Physics - Layer of Future Innovations for Society

On Sunday March 31, 2014 more than 5,000 highly trained physicists, students, PhD students, post docs, professors and industry representatives started to flock into the rather deserted campus of the Technical University Dresden (TU Dresden).

Spring time at HSZ, TU Dresden

Once again TU Dresden was hosting a meeting of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft (DPG), this time it is the DPG Spring Meeting 2014 of the Condensed Matter Section (SKM) which is held every three years in Dresden. And spring time is always a perfect time to meet in Dresden as the picture on the right hand side shows. Crops are just about coming out, and nature is getting colored once again.

During session SOE 17.6

One would imagine that this would be a physics-only event. Quite not so, as the sessions on biological physics (BP), physics of socio-economic systems (SOE) and the working group on Industry and Business (AIW) indicated. So certainly the offering to a wide range of interested participants, even outside the global physics community was amazing (all talks and presentations are held in English - for any curious participant a crash course in English as a "side-effect"). It wasn't that clear that system dynamics would play a role at all, as "stock and flow" was brought into the discussion by Hans Danielmeyer [German Wikipedia]. The connection to system dynamics becomes clearer as he visited Lincoln Laboratory in 1974 just around the time when Jay W. Forrester, who as an M.I.T. trained electrical engineer, conducted the research which finally led to the famous book "The Limits to Growth". This is what serendipity is called, and most likely occurs when attending a conference about a field one is not personally an expert in.

Working through the 500+ pages of the printed program is rather confusing for the first-timer, yet certainly sophisticated for the insider. Short abstracts explain all sessions that are offered, from plenary talks by known experts, such as Prof. em. Mildred Dresselhaus (here an interview in the New York Times), MIT, to PhD students presenting their ongoing research work to the audience. Of course the digital version is also available right here.

What became amazing during the five days, of which I only could focus on three days, but which showed once again (after my 2011 attendance) that new media is slowly trickling into the science community. It is still a tiny creek, but growing - three years ago I was the only one covering in real-time on twitter on the event, and possible "side connections" to other fields like arts. This time a team of HZB (Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin) had sent two people dedicated to cover some of their own sessions, and more.

Closing with just four short questions (called #PresencingStatus) and personal thoughts:

What was good? Once again a myriad of sessions that were not only exiting for the experts in the field of physics but also showed what physics is about; hashtag #DPGsm14 was put prominently on the press office door and on the website of the DPG Spring Meeting 2014 [h/t to press officer Dr. Michaela Lemmer]

What was tricky? Just a handful of visitors dedicated to use social media (but growing (!))

What have I learned? Physics is really more then physics !!! Once you get the motion just listening to the sessions (of the field you are not expert of), you see broader connections to fields you are personally involved

Next action? Spread the word about this conference, and come back in 2016 to Dresden; draw the connection to the #ISDC14 (the International System Dynamics Conference organized by the System Dynamics Society and the TU Delft in the Netherlands)

A few digital coverages (more online you know of - please let me know, and I embed these as well) about the DPG Spring Meeting 2014 in Dresden:

Storify by HTxA - High Tech x Agency
Storify by HZBzlog

Good Bye and see you in 2016 

Humans are Quite Like Electrons

...whooshing back and forth, sometimes drawn in and pulled to some new place in time and space.

Today the 5th day is slowly passing away, lots of the companies presenting their products for the experiments of the roughly 7.000 physicists here at the campus of the TU Dresden. Tonight the final public lecture, which is BTW public for everybody, will take place at HSZ01 (Audimax at Fritz-Förster-Platz). It will be about seriousness of scientific research - what a timely issue as the German Minister of Defense had to step back from office a couple of weeks back due to not follow these rules in doing his PhD.

And this is the strange thing which occurs when life is getting exiting: there seem to be more opportunities around than one could tackle.

Besides this talk tonight there is a talk about "Whether internationally well-known arts institutions like the Semperoper need marketing" and the FEP-Lounge at Fraunhofer FEP Institute.

Question: where should the "human electron" go?

Is it possible to switch between the three events?

Certainly not in standard means of communication or better said transportation. Teleportation would be the next big thing that comes to my mind. Anything in between, feasible right now and then?

Why not? Twitter, a crazy and amongst marketing experts and physicists not widely used or known communication tool of our days, could help out. Being at one space and at the same time being virtually in another one, getting a glance of what is happening there.

Staying connected via #DPG11 #feplounge #Semperoper - a real live experiment in the physics context!

Are you being part of the experiment? Welcome to this new experience between arts, physics, conferencing, and business :-)

... and so we leave this awesome and inspiring place with some impressions [video to follow shortly]

4th Day at #DPG11 in Dresden

Today, Wednesday 16th of March, the Technical University of Dresden has become a buzzing area in the city Dresden - pretty much outside the city center. What might draw some 7.000 physicists from around the world up here to the Southern parts of Dresden?

It is the 75th Annual Meeting and combined DPG Spring Meeting covering areas Atomic Physics, History of Physics, Biological Physics, Semiconductor Physics, and many more. In general fields that the "normal" citizen would not deal with on daily basis - besides using a mobile phone! Mobile phone technologies embodies quite a few outcomes of what is during this week is talked about in the several thousands of sessions. The program itself resembles -at first sight- more of a bigger city area phone book ;-)

Attended two press conferences - first on Monday the official kick-off one - by Prof. Wolfgang Sandner, president of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. Due to the recent developments at the Japanese nuclear plant #Fukushima the second press conference was fully on this topic yesterday at 11 AM.

