Dr Claire Lee will be at Scifest to share her knowledge about particle physics
South African particle physicist Dr Claire Lee will be at Scifest Africa’s 21st anniversary celebrations from March 8-14. Lee is currently working on an experiment in Switzerland — a very big, very exclusive project at the Large Hadron Collider designed to find something that is so small that it might not even be there.
Lee will be at Scifest to give this year’s Christina Scott Memorial Lecture, which takes place on Saturday March 11 with the support of the Embassy of Switzerland. Her lecture The Building Blocks of the Universe — from Quarks to the Cosmos, will be about her work in the Atlas physics experiment.
Set up in a cavern 100m below a small Swiss village, the 7 000-ton Atlas detector is searching for fundamental particles in the collisions taking place within the Large Hadron Collider. The experiment seems so improbable that a reporter in The Guardian wrote, “Particle physics is the unbelievable in pursuit of the unimaginable. To pinpoint the smallest fragments of the universe you have to build the biggest machine in the world.”
Lee says that in order to understand the universe we need to understand the building blocks, and how all the pieces fit together. A problem she notes is that there really is still a lot we do not know. “Everything we do know only makes up about 5% of the universe,” she explains. “What is the other 95% of the universe made of?”
Communicating her work is important to Lee because she believes that science is not only for scientists.“Science is something that every single one of us is born with: a natural curiosity to understand the universe,” she says. “I believe that everyone should be able to access this.”
Another big science project to be showcased at this year’s Scifest Africa is the Square Kilometre Array’s (SKA) radio telescope in the Northern Cape. Dr Lindsay Magnus, chief scientist at SKA South Africa, will present the intriguingly titled lecture Seeing stars in dirty pictures: Life as a radio astronomer in the Karoo.
The SKA is an international collaboration to build the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope. It will have a collecting area of one square kilometre, and will consist of thousands of receptor dishes located across Africa and aperture array antennas located in Australia and New Zealand.
SKA South Africa is currently constructing the MeerKAT radio telescope, consisting of 64 receptors, 90km outside Carnarvon in the Northern Cape. MeerKAT is a precursor to the SKA and will be integrated into SKA Phase 1.
The Karoo was selected as the ideal site for the construction of the radio telescope because there is minimal interference from cellphones, electronic devices and vehicles that can disrupt weak radio signals coming in from the far reaches of the universe. While the isolation is perfect for radio astronomy, it can prove challenging for the astronomers who have to work on site. Magnus will share with audiences his experiences, outlining how people cope with living in a scorched semi-desert far from the big cities they are accustomed to.
In his presentation, he will also explain the basics of radio astronomy and how vast amounts of information gathered from the array will be collected and made available to scientists in other parts of the world.
This lecture, supported by the Square Kilometre Array SA, will leave audiences enthralled with how much progress has been achieved and how much still lies ahead for the world’s largest science project.
Through the continued support from the department of science and technology, Scifest Africa will celebrate its 21st year with a big, big bang and an inspiring and educational experience for everyone. Look out for the electronic programme available at www.scifest.org.za. Ticket bookings can be made at www.tickethut.co.za/scifes or for telephonic bookings contact 0860002004.