Published: August 14, 2008 11:04 pm      

EDUCATION: Students' art illustrates scientific principles

For those who think art and physics don’t mix, Lindsey Newton and Jennifer Rechin are out to prove them wrong.

The girls took part in the University at Buffalo’s Physics and Art Summer Institute, creating an interactive display at UB’s Physics Department. After learning about the principles of symmetry and broken symmetry, Newton and Rechin painted an artistic rendering of the theory that made it easy, or at least easier, to understand.

“Lindsey and I painted a symmetrical and an asymmetrical part,” Rechin said. “The first was symmetrical any way you look at it, from any angle.”

Underneath the perfect painting, the girls concealed a second work on half, created by splattering paint in the same colors used in the first.

With the help of Craig Uhrich, an instructor from the Depew School District, and some technically-minded folks at UB’s machine shop, a rod was installed that allows viewers to break the symmetry in the first painting by adding mass and causing the rod to bend. The symmetry of the first painting can be restored by removing the mass.

“It shows that to break symmetry, you have to do something to it,” Newton said.

The three-week workshop, led by Professor Doreen Wackeroth and sponsored by the National Science Foundation, taught students about the theories behind particle physics, special relativity and even black holes.

In particular, students learned about the Higgs mechanism, an as-of-yet unproved theory that explains spontaneous symmetry breaking. Even though scientists have found the evidence for the existence of the Higgs mechanism to be overwhelming, accelerators haven’t produced a Higgs particle.

The group visited Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Chicago, which is working on the problem.

“We had a whole tour of the place,” Newton said. “They have a particle accelerator there, and we didn’t get to see it, but we got to see parts of it.”

There is plenty of hope that the Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle accelerator located in Geneva, Switzerland, will find the Higgs particle when it begins smashing atoms in September.

Wackeroth said those experiments will help scientists broaden their understanding of basic scientific questions, attempting to discover the smallest building blocks of matter.

“Since the Higgs particle is thought to be responsible for the masses of all particles, these efforts ultimately aim at solving one of the great mysteries of particle physics: Why do particles have mass?” Wackeroth said.

While all of those facts were a lot to take in, breaking it down into art has helped streamline and simplify all of the complex ideas, Rechin said.

“After the last few weeks, I definitely have a better understanding of the Higgs mechanism,” Rechin said.

In addition to their artistic work, the students created a Web page, http://www.physics.buffalo.edu/ubexpo, and a tour that people can take to explore physics theories in a gallery-type setting.

The students opened the new exhibit Monday to family and friends at a reception. Displays from previous sessions are also included in the exhibit.

The exhibit is open to the public so others can more easily gain the understanding it took students weeks to distill into their artwork. To make an appointment to see the exhibit, contact the Department of Physics at 645-2017.

Contact reporter Daniel Pyeat 693-1000, ext. 158.