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Muon Collider - Beyond the Large Hadron ColliderEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
With the upcoming restart of the Large Hadron Collider, the short attention span of our nation has already turned to the next big thing. At the end of October was a Symposium on Accelerators for America's Future, and the overall consensus seems to be that scientists, if they want a new particle accelerator, they need to be better about communicating the worth of accelerators to the general populace, in areas such as nuclear energy, prevention of nuclear terrorism, clean water, food packaging, and medical treatments. (When conducting my own work during a 1998 undergraduate research internship at the Indiana University Cyclo...
Source: About.com Physics - November 19, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

The Large Hadron Pop-Up BookEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In an intriguing take on the Large Hadron Collider, authors Anton Radevsky & Emma Sanders have (together with collaboration from CERN and UK publishing house Papadakis) created a pop-up book based on the Large Hadron Collider's ATLAS experiment. The book, Voyage to the Heart of the Matter: The ATLAS Experiment at CERN, focuses on the ATLAS experiment, which seeks to discover the Higgs boson. This is the final particle predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics which remains to be observed in an experiment, and it's prediction is based on the need of a particle to generate mass in other particles. I don't have...
Source: About.com Physics - November 12, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

My Son, the ScientistEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A few weeks back, my family was playing our standard dinner table game, which my mother purchased us. It's a small metal tin that contains several cards, and on each card is a game that can be played at the dinner table. For example, in some of them, you make noises and the other people have to guess what you were trying to sound like. In others you close your eyes and are given fruits and vegetables that you must identify by touch. Some cards have short stories which are read aloud and then discussed. It's a fun dinner-time activity. Well, to get back to the narrative, a few weeks ago we were playing this game and the ca...
Source: About.com Physics - November 8, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

String Theory for Dummies now availableEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Many of my more diligent readers are likely familiar with the concept of string theory, since I mention it fairly regularly on this blog. Part of my intense interest over the last year has been motivated by a project of mine - the writing of String Theory for Dummies for Wiley Publishing. I am pleased to announce that my first book, String Theory for Dummies, is now available at your local and online bookstores! String Theory for Dummies covers all of the major topics in string theory, from branes to supersymmetry to extra dimensions, and looks at how string theory may ultimately explain things such as dark matter, dar...
Source: About.com Physics - November 7, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Another Large Hadron Collider CalamityEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Over at the About.com Birding site, there's a report that a bird dropped a piece of bread into a cooling unit at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The piece of baguette caused irregularities in the cooling system, which were quickly recognized by technicians. The situation was resolved before there was major damage to the system. (A slightly more technical description of the situation is available on The Register.) With yet another in a long series of misadventures for the prototype particle accelerator, this lends some anecdotal credence to the speculative idea that "influence" from the future is sabotaging the experiment...
Source: About.com Physics - November 4, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Alternate Universe CountdownEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Many recent theoretical physics ideas allow for the possibility that our universe is part of a multiverse - a set of distinct alternate universes. Both particle physics and cosmology, for various reasons, have found this notion String theory, for example, can (in some interpretations) view our universe as being confined onto a 3-dimensional brane, which allows for other multi-dimensional branes. (In string theory, the total universe has 9 or 10 dimensions, not counting the time dimension, so there's a lot of room for various types of branes ... and therefore various types of universes.) In the vast majority of these the...
Source: About.com Physics - October 31, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Colbert, Cox, Relativity, and Time Traveling SabotageEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Comedy Central's resident faux-pundit, Stephen Colbert, interviewed rock star particle physicist (and People magazine's sexiest physicist) Brian Cox on the October 28 episode of The Colbert Report. Cox was there to promote his new book (co-written with Jeff Forshaw), Why Does E=mc2: And Why Should We Care? Colbert led into the interview by discussing the recent analysis that concluded the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is failing because of influences from the future which prevent the Higgs boson from manifesting. In the days since I first posted about this analysis, I have thought about it more and come up with a counter-an...
Source: About.com Physics - October 30, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

