT GRATTIS! Utav alla språkversioner av Wikipedia är faktiskt den svenska den näst största med över tre miljoner artiklar. Men det är inte bara jag som använder Wikipedia för att leta efter bakgrundsmaterial till mina blogginlägg, utan den tjänar också som en viktig webbplats för dem som vill hålla sig uppdaterade över aktuell forskning. Referenserna nummer 1 och 2 nedan kan ge mer intressanta uppgifter om det.

Jimmy Wales & Larry Sanger

Wikipedia grundare, Jimmy Wales (till vänster, foto Lane Hartwell, http://www.fetching.net), och Larry Sanger (till höger, foto http://www.larrysanger.org/lsanger02.jpg)

Till sist skulle jag vilja ge några goda (?) råd till Mona Sahlin och Jan Björklund:

Mona, du har valt fel land att verka i som politiker. Se på Brasilien, här kan underhusets talman bli ertappad med miljoner på schweiziska banker och ändå bara bli avstängd på beslut av Högsta Domstolen. Ingen risk att någon skulle höja ett ögonbryn för några Toblerone på ett statligt kreditkort eller en felaktig inkomstuppgift i ett certifikat!

Jan, varför inte föreslå en mobilregel i svenska skolor lik den brasilianska? Om någon elev ertappas med att använda sin nalle under en lektion, så blir den omhändertagen och endast återlämnad efter det att föräldrarna ger sitt medgivande. Ett fint tillfälle att låta en trilskande son/dotter bli ångerfull för t.ex. en vecka!

… Slut för idag, tack för idag!

Refs.:

1: Wikipedia – svenska forskares förlängda arm

2: Wikipedia på svenska

+: What did you learn in school today ?