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Teens create art to explain particle physics
By ELLEN GOLDBAUM
Contributing Editor
If you’ve always wanted to know something about particle physics (but were afraid to ask), eight Western New York high school students have it covered, thanks to UB’s Physics and Arts Summer Institute.
Jenn Rechin (left)
and Lindsey Newton, both students at North Tonawanda High School,
created a symmetrical painting. The girls met in their high school
physics class.
PHOTO: NANCY J. PARISI
These students, proficient in both art and physics, have created artistic and interactive displays that are now on exhibit in the Department of Physics on the third floor of Fronczyk Hall, North Campus.
During the two-week institute, the students developed artistic and interactive displays, along with a Web page and a tour that members of the public can take. Educational and artistic displays from previous Physics and Arts Summer Institute sessions also are included in the exhibit.
The students unveiled the new exhibit Aug. 11 to family and friends at a reception.
The students focused their creations on the phenomena of “symmetry” and “symmetry breaking,” basic scientific questions that will be explored when the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, begins smashing atoms in September in Geneva, Switzerland.
According to Doreen Wackeroth, associate professor of physics, those experiments will help scientists deepen their understanding of the most basic questions in science, such as: What are the very smallest building blocks of matter?
The new pieces created by the high school students include abstract artwork that demonstrates artistic symmetry and an interactive magnetic heat engine that shows how some materials lose their magnetism when heated and then regain it when they cool down, a phenomenon similar to what scientists think happens when the infamous Higgs particle is formed.
“Since the Higgs particle is thought to be responsible for the masses of all particles, these efforts ultimately aim at solving one of the great mysteries of particle physics: Why do particles have mass?” explained Wackeroth, who runs the workshop with funding from the National Science Foundation.
UB faculty and staff who assisted Wackeroth with the institute were Kevin Cullinan, instructional support associate in the College of Arts and Sciences Machine Shop; Gary Nickard, professor of visual studies; and Dejan Stojkovic, assistant professor of physics. UB student James O’Leary also participated.
The exhibit is open to the public. To make an appointment to see the exhibit, contact the Department of Physics at 645-2017.