What Keeps Physicists Up At Night?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
No, it's not the great pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Physicists are kept up by questions about the very nature of space, time, and reality itself ... and New Scientist has broken these concerns down into the "Seven questions that keep physicists up at night." These questions come out of a panel discussion among physicists speaking at the "Quantum to Cosmos" festival, which took place at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada, last week. Videos from the festival are available on the website.What Keeps Physicists Up At Night? originally appeared on About.com Physics on Saturday, October 31st, 2009 at 0...
Source: About.com Physics - October 30, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Michael Green Replaces Hawking at CambridgeEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Michael Green has been appointed as the Cambridge University Lucasian professor of mathematics, a position once held by Sir Isaac Newton and previously held by Stephen Hawking. Hawking resigned from the university at the end of the 2008-2009 academic year because of a university policy that requires resignation at age 67 (see "Hawking to Step Down from Professorship"). Hawking will, among other things, be working some at Canada's Perimeter Institute, where he has accepted a Distinguished Research Chair position. (The Institute recently named a new building after Hawking.) So on to his successor, Michael Green, who assum...
Source: About.com Physics - October 22, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Back to the Future Part IV - The Higgs Boson AdventureEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
So while there are many weird physics theories out there, this latest one linked to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has even my scratching my head. Turns out that physicists Holger Bech Nielsen (of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen) and Masao Ninomiya (of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics in Kyoto, Japan) have put forth the idea that the LHC will fail to detect the Higgs boson ... because nature itself will intervene to keep this from happening. Consider this scenario: You travel back in time and (presumably accidentally) cause the death of your grandfather. Therefore you cannot be born and, in turn, you c...
Source: About.com Physics - October 18, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Magnetricity - Magnetic Monopoles at WorkEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
One concept of interest in physics in recent years has been the idea of a magnetic monopole - a magnet that doesn't come in a coupled pair of north/south poles, but is just a single pole. In theoretical physics (such as string theory), it is believed that these monopoles spring into exist independently at high energies, such as in the very early universe. In some materials, such as material called "spin ice," magnetic monopoles can effectively form because the way the magnetic poles align mean that patterns emerge which, as far any measurement is concerned, results in north and south poles moving around independent of eac...
Source: About.com Physics - October 16, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Physics Takes Center StageEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Theater majors around the world might do well to take some extra science classes, because science - and physics - are showing up in strange places all around the world of theater these days. Consider television. While watching House the other day, I wondered if the actors actually understood anything about the string of medical jargon that their characters had to talk about. While this has long been a concern for medical dramas, the dialogue on NBC's The Big Bang Theory is also filled with jardon - this time theoretical physics jargon - which most of the actors probably don't really understand all that much. And in the w...
Source: About.com Physics - October 13, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Halloween PhysicsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and I'm always pleased to be able to offer advice to readers on some great physics-themed Halloween activities. Of course, the first one is the classic mad scientist costume, although you can really trick it out by creating a whole haunted science lab. Great for the kids. On a more educational front, a great topic for teachers and parents to explore with their kids this time of year is dry ice, which can be used to create all kinds of spooky smoke-like effects. Do you have any suggestions for good Halloween physics topics? What's your favorite physics-themed costume? If you're a ...
Source: About.com Physics - October 5, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

2009 Nobel Prize in Physics AnnouncedEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This morning, the Nobel Prize Committee announced the winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics, the most well-known (and still largely well-regarded) award for scientific achievement: Charles K. Kao - 1/2 the prize "for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication" Willard S. Boyle & George E. Smith - 1/4 of the prize each "for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit - the CCD sensor" Kao & Fiber Optics: Much of the significant work for which Kao has been rightly praised came about while he worked at Standard Telecommunications Laborato...
Source: About.com Physics - September 29, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Stephen Hawking is Not Getting a Nobel This YearEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Over at the Nobel betting pool, some have put forward Stephen Hawking as a possible candidate for the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics. While it would be great to see Hawking receive this prize, it just ain't gonna happen this year, for a number of very good reasons. "Why?" you may ask. Hawking's most noteworthy and popular work has been in black holes, specifically in the application of quantum physics to black holes, and even more specifically through the prediction that black holes emit Hawking radiation. The problem is that to date no one has directly observed a black hole, and certainly no one has been able to test the ex...
Source: About.com Physics - September 29, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

