IDEO School visits IFIMAC
The IDEO School recently paid us a visit. Isabel Guillamón and Edwin Herrera welcomed first year Bachillerato students to introduce them to the fascinating world of atoms and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM). The students learned about the evolution of research in the field, explored semiconductors through a series of experiments, and visited several laboratories in the Condensed Matter Physics Department at IFIMAC. Researchers Hector González, Beatriz Viña, José David Bermúdez, Diego Expósito, Pablo García, Roberto Carrasco, José Antonio Moreno and Oscar Bou shared their research experiences in this field and explained more details about their projects.
Exploring Condensed Matter Physics from Príncipe de Asturias School: Science Workshops with IFIMAC
Researchers from IFIMAC have conducted condensed matter physics workshops with fifth and sixth-grade students from CEIP Príncipe de Asturias in Cantoblanco, thanks to the Cultural Transfer Grant from UAM in 2024. With the project “Exploring Condensed Matter Physics from Príncipe de Asturias School: Science Workshops with IFIMAC,” we have strengthened our scientific outreach activities and introduced a new initiative to connect with the primary education community in the Community of Madrid (CAM).
This pilot project at CEIP Príncipe de Asturias included five workshops:
1. The Scientific Method, a Great Ally! – Aimed at fifth and sixth-grade students, this workshop explores the concept of the scientific method: what it is and how it works. Students apply the method through practical examples, developing their scientific skills.
2. What is Matter Made Of? – In this workshop for fifth grade, students learn basic concepts such as atoms and molecules and how atoms are organized into molecules. Through practical activities, they create molecules and complex structures of metals like gold.
3. Laws of Motion – Also for fifth grade, this workshop covers Newton’s three laws of motion through practical examples. Students explore concepts such as acceleration, inertia, and invisible forces like gravity, applying them in interactive experiments.
4. Where Does Color Come From? – In this workshop for sixth grade, students reflect on what light is and how we perceive color. They explore the nature of color and the various ways it manifests in our everyday environment, gaining a better understanding of optical phenomena.
5. Science Gives You Wings – This workshop, also aimed at sixth-grade students, allows them to identify key forces in aerodynamics, such as lift, and discover the importance of shape and angle of attack in flight. They design aerodynamic planes and test them in flight experiments.Thanks to the Cultural Transfer Grant from UAM, our center has successfully fostered scientific curiosity through practical activities, introduced primary school students to condensed matter physics, and promoted critical thinking and observation of the world around us.
XXIV Madrid Science and Innovation Week
In the last edition of the XXIV Madrid Science and Innovation Week, IFIMAC presented two scientific workshops for the public: The workshop “La Buena Onda: A Musical and Luminous Workshop”, led by Elena del Valle, Arianna Barreto and Sofía Quiñonez, introduced participants to the fascinating world of physics by exploring the properties of light and sound. Participants created waves in a variety of media, including water, strings, feathers, air and even within themselves. Using musical instruments, bubbles and prisms, they experimented with the creation and behaviour of waves and gained an understanding of the physical principles behind everyday phenomena such as sound and colour. Each activity enriched their view of the world around them.
Meanwhile, Héctor González, Edwin Herrera, Paula Obladen, Jaime Rumeu, José David Bermúdez and Teresa García offered the workshop “CrioPresiónLab: Exploring the Power of Extreme Cold and Pressure Changes”, specially designed for high school students. In this workshop, young participants discovered the effects of low temperatures, experimented with magnetic levitation using superconductors, and observed changes in states of matter and gas dynamics using dry ice and liquid nitrogen. They also used a vacuum cannon to accelerate a table tennis ball to almost the speed of sound, showing science in action in a surprising and educational way.
These workshops provided hands-on and fun experiences that sparked curiosity and scientific interest in the participants, confirming the value of interactive activities in public science outreach.
With funding from the Ministry of Science and Innovation, State Research Agency, through the María de Maeztu Excellence Unit Accreditation Program (CEX2023-001316-M).
“Cuéntame 11F” – Interview with Upasana Das
Upasana Das talks about nanoscale energy transport in Cuéntame 11F. Upasana Das, PhD student at IFIMAC, has participated in Cuéntame 11F. Her research focuses on the study of charge transport in nanostructured materials. Specifically, she is investigating how nanoscale disorder affects the dynamic behaviour of energy charges. In her informative video ‘Seeing the invisible’, Upasana talks about how super-resolution microscopy techniques help us visualise these types of processes and how they can help us design better photovoltaic materials.
The European Researchers’ Night 2024
The European Researchers’ Night 2024 took place on 27 September in the Plaza Mayor of the Cantoblanco Campus. IFIMAC participated with its activity entitled “Cryolaboratory – let’s explore the magic of extreme cold”, with the collaboration of a team of researchers and students: Edwin Herrera, Hector González, Pablo García, Jose A. Moreno, Oscar Bou, Paula Obladen, Jose David Bermudez, Miguel Águeda and Jaime Rumeu.
