7 Aug 2010 16:36, James Erdem

I am a 12 year old quantum physicist. There is this one thing that has been bothering me for a long time. That is the Two Slit Trick. I doubt many of you have heard of it before so i will explain it to you. Imagine two walls one behind the other. Then imagine two slits in the first wall one on top of the other. Then if you get an atom gun (not sure what it is called help appreciated) and fire it through the two slits, the atoms will go through and create an interface pattern on the back walls. However if you put a sensor behind the first wall and then use the atom gun again, the atoms will go through in an other form that is like a particle form. Now I’m wondering why the atoms change form when confronted by a sensor. There was a French person that came to England saying all materials have a wavelength. I think this is the problem. If wavelengths cancel each other out then this might be the answer. Maybe when the atoms go through the slit, the sensor’s wavelength cancels out the atom’s wavelength so the atom changes form. This is just an idea so feel free to leave some comments.

18 Jul 2012 20:33, Ruud Wijdeven

Biomeeter: find your way in the world of conferences

Presenting your data at conferences is key for doing good science. However, finding the right conference can be as challenging as the actual experiments. Especially when you work interdisciplinary there is a lack of overview of what is organized and where. We scientists mostly rely on the occasional mail from our supervisor for our meeting ideas. Or on the few meeting posters that litter the hallway, who looks at them anyway.

So we thought it was time to do it differently. At least in biology and medicine for now. With some PhD students we’ve set up a new tool called biomeeter.com, a website that provides an overview of conferences organized in the different fields of biology. Now over 600 meetings can be found here, among which the meetings of the large organizers like Gordon, Keystone and EMBO. And new meetings are added every day.

We want to get the database complete by keeping the website open source. This means everybody can freely add a meeting. We will then check and categorize it to ensure the quality of the website. You can easily search by category, but also by keyword and location. So if you’ve always wanted to go to Singapore; here’s your chance to find a reason for it.

We’re still trying to optimize the usability so any feedback is more than welcome! And if you like it: spread the word to your friends. Because the more people know about it the more meetings will be in the database. We hope it can help you!

cheers,

Ruud Wijdeven
PhD students at the Netherlands Cancer Institute
Reach us at biomeeter@gmail.com, @biomeettweet