Safety poster contest
winners' work on display

Angel Lootens, 9, first place in poster contest

The winning posters from the Traffic Safety Subcommittee's poster contest are now on display in the west stairwell of the Wilson Hall atrium.

They will remain on display until Jan. 2

The contest was open to fourth and fifth grade relatives of Fermilab employees or affiliates. The poster contest was an effort by the subcommittee to increase traffic safety awareness at the laboratory.

Andrew Johnson, 11, second place in poster contest

Prizes were awarded to three winners. Angel Lootens, fourth grade, son of BSS employee Jennifer Lootens, won first place for his poster "Watch out for deer." Andrew Johnson, fifth grade, grandson of Roads and Grounds employee Robert Lootens, won second place for his poster "Watch out for bikers."

Jacob Olah, 11, third place in poster contest

Fermilab Art Gallery to hold reception on Friday

Art works by Nancy Staszak, such as the one above, are featured in the current Art Gallery exhibit.

The Fermilab Art Gallery will open its new show, "Small Works," with an artist reception, open to the public, on Friday, Dec. 5, from 5 to 7 p.m. The show includes miniature ceramic pieces from the 2008 International Orton Cone Box Show along with petite paintings and prints by local artists Ed Cook, Nancy D'Agostino, Juliette Herwitt, Nancy Staszak, Sadia Uqaili and Anne Von Ehr.

The local artists will attend the reception.

The challenge of working on a small scale is creating a piece interesting enough to make people want to walk up to it and examine it, said Georgia Schwender, curator of the gallery.

"I love the intimacy of small pieces," Schwender said. "Galleries tend to exhibit larger works. I thought the contrast of smaller works would be interesting."

Many of the paintings and prints depict rustic scenes and slices of urban life.

Each ceramic piece in the show won its spot by placing in the 2008 International Orton Cone Box Show, a biannual competition that began in the early 1970s. Ceramics entered into the show must be no larger than a 3- by 3- by 6-inch standard Orton cone box, a container for pyrometric cones, which measure the effect of heat in a sculptor's kiln.

-- Kathryn Grim

The symmetry challenge: Physics on a napkin

Send in your physics-on-a-napkin (or envelope or surface of choice) to enter the symmetry challenge.

We've all heard the stories of great ideas first scribbled down in a bar on any convenient surface, often a cocktail napkin. We've also heard many cases of colleagues in bars asked to describe just what it is they do. Lacking a whiteboard or chalkboard to draw on, and the cocktail napkin comes to the rescue again.

So here's the challenge: Describe your own physics research in 60 seconds, along with a photo, scan, or the original of a cocktail napkin with whatever scrawlings help tell your story. The explanation can be in the form of a 60-second audio or video file or up to 200 words of text. E-mail entries to symmetry or mail them care of David Harris, Communications Office, SLAC National Accelerator Center, MS 58, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025.

Symmetry will send a prize to the author of the clearest, most entertaining entry and explanation and show a selection of the best in the magazine.

UChicago open house, holiday lecture Saturday

Sidney Nagel, Univeristy of Chicago physics professor, gives a demonstration

The University of Chicago will host "Physics with a Bang!!" a holiday lecture and open house on Saturday, Dec. 6. Children, families and the curious can attend to see loud, fast, beautiful and surprising physics demonstrations, tour research laboratories and participate in hands-on activities.

The open house will take place at the Kersten Physics Teaching Center from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. The lecture will take place at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. See the event flier for more information.