During the event, participants observed how everyday objects such as flowers and fruit changed when immersed in liquid nitrogen (-196 C). We explored flash freezing to understand the states of matter. We also showed how cryogenics has improved transport with superconducting magnetic levitation, and studied the properties of dry ice (solid CO2), demonstrating its sublimation, i.e. its change from solid to gas without becoming liquid, through various experiments.
Workshop Elena del Valle and Arianna Barreto Padrón
On 31 May, Elena del Valle and Arianna Barreto Padrón held a workshop for students aged 4-7 at the school Virgen del Rosario in Soto del Real (Madrid).
With this workshop, Elena and Arianna help students to learn from their curiosity about the world around us, observing phenomena such as sound and light. They taught the students to discover their environment in a scientific way, asking questions and looking for answers.
During the activity, they learned about the scientific method and explored basic concepts related to waves, sound and light. For this, they used different elements, such as a water bath, strings, springs, musical instruments, bubbles and prisms, thus achieving an interactive and enriching educational experience.
8 March 2024: Madrid Es Ciencia Fair 2024
At our participation in the Madrid Es Ciencia Fair on 8 March 2024, attendees explored the fundamental concepts of light trapping in a workshop, immersing themselves in a journey through the physics of materials and the development of devices that harness light to revolutionize contemporary technologies. By creating two opposing mirrors, we created an infinite mirror that served as an analogy for the functioning of an optical cavity. We also presented a prototype developed in our laboratories, where we investigate new materials that interact significantly with photons trapped in microcavities.
10 February 2024: IFIMAC’s Physics Fair on International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2024
This year, on February 10th, we celebrated the International Day of Women and Girls in Science with a science fair held at the UAM Science Faculty. Over 220 attendees immersed themselves in the realms of soft and hard matter, and optics. Participants of all ages joined our researchers in engaging activities such as extracting DNA from a banana, constructing batteries, manipulating light, delving into nanomaterials, exploring low-temperature physics, and uncovering the mysteries of quantum physics in the classical world.
17 November 2023: Lab in your mobile
In this activity, we explored the world around us using the PhyPhox app on our mobiles. Paloma Arroyo Huidobro, Alejandro Caballero Domínguez, Amalia Coro, Jaime Echave-Sustaeta Osuna, Diego Martín Cano, Miguel Ángel Martínez García and Ferry Prins showed a series of experiments to learn about the different sensors in our smartphone and how it can be used as a small laboratory.
17 November 2023: Science and Popcorn – Introduction to light
In this activity, the students watched our video “Seriously, what exactelly is light?”. After some popcorn and a few questions, Carlos Antón Solanas and Carlos Sanchez Muñoz showed the students how light behaves and how its properties can help us discover the nature of things.
8 November 2023: Science and Popcorn – Introduction to 2D materials
In this activity, the students watched our video “How to Create a One Atom Thick Material and Why They Are Revolutionary“. After some popcorn and a few questions, Pablo Ares García, Yolanda Manzanares Negro and Beatriz Viña Bausa helped the students to exfoliate graphite to obtain monolayers, which they observed under the microscope. They went home with their own sample and new knowledge about 2D materials!
The European Researcher’s Night 2023
The European Researchers’ Night of 2023 took place on September 29th at Cantoblanco campus’s Plaza Mayor. IFIMAC participated with its activities under the title “Exploring the Energy of the Future,” with the collaboration of a team composed of researchers and students: Celia Polop Jorda, Ferry Prins, Jesús Diaz Sánchez, Enrique Arévalo Rodríguez, Amalia Coro González, Arturo Galindo Sanz, Laura Rojo Guerrero, Lucía Romero Sánchez, Lucía Mejía Sáez y Pablo Rivas Muro.
During the event, participants had the opportunity to build an electric battery using everyday materials, observing how the chemical energy stored in the battery was transformed into electrical energy when lighting a small LED.
Additionally, attendees were able to witness the operation of a solar car and test it by competing with other cars on a track illuminated by spotlights simulating sunlight. Participants learned about the conversion of light into charge carriers and how its energy is transformed into electricity to propel the car. Finally, the audience became acquainted with the latest advances in the field of photovoltaic energies through a demonstration of a light concentrator.
Promoting Science to Young Children
Promoting science to young children is a wonderful initiative that can stimulate their curiosity, encourage critical thinking, and foster a love of learning. IFIMAC members have conducted workshops at CEIP Alfredo Di Stefano and CEIP Principe de Asturias with children aged 4/5 and 6/7 respectively. The “Invisible Forces” workshop introduced the students to magnetism, electricity, and surface tension, while the “What is colour?” workshop explored light and how we can see different colours from its spectrum.