Interesting to see what research is done in fields we are often are unaware, as we certainly don't see directly its implications to real life applications (even though the findings diffuse quite quickly into applications, like mobile phones, laptops, etc., that are becoming part of our life).

Yesterday at the official prize ceremony several scientists were honored for their outstanding work in the field. Besides these -men- one woman stood out: Hildegard Werth, science journalist at ZDF, Mainz. Special congratulations to her narrowing the gap between hightech research and daily life!

The hours race like electrons in Atto or Femto speed. So much to catch, one brain is just not able to bring all the interesting sessions together in broader context. The campus is just too big. How cool would be a TwitterWall in every venue with sessions - so in real-time one can grasp what is going on elsewhere. An idea for next year's conference here in Dresden - looking forward to it.

Earlier this afternoon at HSZ 01 (Audimax), where the room bursted almost as people streamed in to the sessions on philosophy and physics - this is really a big and general issue, to be applied also outside the physics world. Perhaps some videos to be on public later on YouTube.

During lunch I had the chance to talk briefly with Dr. Michael Jetter, University of Stuttgart, and Prof. Uwe Rossow, University Braunschweig. I mentioned a meeting I had earlier today, where the question occurred to bring more awareness about the "unseeable" physics into the world through performing arts. Also the question of whether research should focus on special outcome and applications. Unisono our view was that the researcher is more of an "artist" being left to his creativity to find unexplored new ways in the field without forced into a certain direction (driven by economic success). I wonder whether performances such as these can be used to facilitate this understanding in a broader sense (complementary to the work of Hildegard Werth).

... heading over to BEY118 to see interesting session.

... Elektronen rocken um die Wette

Aktuell: Mehr unter #DPG11 und Medienecho der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft

Heute Abend beginnt sie, die Frühjahrstagung der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft an der Technischen Universität Dresden. Ich werde die kommenden Tag live von dort berichten. Doch wird mein Physikwissen aus der Oberstufe von vor knapp 30 Jahren reichen, auch nur annähernd zu verstehen, um was es geht?

Die gleiche Frage stellte ich mir im vergangenen Herbst beim ersten bewussten Besuch einer Ballettaufführung des Semperoper Balletts. Ich hatte kurze Ausschnitte des angesprochenen Programms beim Preisträgerkonzert 2010 gesehen und mein neugieriges Entdeckerherz schlug höher. Ein paar Szenen und Töne hatten sich mir wie Kletten genähert und ließen mich nicht mehr los. Das so scheinbar Unbekannte hat stets die Chance, sich mit den eigenen Erfahrungen und dem in Kopf und Herz verborgenem Wissen zu verbinden. Dazu muss man es einfach auf ein Zusammentreffen ankommen lassen und "die Bereitschaft zur Innovation erhöhen und das Bewusstsein stärken..." (Dr. Ulrike Hessler, Intendantin der Sächsischen Staatsoper Semperoper Dresden im Vorwort der Saisonvorschau 2011/2012)

So wird es mir in den kommenden Tagen ganz ähnlich gehen, wenn ich in die Vorträge und Plenarsitzungen eintauchen werde und hier und auf Twitter bzw. Facebook meine Gedanken aufschreibe.

Im Kontext der kommenden Tage kommt mir die Semperoper wie ein "Turbobeschleuniger" oder "Hot Spot" vor, der "Altes und Neues, Tradition und Innovation, Nationales und Internationales.." (Dr. Ulrike Hessler, Intendantin der Sächsischen Staatsoper Semperoper Dresden im Vorwort der Saisonvorschau 2011/2012) verbindet - und das auf engstem Raum. Ein Mikrokosmos sozusagen! Erst vor einer Woche wurde mir dies wieder deutlich. Besonders Semperoper Ballett  mit der Performance "Silent Spring" steht dafür - das dynamische Zusammenspiel der 24 Ensemblemitglieder ließ immer wieder Erinnerungen an lang zurückliegende Physikunterrichtsstunden aufblitzen. Dies ermöglichte erst neue Denkmöglichkeitsräume, die in sich ständig beschleunigenden Zeiten wie diesen nötig sind, um mit den Veränderungen Schritt zu halten.

Dass Sachsen nicht nur ein Ort der Kultur und Geschichte ist sondern gerade und besonders (bedingt durch seine Geschichte) stets ein Ort der Zukunftstechnologie war, ist und sein wird, zeigte vergangene Woche das 10-jährige Jubiläum von Silicon Saxony, einem Zusammenschluss der IT- und Microchipunternehmen nebst seiner Zuliefererindustrie.

Und so wird sich zeigen, wie die unterschiedlichsten physikalischen Themen im größeren Kontext sich in Dresden über Grenzen verbinden lassen.

Themen der kommenden Tage werden sein:

Materialforschung und Quantencomputer
Bionik und Strahlentherapie
Sicherheitspolitik und Kalter Krieg
Elektromobilität und „Climate Engineering"
Finanzblasen und Massenbewegungen
... mehr

Am Montag, 14.03.2011, 20 Uhr sei der Einstein Slam empfohlen für alle Interessierten.