2009 Physics Nobel Predictions StartingEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Every year, it's interesting to think about who might be in line to gain the prestigious Nobel Prize in Physics. The award will be announced on Tuesday, October 6, 2009, at 11:45 a.m., Swedish time, but until then the speculation is rampant. Over at Physics Buzz blog, they explore the idea of whether the Nobels are predictable. There's also an independent "betting pool" by Chad Ortzel over at Science Blogs. Here are a few of the daring souls who have put forth their own predictions: Thomson Scientific (using a special algorithm and selection process that analyzes citations of papers) The Wall Street Journal The ...
Source: About.com Physics - September 25, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Physics Sites to See in Washington D.C.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
While many people think of Washington, D.C., as a city rich in politics and history, it's easy to forget how much science-related events are going on in the city as well. During a recent trip to the nation's capital, I had the pleasure to view a lot of such locations, and the pictures of some of them have made their way into our new photo gallery - Science and Physics in Washington, D.C. Albert Einstein Memorial at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. Source: Andrew Zimmerman Jones, September 2009 Do you have any tips on other good science locations to visit in the Washington, D.C. area? What about o...
Source: About.com Physics - September 20, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

The Science of HeroesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Tonight is the fourth season premiere of the NBC hit television series Heroes, a show which has always had a somewhat loose relationship with physical reality. Despite that, however, I wrote two essays on the science of the television series, which appear in Heroes and Philosophy, edited by David Kyle Johnson: "The Science of Heroes: Flying Men, Immortal Samurai, and Destroying the Space-Time Continuum" by Andrew Zimmerman Jones "Pseudoscience, Scientific Revolutions, and Dr. Chandra Suresh" by Andrew Zimmerman Jones & David Kyle Johnson If you're interested in some of the less scientific concepts from the c...
Source: About.com Physics - September 19, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

George Ellis & Multiverse SkepticismEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
It's long been a tradition among physicists that, to celebrate an auspicious birthday, there is thrown a great big conference which is, essentially, an excuse for a big party, under the guise of performing academically useful work. Well, apparently when George Ellis' 70th birthday began to approach, he decided that he wanted his birthday bash to be actually useful. So in England gather philosophers and physicists to discuss the notion of the multiverse and how it can be usefully applied to scientific research. At least this is the picture painted by Cosmic Variance's Sean Carroll. The Philosophy of Cosmology 2009: Chara...
Source: About.com Physics - September 14, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

