ESS will be present at the 5th European Conference on Neutron Scattering in Prague, Czech Republic. There will be an exhibition stand with information about the next generation neutron source and, of course, several participants for the seminars.
On Friday and Saturday ESS is hosting a Satellite Meeting to the ECNS Conference where future ESS users will meet to give their input into the project.
The participants from ESS will report from the conference on the ESS@ECNS blog. You can follow that blog on "http://essatecns.wordpress.com" .
The theme for the ESS participation is Get Involved.
Today it's the 100th anniversary of the discovery of superconductivity by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes in Leiden. In order to celebrate this, a phenomenal tutorial web site on superconductivity has been produced in a collaboration between The Institut de Physique du CNRS; The Société Française de Physique et sa section Paris-Sud; TheRéseau thématique de recherche avancée « Triangle de la Physique.
Despite its chilly nature, superconductivity is a hot topic at ESS. Superconducting materials can carry large amounts of electric current without loss but so far only at rather impractical low temperatures. Neutron diffraction has been at the forefront of research into superconductivity, paving the way for new materials that are superconducting at normal temperatures. With green-energy production, it is crucial to use energy efficiently. One route to minimising energy loss is by using materials that conduct electricity without resistance. Superconductors can play a key role for power transmission in a sustainable society.
Read more about "The Superconducting City" in the ESS publication: Neutrons for Science
Karinh Eurenius is a post-doc at the University of Tokyo. She went there with her husband Jonas a year and a half ago. Before going to Tokyo, Karinh did her doctorate at Chalmers University in Gothenburg as a member of the neutron scattering groups there. She was a regular attendee at the Swedish Neutron Scattering Society meetings and had a strong interest in ESS. Mats Lindroos and I spent an evening with them in Tokyo last year and enjoyed an unusual meal together with Kirin beer to wash it all down.
We thank her and her husband for their ready willingness to share their very affecting story of their experience of the earthquake, and we wish these two brave young people all the best as they pick up their lives again in Tokyo:
It all started on the 11th of March. We got up really early and walked together to the metro, which we never do; I like to walk to Tokyo University, which is north from Tsukiji where we live and since my husband Jonas works in a suit it tends to get way too hot, so he's always taking the underground. That Friday, it felt like we had to be together a bit extra, since we were expecting a visit from a good friend from Sweden in our tiny apartment.
I went to my boss straight away when I got to work, since he's normally in early in the morning. I had received declaration papers which needed to be ready and signed by the 15th, so it was important to get it done as soon as possible. Since we’ve been here for a while I know that papers + Japan always = a whole lot of hassle and time. I was advised to go back down to my ward office and sort it out directly: I was therefore contemplating taking my computer with me and work from home during the day. Due to prior plans I decided it'd be more practical to go back to university and finally pick up our visitor from Ueno at the end of the day, which is just next to Hongo campus. That was frankly bloody lucky.
All went perfectly fine and I just said goodbye to my lunch date Margareta and made it around the corner, when the ground started shaking/rocking back and forth; it was like being on a ferry when there's a storm. I was just underneath a set of electricity wires and the poles were moving almost 40 cm from side to side. The cars looked like they were in an RnB video, where pressurized air is let in and out, while this was swaying them from side to side. All of a sudden I was swiftly dragged into a small parking lot by an old couple, who of course had seen me standing there completely frozen under the wires. They probably decided they'd better save the stupid foreigner, who didn't understand it wasn’t entirely brilliant to stand there. The lady quickly dragged me down on my knees and showed me I had to put my handbag on my head and hold on to her and her husband, who in their turn held on to their neighbour. Alarms, which sounded like the flight alarms you'd hear in a movie, started going off and many of us, still on our hands and knees, lost balance.
"The world may be small, but the magic of the ballet world is infinite and embraces everyone who wants to be part of the world dance. It is about passion, love, trust and loyalty to your Terpsichore."
It is the evening of March 6th, and I am getting ready to become a part of this magic world myself, once again. This time though, it is slightly different. Instead of going to the opera house, I am going to “Lund Kino”, where the live broadcast of Don Quixote from Moscow Bolshoi theater is shown. Don Quixote is a stunning production, based on the epic masterpiece by Miguel de Cervantes, originally created for the Bolshoi by Marius Petipa in 1869 and I am very excited to get to see it, together with few of my colleagues and friends from ESS.
I arrive at the cinema, partially dressed up for an opera and partially for a cinema. The performance starts with several short gaps, but it is soon improves and we get a nice, high-definition quality of image and surround sound.
Watching a ballet on a screen is different than live ballet on a stage. At the end of the acts we want to clap, but it feels a bit strange to clap to the screen. However, some of the incredible acts completely capture me, and for some time I am a part of it, I am a part of the magic world of music and beauty. I forget that I’m not in a real opera, that I am not watching the real dancers and I clap. I want to get all the excitement out of myself and praise the talented dancers, whose performance is just astonishing.
The performance lasts for three hours (including two half hour breaks), although I can keep watching endlessly. But the wonderful evening is over. We are very happy and pleased with the ballet. Time to catch a bus now. This time of a day we get only one every 30 minutes...
Posted by: Karl McFaul in Untagged on
Mar 28, 2011
Enjoy this YouTube video with the ESS song, "Stories From The Sound", performed live by The Neutronics at the ESS, E.ON and Lund Energi world premiere presenting the unique ESS energy concept.
An act of true inspiration lead me to compose this song with music and lyrics celebrating the beautiful life around arts & science in the Øresund region in general and the fascinating work at the European Spallation Source in specific. During my travels to different cities and work places involved in this job, I get to meet so many fantastic, competent and kind people from all around the world who gathers here in the Øresund, working to create a place for openness, innovation and a sustainable way of life.
The song describes a little adventure around the mystery we're all so excited to build, operate, explore new things and do science with. It elaborates on our five senses, how research and innovation is driven by curiosity and the mix of different cultures. I've also managed to fit in the capital cities of all the sixteen partner countries involved in the fantastic ESS project.
I would like to thank my director Colin Carlile at ESS, the ESS energy team together with Lund Energi and Richard Bengtsson from E.ON who all paved the way for this musical piece and performance. I would also like to thank the great musicians Alexadra Hamnede, Sebastian Lilja, Peter Andrén and Marcus Liliequist for our magic team spirit and professional concentration, performing a completely new composition on such a short notice. And last but not least, I would like to thank all my colleagues at the multidisciplinary workplace of ESS for the creative spirit you fill my workdays with!
Today it's the 100th anniversary of the discovery of superconductivity by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes in Leiden. In order to celebrate this, a phenomenal tutorial web site on superconductivity has been produced in a collaboration between The Institut de Physique du CNRS; The Société Française de Physique et sa section Paris-Sud; TheRéseau thématique de recherche avancée « Triangle de la Physique.
It all started on the 11th of March. We got up really early and walked together to the metro, which we never do; I like to walk to Tokyo University, which is north from Tsukiji where we live and since my husband Jonas works in a suit it tends to get way too hot, so he's always taking the underground. That Friday, it felt like we had to be together a bit extra, since we were expecting a visit from a good friend from Sweden in our tiny apartment.
It is the evening of March 6th, and I am getting ready to become a part of this magic world myself, once again. This time though, it is slightly different. Instead of going to the opera house, I am going to “Lund Kino”, where the live broadcast of Don Quixote from Moscow Bolshoi theater is shown. Don Quixote is a stunning production, based on the epic masterpiece by Miguel de Cervantes, originally created for the Bolshoi by Marius Petipa in 1869 and I am very excited to get to see it, together with few of my colleagues and friends from ESS.