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The Extreme Energy Events Project has been designed to join the scientific interest of a cosmic rays physics experiment with the enormous didactic potentiality deriving from letting it be carried out by high school students and teachers. After the initial phase, the experiment is starting to take data continuously, and the first interesting physics results have been obtained, demonstrating the validity of the idea of running a real physics investigation in these peculiar conditions. Here an overview of its structure and status is presented, together with some studies about detector performance and first physics results.

We present a technique for measuring the two-dimensional surface water wave elevation both in space and time based on the low-cost Microsoft Kinect sensor.We discuss the capabilities of the system and a method for its calibration. We illustrate the application of the Kinect to an experiment in a small wave tank.A detailed comparison with standard capacitive wave gauges is also performed.Spectral analysis of a random-forced wave field is used to obtain the dispersion relation of water waves, demonstrating the potentialities of the setup for the investigation of the statistical properties of surface waves.

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We study rotating homogeneous turbulent convection forced by a mean vertical temperature gradient by means of direct numerical simulations (DNS) in the Boussinesq approximation in a rotating frame. In the absence of rotationour results are in agreement with the "ultimate regime of thermal convection" for the scaling of the Nusselt and Reynolds numbers vs Rayleigh and Prandtl numbers. Rotation is found to increase both N u and Re at fixed Ra with a maximum enhancement for intermediate values of the Rossby numbers, qualitatively similar, but with stronger intensity, to what observed in Rayleigh-Bénard rotating convection. Our results are interpreted in terms of a quasibidimensionalization of the flow with the formation of columnar structures displaying strong correlation between the temperature and the vertical velocity fields.