About.com Looks for Contributing WritersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
About.com is looking for freelance writers! The About.com Contributing Writers program was created to help us cover topics that may not be broad enough for a full GuideSite. Contributing Writers work alongside our Guides, covering specific subtopics that fall within the larger topic areas of our GuideSites. They are responsible for producing a certain amount of content (articles or blog posts) per month on that subtopic. They are not responsible for managing or maintaining a full GuideSite. We are currently evaluating candidates to write on the following topics: Playing and Coaching (About Football http://football.ab...
Source: About.com Physics - September 14, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Could Dark Photons & Dark Atoms Exist?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A little over a year ago, Sean Carroll over at Cosmic Variance brought up the idea of Dark Photons, a mysterious analog to dark matter and dark energy that would have created a sort of shadow version of electromagnetism. (The photon is the gauge boson of electromagnetism, meaning that it's the particle that mediates the electromagnetic force. A dark photon would, by analogy, give rise to some similar interaction. See Particle Physics Fundamentals for a brief introduction to this concept ... more to come on this soon, I think.) Anyway, back to dark photons. The goal of the original paper (written by Carroll and others) was...
Source: About.com Physics - September 13, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Interview with Quarkmaster Murray Gell-MannEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Physicist Murray Gell-Mann is the physicist credited with the development of quantum chromodynamics, the theory of how hadrons are actually composed of individual quarks, which earned him the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics. In this recent interview with Science News editor-in-chief Tom Siegfried, Gell-Mann discusses his view of the current status of particle physics. One of the most intriguing aspects of the interview (for me, at least) is when he addresses the dominant role of string theory, which Gell-Mann points out he is something of a patron of (though he, himself, does not do work in string theory, he says "as a conser...
Source: About.com Physics - September 9, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Aage Bohr, Legacy Nobel Winner, Dies at Age 87Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The Danish nuclear physicist Aage Bohr died on Tuesday, Sept. 8, at age 87, according to an announcement on the Niels Bohr Institute website. Bohr received the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Ben Mottelsson and Leo James Rainwater, for work on how motion within the particle nucleus related to the structure of the atomic nucleus. (His father, Niels Bohr, had received the 1922 Nobel Prize for work on the structure of the atom - specifically the ways that the nucleus interacted with the surrounding electrons. Aage was born just months before Niels received the award.) After his father's death in 1962, Bohr succeeded ...
Source: About.com Physics - September 6, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Book Review - Unscientific AmericaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The book Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future is written by two authors of opposite backgrounds. One is a journalist drawn into covering scientific policy (Chris Mooney), while the other is a scientist drawn into talking to the wider community about scientific concepts (Sherily Kirshenbaum). Their conclusion? Our society needs more such interaction with science at all levels, so that the average person has a better idea about the myriad ways in which science has an impact on society. The result is a powerful, concise book ... but one which, I fear, may fall on deaf ears. It will likely�...
Source: About.com Physics - September 1, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Nanolasers May Unlock Technological RevolutionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Currently, lasers are incredibly useful devices, which assist in everything from data encoding and transmission (DVD technology & fiber optic cables) to pure research. A new breed of nanolaser may be able to take that technology to the next level by reducing the potential size of the laser by about 1,000 times ... a potential great boon for the developing field of optical computing. Already, lasers can get pretty small. They can even fit on a computer chip. But the nanolaser would be the result of vibrating electrons (also called nanopendulums or plasmons) that emit photons of light in phase with each other (called c...
Source: About.com Physics - August 28, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Scientific Role ModelsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In the book Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future (review coming when I finish the book), authors Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum mention a late 2007 study where participants were asked to name a scientific role model. Sadly, 44 percent of the respondents had no clue. In other words, approximately 9 out of every 20 people asked couldn't even name a single scientist. Of those who could come up with an answer, the top three answers were: Bill Gates Al Gore Albert Einstein As the authors mention, these are "people who are either not scientists or not alive." If you're curious,...
Source: About.com Physics - August 27, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

LEGOs Meet Big ScienceEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
LEGOs, long a favorite children's toy, now helps scientists explore the behavior of tiny devices called microfluidic arrays. In the recent work performed at Johns Hopkins University, students and professors of the chemical and biomolecular engineering programs used a large LEGO board with pegs placed on it to simulate a large-scale re-enactment of the sorting behavior that is performed on these microfluidic arrays. The team placed the LEGO board - with an array of regularly spaced columns and rows of cylindrical LEGO pegs (2 high) placed on the board - in an aquarium full of goopy glycerol. Stainless steel and plastic bal...
Source: About.com Physics - August 26, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

A Big Bang for ... the Most Annoying Man in the WorldEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Straight off their Critics Choice Award for Outstanding Comedy, and Jim Parsons' Individual Achievement in Comedy for his portrayal of the misanthropic string theorist Sheldon, CBS's The Big Bang Theory is pushing hard to promote their show - and their Emmy nominee, Parsons. Emmy nominated actor Jim Parsons Source: Mark Mainz/Getty Most recently, they've unveiled an advertisement (based on a popular series of beer commercials), which portrays Sheldon (correctly) as the Most Annoying Man in the World. Sheldon is brilliant, but also displays all of the worst traits of the scientist - arrogant, emotionally detached, social...
Source: About.com Physics - August 25, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Happy Birthday, Galileo's TelescopeEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
On August 25, 1609, Galileo Galilei took a Dutch invention - the telescope - and improved upon it, creating a device that used the power of optics (a science involved much guesswork, since the details of optics were developed years later by Sir Isaac Newton) to view very distant objects as if they were close up. With this telescope, Galileo looked toward the sky and saw that other planets contained moons, and ushering in the age of telescopic astronomy. He also began conflicting with the orthodox biblical interpretations of the Catholic Church, which lead to him being placed under house arrest for heresy ... which just goe...
Source: About.com Physics - August 25, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Another New Theory of GravityEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This spring, physicist Petr Horava introduced an intriguing idea - that one of the physical principles at the heart of general relativity might be violated. The principle is called Lorentz symmetry (or Lorentz invariance) and it is the principles that physics is the same in any reference frame. The Lorentz violation would only happen at very small scales, of course, which is why it's never been observed to be violated, but if Horava's theory is correct then a theory which doesn't include Lorentz invariance at small scales might still give rise to Lorentz invariance at large scales. The great benefit of this theory, if it c...
Source: About.com Physics - August 24, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Large Hadron Collider Will Neither Destroy Nor Save the Word- If It Finally Works At AllEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I was amazed to discover today that universal consciousness was achieved last year, and I somehow missed it. I knew that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was an elaborate ploy to destroy the world (the clip is satire, but sadly this one is not), but I didn't realize it was also ushering in the "DNA activation" that will trigger our evolution to a higher level of human existence. Apparently, this began when the beam powered up nearly a year ago ... imagine the letdown when the beam almost immediately stopped working due to an equipment malfunction, suddenly ending the evolutionary leap that mankind was about to take. Since...
Source: About.com Physics - August 21, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Al Franken Visits Research Facility: Good Enough, Smart Enough, and Doggonit People Like HimEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Minnesota Senator Al Franken recently went to the Soudan Mine, in Minnesota, last week to tour the 2,500-feet underground mine which houses the: Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS II) - a dark matter detector Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) - a high-energy neutrino detector Al Franken at the Sept. 2006 premiere of his comedy show "Al Franken: God Spoke" Source: William D. Bird/Getty Images Franken has been known for years as a comedy writer on NBC's Saturday Night Live, most notably appearing on camera as the self-help guru Stewart Smalley (from whence this blog post title comes). Since ...
Source: About.com Physics - August 17, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Black Holes Eating Stars May Form Gamma Ray BurstsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
They are some of the most massive explosions of energy in our universe, gamma ray bursts are powerful jets of energy that scientists are still trying to adequately explain. Their energy is in the form of high energy x-rays and gamma rays (thus the name). In recent years, many astrophysicists have come to believe that they were the powerful energy rays unleashed when a massive star collapses into a black hole, although the mechanism is still not fully understood. Still other possibilities, though. An artistic illustration of a gamma ray burst. Source: NASA/Swift/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith and John Jones One alternative ex...
Source: About.com Physics - August 15, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Reinventing Gravity - Brilliant or Bunk?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Some months ago I received and read the fascinating book Reinventing Gravity: A Physicist Goes Beyond Einstein by John W. Moffat, which focuses on Moffat's attempt to resolve some major cosmological questions by modifying Einstein's theory of general relativity. He has not met with much success or acceptance. I admit that I am personally quite drawn to these underdog theories of physics, which have been kept down by the "man." Moffat originally began tinkering around with the fundamental constants of the universe back in 1992, when he developed the first coherent variable speed of light (VSL) cosmology, and Modified Gravi...
Source: About.com Physics - August 14, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Hawking Awarded Highest U.S. Civilian HonorEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
On August 12, President Barack Obama presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to sixteen accomplished individuals, among them British physicist Stephen Hawking. U.S. President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to physicist Stephen Hawking. Source: Getty Images The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award in the United States (Actually, the Congressional Gold Medal is equally prestigious, but is presented by Congressional choice instead of Presidential choice.) President Obama selected 16 recipients to receive the 2009 Medal of Freedom. Some reasons for his selection of Hawki...
Source: About.com Physics - August 9, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Using Snacks to Describe the UniverseEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A fun recent New Scientist article, "Five snacks that are shaped like the universe," provides an interesting look at the physical structure of the universe. The five snacks/shapes are: ring donut / torus Pringle / saddle-shaped peanut (or olive) / ellipsoid bugle / cone-shaped apple / compactified extra dimensional-shape in some versions of string theory These shapes, and the snacks that match them, provide an intriguing visual tool that could be used in science classes to introduce students to the complexities of possible shapes of the universe. Any learning tool which you can devour can't help but motivat...
Source: About.com Physics - August 7, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

