texas a&m university invites audiences across texas the nation and even the world to get up-close and personal with science and technology this spring at the 2020 physics & engineering festival an entertaining and informative weekend scientific extravaganza for all ages no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event (view promotional poster online) scheduled for saturday april 4 from 10 am to 5 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building on the texas a&m campus activities will begin at 10 am with hands-on science exhibitions and engineering technology demonstrations and conclude with a 4 pm public lecture by ucla physics and astronomy chair dr david saltzberg who served as science consultant on the television situation comedy the big bang theory as well as the spin-off series young sheldon public lecture by ucla astrophysicist and the big bang theory science consultant dr david saltzberg; saturday (april 4) 4 pm primary lecture hall mitchell physics building (credit: david saltzberg) all events are hosted by the texas a&m department physics and astronomy in partnership with several other campus units including the departments of aerospace engineering chemistry mathematics biology and atmospheric sciences as well as the brazos valley museum of natural history throughout the day festival participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a square-wheeled bicycle run through a pool of cornstarch and try their hands at generating electricity or shooting balloons with lasers four of the more than 200 fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific and engineering technology-related concepts and principles all exhibits are manned by texas a&m faculty staff and students for the eighth consecutive year the festival will showcase dozens of exciting new demonstrations built by student teams affiliated with the deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) program hundreds of deep students undergraduate and graduate have been involved in creating the new demos during the years and many will be on hand to present their work adding to the traditional hands-on fun nasas driven to explore mobile exhibit featuring one of 10 touchable moon rocks in the world and other immersive multimedia experiences will be docked in parking lot 5 adjacent to the mitchell physics building bubble guy tom noddy will be featured in three action-packed performances (11 am 1 pm 2:30 pm) in the mitchell physics building primary lecture hall (credit: tom noddy) in addition to exhibits the daylong festival will feature three fantastic bubble magic show performances (11 am 1 pm 2:30 pm) by internationally acclaimed bubble artist and physics showman tom noddy also known as the bubble guy whose exquisite bubbles lively humor and engaging sense of fun leave his audiences both delighted and intrigued attendees also will have the opportunity to meet nasa astronauts and texas a&m professors col michael fossum 80 and dr nancy currie-gregg fossum a veteran of three space flights with more than than 194 days in space and more than 48 hours in seven spacewalks to his credit during his 19 years as an astronaut officer aboard the international space station who now serves as a vice president of texas a&m and as chief operating officer of the texas a&m-galveston campus will present living & working in space: dream of a lifetime at 11 am in the stephen w hawking auditorium currie-gregg a professor of engineering practice at texas a&m since 2017 who accrued 1 000 hours in space as a mission specialist on four space shuttle missions and logged more than 4 000 flying hours in a variety of rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft will present biomedical challenges for human spaceflight at 2 pm in hawking auditorium nasa astronaut nancy j currie-gregg nasa astronaut col michael e fossum other special events on tap include pictures with reveille from 11 am to noon cyclotron institute tours large hadron collider virtual tours at 12:15 pm and 1:05 pm in hawking auditorium tours of 1996 nobel prize-winning texas a&m physicist dr david m lees laboratory and four performances of the low-temperature physics extravaganza at 10:30 am 12 pm 1:30 pm and 2:30 pm finally a texas-sixed five-barrel depth charge featuring 1 000 plastic balls and the texas a&m yell leaders will close out the exhibition portion of the show at 3:30 pm on the south side the mitchell physics building at 4 pm saltzberg will deliver a keynote presentation how did amy and sheldon win their nobel prize in the second-floor primary lecture hall of the mitchell physics building he will discuss his experiences putting his university of chicago physics phd to work in an industry seemingly far from his own as a science consultant helping the writers and other crew tell the story of the big bang theory guggenheim fellow and author richard panek will kick-start the weekends festivities with a public lecture my trouble with gravity (friday april 3 7 pm primary lecture hall mitchell physics building) prior to saturdays events guggenheim fellow and author richard panek will deliver a free public lecture my trouble with gravity on friday (april 3) at 7 pm also in the second-floor primary lecture hall of the mitchell physics building tickets are not required for the kickoff event in which panek will discuss his latest book the trouble with gravity: solving the mystery beneath our feet and what he learned about the role gravity plays in how we think about our place in the universe during his writing process all events are sponsored by the texas a&m university system the department of physics and astronomy the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy dr charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn exxonmobil the willard and anne levin foundation col hal schade 67 ahmed mahmoud 87 michele mobley 87 susan sheskey purna c murthy 88 cc creations schlotzskys college station and pepsi the event is a member of the science festival alliance for the latest details regarding the 2020 physics & engineering festival including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr tatiana erukhimova (979) 845-5644 or etanya@physicstamuedu the post physics & engineering festival set for april 4 appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: