This year on April 17th PONYS organized the fourth edition of “Passione Fisica” (“Physical Passion”, roughly translated) at Città della Scienza, the biggest science museum of southern Italy: an entire day dedicated to physics popularization through demonstrations and simple experiments. Supported by EPS and OSA and involving more than 100 volunteers among physics students of University of Naples “Federico II”, the event was targeted at both children and adults and designed as a journey through different fields of physics entitled “Physics Express”. Ranging from Electromagnetism and Optics to Thermodynamics and Particle Physics, most of the experiments were made of everyday materials, in order to both stimulate the audience with familiar stuff and to make those experiments easily reproducible and interactive. In particular, great importance was given to the hands-on aspect of the event, and in this perspective we proposed a new physics-based construction lab, where children were involved from the very beginning in the construction of simple toys based on physical principles. Such principles could be thus understood in a very practical, funny and powerful way, and eventually children could obviously keep the toy they built as a souvenir of the day. “Passione Fisica” was also the occasion to spread among the large public the award-winning documentaries of the European Science TV and New Media Awards 2015, which were showed in a hall for the whole duration of the event, and to celebrate the OSA Centennial with a dedicated desk.
Alongside our activities, Città della Scienza organized during the day other demonstrations and talks in partnership with local associations and research centers, which presented some of the hottest topics of their work. According to the museum ticket-selling office, more than 800 people joined us for the event.

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This year Naples PONYS chapter participated at the Naples COMICON, held at the Mostra D’Oltremare from the 22nd to the 25th of April. This is one of the most important conventions in Italy about comics, cosplaying, gaming and other related activities, and attracts more than 100.000 visitors each year. None of those 100.000 expected to find there, alongside cosplayers, publishers and famous authors also a bunch of physicists, lots of interactive experiments, and a board game on quantum mechanics! These were, in fact, some of the key features of the “Physics4Comics” project. Its aim was to spread scientific knowledge and concepts contextualizing them into the atmosphere of a comic-convention, riding the tide of the sense of wonder arisen by such festivals in order to awaken curiosity in an audience composed mostly by teen agers and young adults. The event consisted in:

• Interactive physics experiments, mostly realized with everyday materials, talking about the physics lying behind the fantasy. Their aim was to show how many strange effects are present not only in comics or movies, but also in our world, and how physics can help to notice and explain them;
• A comic book, realized by our members in collaboration with INFN, in which a comic story serves as a narrative link for a set of six articles, written by researchers, PhD and master students in physics. Each article tries to explain how the most famous phenomenon in popular culture (e.g. Superpowers, Teleport , Lightsaber) could work using physics, under the condition of “stretching ” a little bit its law (we are always talking about flying guys). The Comic book was distributed for free in 3500 copies during the event and more copies are on the way!
• Quantum Race, a board game developed by the CNR – IFN Researcher Dr Fabio Chiarello which uses quantum mechanics effects and phenomena as game rules. In this way players are more likely to accept and understand concepts far beyond the “common sense”, because they are framed into a ludic structure that forms suspension of disbelief. The game was also present in a huge version which allowed players to play at open air!
  Alongside these events, the Napoli COMICON organization hosted three small talks in which our members were given the opportunity to speak about the various features of the events.

The event was a success thanks to efforts of more than 20 volunteers (among researchers, PhD, master and bachelor students in physics) which faced hordes of thousands curious participants.

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Science Café is a public science initiative started in United Kingdom, but currently running all over the word. Typically, one monthly evening meeting is organised in a café or bar to which one or several scientists are invited to talk in laymen’s terms about their work in a topical or even controversial area. The events are known for their informal and friendly atmosphere, and are believed to improve the image of scientists and careers in science.
In Portici Ing.Vincenzo Bonadies started to plan a series of talks with young napolitan researcher that were gladly invited to present their current work.
In particular, we were attracthed by the location of the event, Villa FERDANDEZ, an old mansion recently confiscated to local crime organizations.
On February 17th the Portici Science Café invited Michela Florinda Picardi, a PONYS member, to give a speech on light for the International Year of Light. Michela, former president of our OSA Student Chapter, is now a PhD student at King’s College in London.
She worked on the orbital angular moment of light, and on the possibility to use it as another degree of freedom for quantum computing. Her talk showed to the common public how light is nowadays in our daily lives, and how the development of new technologies in quantum optics can enlarge this use.
During the event Lorenzo Colaizzi, showed the PONYS activities to the Science Café participant. The short movie Blackout, directed by Michela with the help of all the association members was projected for the first time in Italy. In conclusion simple experiments on light had been shown to the public. It was an amazing afternoon for us. Our first Science Café, and hopefully just the first one!
Around 50 people attended to the talk, and an entire classroom from the local highschool was involved into the experiments-realization by our members.