In New Studies Physicists Evaluate the Way Physicists Evaluate New Studies (No, That's Not a Typo)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In a blog post over at Symmetry Breaking, a publication of the high energy physics (HEP) community jointly produced by Fermilab & SLAC, which addresses two new research studies about how the arXiv portal of scientific preprints (papers that are being submitted to journals, but have not yet gone through the formal peer review process) is utilized by the scientific community - and specifically by those in the HEP community. The role of arXiv has been addressed in some posts over the last few months (see How to Peer Review on the Internet and New Archive Portal), and these recent studies make it all the more clear that ...
Source: About.com Physics - August 4, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Government Bailout Helps Stimulate Fermilab and OthersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
On Tuesday, Chicago's Fermilab particle accelerator learned they were receiving $60.2 million in stimulus money as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, in addition to the $43 million already received. The stimulus money is intended to help Fermilab design new technologies that will allow them to continue their work even as the Large Hadron Collider comes fully online. (If this ever happens, given the recent electrical failures which are once again delaying the Large Hadron Collider's anticipated restart.) Argonne National Laboratory will also receive a substantial amount of money - about $150 million. Some ...
Source: About.com Physics - August 2, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Stephen Hawking's Children Book: The SequelEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
World-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking and his daughter, Lucy Hawking, have come out with George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt, a sequel to their 2007 children's novel George's Secret Key to the Universe. This sequel continues the story of how George learns about the scientific principles that govern the universe, with an astounding 20 essays on a diverse range of topics, from robotic space exploration to how light and sound travel. The first book had an emphasis on cosmology and fundamental astrophysics principles, but this book offers much more practical information on the exploration of the universe. To find out more, rea...
Source: About.com Physics - July 30, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

The Eternal Question ... Where Do Dwarf Spheroid Galaxies Come From?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
If you're like me, you've probably never even heard of dwarf spheroid galaxies before, let alone realized that their formation was a significant outstanding question in modern cosmology. In fact, these low-luminosity galaxies, which appear to be dominated by dark matter (even moreso than other galaxies), have proved difficult to nail down. Models to explain their formation have only worked in cases where they were located near a larger galaxy, like our own Milky Way, but the problem with this solution is that they are observed in regions that aren't near enough to larger galaxies for this model to apply. New research indi...
Source: About.com Physics - July 25, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

The Island of Misfit PapersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A new online journal, Rejecta Mathematica, has recently gone online with the express purpose of providing a home for mathematics research papers that have been rejected by the traditional peer review process. The papers, along with a letter from the authors explaining why they feel it still has merit, then gets published in Rejecta Mathematica. The result in the first issue appears to be a mixed bag, with some meritorious papers appearing alongside other which are bile-filled rants against the mathematical establishment (aside from any potential mathematical merit to the arguments presented themselves). This new approach...
Source: About.com Physics - July 22, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

