English Press Releases
Prague, July 17, 2020 – ICHEP 2020, the biggest specialized conference on particle physics, will this year take place only on-line. However, please note that there will be an extra-ordinary program for the general public on the borderline between physics, philosophy and art, which will be accessible for absolutely everybody.
Conferences in the ICHEP series traditionally offer a broad-ranging accompanying program for the public. The organizers have decided keep this tradition going again this year, although the conference has been transferred in its entirety to an internet environment. For the first time ever, the day for the general public will be fully digital. Absolutely anyone, with no restriction on numbers of participants, can join in a single experiment that will not just be entertaining and will perhaps inspire some further thinking, but will at the same time test the technological capability of the present-day internet. We will join together to test what the internet can withstand!
The first sharp test will run on August 3, 2020, in the form of a public lecture by Nobel Prize laureate Barry Barish, who participated in the discovery of gravitational waves. Anyone interested in participating in this, or in any of the other activities, can find further information on https://ichep2020.org/general-public.htm.
The main part of the program begins on August 5, 2020, under the title The Big Bang Stage. Any similarity with the name of the famous series is not by chance. However, this time the main theme will be a practical exercise on the Big Internet Bang. It will begin with a live transmission of visit to the ATLAS experiment, coming directly from CERN. The detector itself is an imposing work of technology. All participants in the virtual visit will be able to ask questions to the on-site specialists.
Another very interesting event will be the premiere of A Day with Particles (Den s částicemi), a partly animated film that shows a typical day in the life of a Czech particle physicist. This will be followed by a transmission from Badminton School, a secondary school in Great Britain, where the students have prepared an interesting physical experiment that everybody can work on together with them.
This will be followed by a live internet broadcast, in which the latest knowledge in the field of acoustics will be applied, together with some elements of artificial intelligence. Topher White, CEO of the non-profit Rainforest Connection, carries out a program called The Internet of Wild Things: Acoustics & A.I. Sounds from the primeval rainforests are transmitted in real time via mobile telecommunications, and enable us to understand the speech of the rainforest in its positive and negative contexts.
This year’s ICHEP was originally to have been held in the Czech Republic, and for this reason a further part of the Internet Big Bang will show the spirit of the host country. Martin Rybář, from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, will talk about the physics of beer, with some practical demonstrations. He has prepared some experiments that everyone can carry out together with him at home. Just make sure that you have all the necessary items, in particular two full bottles and three full cans…
Since high-energy physics is not only to do with the microworld, but also deals with the most distant objects in space, The Big Bang Stage on-line will go on to recall some breakthrough moments within the past 60 years of the space conquest, for example the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier will speak about it, and he will also answer questions from viewers.
In the evening, another separate two-hour block will begin, under the title Universal Science. A series of talks on, for example, dark matter, and the future of particle physics will be supplemented by a discussion, transmitted live, that viewers can also join in.
The final item in the program is Virtual Mixer, contributed by Steve Goldfarb, from the University of Melbourne. Laymen and particle physicists, wherever they are in the world, will be able to come together.
Links to all on-line activities, and also more detailed information, can be found on https://ichep2020.org/general-public.htm.
If you would prefer a personal encounter with physics and art, another option is available. On August 6, 2020, in the evening, the Cross Club in Prague will be live-streaming from CERN the Colliderscope Music audio-visual show, with DJ Lawrence Lee from Harvard University (USA). This transmission will be preceded by a program with physical experiments prepared in collaboration of Charles University, the Czech Technical University in Prague, and the Úžasné divadlo fyziky (ÚDiF) theatre group.
The ICHEP 2020 conference, supported by the Center for Advanced Applied Natural Sciences at the Czech Technical University in Prague, no. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16-019/0000778, co-funded by the European Union, is organized at national level by institutions with major activities in the field of research on particle physics. These are Charles University, the Czech Technical University in Prague, the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Palacky University Olomouc, the Technical University of Liberec, and the West Bohemian University in Plzen. The chairman of the organizing committee is Prof. Zdeněk Doležal, from the Institute of Particle and Nuclear Physics of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University.
More detailed information and the latest updates can be found on ichep2020.org, or on social networks on @ICHEP2020.
Media contact person:
Prof. Zdeněk Doležal
+420 731 039 464