The International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2023
On Saturday, February 11, 2023, IFIMAC organized a series of workshops in the heart of Madrid (La Corrala, UAM) to celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This event brought together over 200 participants who had the opportunity to explore the fascinating fields of soft and hard matter and optics. The event provided an excellent opportunity to inspire curiosity and interest in science, welcoming people of all ages who engaged in our activities alongside our woman researchers. During the event, the audience had the chance to investigate the behavior of soft materials such as liquids and gels through practical experiments and to understand the impact of applications arising from this field of research. They also had the opportunity to explore the transformation of matter from one state to another with scientists in the “hard matter” workshop. In the optics workshop, participants played with light to uncover its secrets, spectrally separating light to reveal all its colors and unveiling some of the mysteries hidden in everyday objects like olive oil.
Celebrating Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023
In this video, Ferry Prins tells us more about the science behind the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Alexey Ekimov, “for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots.
Celebrating Nobel Prize in Physics 2023
In this video, Alicia Palacios tells us more about the science behind the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Anne L’Huillier, Ferenc Krausz and Pierre Agostini, “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter”.
How a Quantum Bit is made? Artificial Atoms
Quantum computers are a technological revolution… But, how exactly are they put into practice? How are quantum bits created in real life? In this video we will take a journey that will lead us to understanding the transmon, the qubit used by companies such as IBM or Google to make their quantum computers work.
Big thanks to Celia, Eduardo and Alfredo for their excellent work together with QuantumFracture!
Tip: Turn the online English subtitle in Youtube.
IFIMAC Day 2022 “10 years of IFIMAC” – Talks Session
“I would like to thank the IFIMAC researchers for their contribution to a very successful IFIMAC day in spite of the heat wave. It has been truly motivating to see so many young (and not so young…) faces eager to know about the activity of IFIMAC during the last 10 years and to present their current research. The Collaborative Projects have been one of the key activities funded by our Maria de Maeztu Research Excellence awards, and the talks showed how they have strongly contributed to create collaborations and synergies that are going to be crucial in our future. We really need the spirit shown by the IFIMAC researchers and their involvement in the centre’s activities to materialize the interesting opportunities that lay ahead.” – Rubén Pérez Pérez (IFIMAC Director)
Seriously, What Exactly Is Light?
Light is one of the most fascinating and enigmatic “substances” in the Universe. Is it a wave or a bunch of particles? Get ready, because today we take a journey through optics, electromagnetism and quantum physics.
How Did The Most Powerful Scanning Tunneling Microscope In The World End Up In Spain?
How was it possible to visualize atoms for the first time in the history? Development and application of microscopy from the beginning to the present.
Seriously, what is the Light?
Light is one of the most fascinating and enigmatic “substances” in the Universe. Is it a wave or a collection of particles? Get ready, because today we take a trip through optics, electromagnetism and quantum physics.
Superconductors and Superfluids in Action
In this video, we show superconductors and superfluids in action, and reveal the quantum origin of their striking mechanical properties.
Quantum material whose temperature is reduced if it is exposed to the sun
It is possible to manufacture a material with different layers, and also it is possible to change its emission of the electromagnetic waves to a point in which the air is not capable of absorbing its energy. In this way the material can be used as a cooling system.
How Did The Most Powerful Scanning Tunneling Microscope In The World End Up In Spain?
How was it possible to visualize atoms for the first time in the history? Development and application of microscopy from the beginning to the present.
The Crystal That Feeds on Entropy I What is Entropy?
Outreach Video in Collaboration with Quantum Fracture “The Crystal That Feeds on Entropy. What is Entropy?” New IFIMAC outreach video in collaboration with Quantum Fracture “The Crystal That Feeds on Entropy. What is Entropy?”. More to appear soon! We would like to thank Rafael D. Buscalioni and Marc Meléndez and QuantumFracture’s for their contribution to this video.
Documentary about Condensed Matter Physics: So Close and Such a Stranger
IFIMAC researchers from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid has released a YouTube video on the value of Condensed Matter physics. The researchers who produced the video have also formed an outreach program: The So Close Project. Seeking to show that important advances come from “little questions that lead to big answers,” winners of a 2014 APS Public Outreach Grant have released a YouTube documentary showing the importance of condensed matter physics in everyday life. The video, “Condensed Matter Physics: So Close and Such a Stranger,” was directed by Elsa Prada, Isabel Guillamón, and Enrique Sahagún from the Faculty of Sciences at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain.
Hydrogen Makes Graphene Magnetic
This is an illustrative video describing Héctor González-Herrero et al., work “Atomic-scale control of graphene magnetism using hydrogen atoms”, published in Science.
Quantized thermal transport in single-atom junctions