New Archive PortalEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
One of the most popular and useful sites for physicists is the arXiv portal, where physicists are able to post their "preprints" of papers. These preprints are posted to the portal before going through the normal peer review process to get in official scientific journals. Back in May, I commented on the idea that there needed to be an endorsement system for these articles, in response to some criticisms from Lubos Motl that there was a proliferation of "crackpot" papers showing up on the site. Actually, there is a review and endorsement in place on arXiv, but the system is not particularly transparent and some allege abu...
Source: About.com Physics - July 19, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Another Science, Religion, and Philosophy DiscussionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Sean Carroll, over at the Cosmic Variance blog, recently had an interesting blog post called Science and Religion Are Not Compatible, focusing largely on the idea that religion makes factual claims which run contrary to established scientific findings. He followed this up by asking What Questions Can Science Answer? I won't wade too much into this debate, but do find the discussions interesting, so for those who would like to find out more, I recommend both blogs, as well as this one by Lubos Motl of the Reference Frame blog. (Source: About.com Physics)
Source: About.com Physics - July 19, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Nobel Laureate VideosEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A couple of videos with Nobel Laureates have come to my attention in the last few days, and I always love hearing these guys (or anyone who truly understands it) talk about their field, so I pass it along to you. First comes one from July 7, where Stephen Weinberg addresses CERN about possible approaches to understanding quantum gravity through quantum field theory, without needing the physical structures implied by string theory. Another one comes from Comedy Central's satirical news show The Daily Show on July 21, featuring Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. I can't say that this particular interview was really groundbrea...
Source: About.com Physics - July 18, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

The Smartest Emmy Nomination EverEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
It happened, friends. Last week, when they announced the 61st Emmy Awards nominations, Jim Parsons was nominated for the role of Sheldon Cooper on CBS's The Big Bang Theory, a sitcom about two physics geek roommates and their "normal" (and attractive) female neighbor. Picture a romantic comedy mixed with the Feynman Lectures on Physics, with dialogue that could have been written by Kevin Smith (if he were heavily censored). I like several of the other nominations (especially Tony Shaloub for his role in Monk), but I do hope that Parsons gets the award. It's a very hard role to pull off, and he does it exceptionally well. ...
Source: About.com Physics - July 18, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Planetary Orbit Prediction May Modify Newton's LawsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Years ago, astronomers realized that gravity, as it was currently understood, did not quite fit the results observed in our universe. The specific problem was that galaxies rotated at a rate where, seemingly, the stars on the outer edge of the galaxy should have been flung off into space. The dominant theory was to propose an unseen dark matter, which made the galaxy more massive than expected, thus explaining why the outer stars remained bound to the galaxies. Though most astronomers, astrophysicists, and cosmologists have adopted the dark matter theory to explain this problem, a handful have proposed their own theories ...
Source: About.com Physics - July 16, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Does Improved Invisibility Yield Silent Image?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In 2006, physicists developed an "invisibility cloak," using metamaterials that allowed the bending of microwaves around an object, effectively making it resemble empty space. In a recent paper, another group of physicists have taken this idea further and described the mathematics involved in bending light to resemble things other than empty space. This New Scientist article has an excellent example of how, for example, you could use these materials to make a cup look like a spoon. Of course, this is a neat trick, but is it actually useful? In fact, Che Te Chan, one of the physicists working on the project, has indicated ...
Source: About.com Physics - July 15, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Whatever Happened to the Philosopher Physicist?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
An intriguing discussion is arising across some physics blogs about the role of philosophy in physics. As Lubos Motl points out (and, before him, Steven Weinberg), the two fields share a common ancestry in a deep desire to understand the fundamental nature of reality beyond our everyday experience, but today the insights of philosophy have very little impact on the actual practice of physics. At the core of this discussion is a quote by science philosopher Paul Feerabend (from For and Against Method, dug up by Steve Hsu, which focuses on the "savage" nature of the mid-twentieth century theoretical physics who, as opposed ...
Source: About.com Physics - July 1, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Smaller Particle AcceleratorsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
While the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) continues to get the majority of buzz in particle physics news stories (anticipated to start back up in October or so), new research being done in the BELLA (BErkeley Lab LAser) program at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory may show such large-scale particle accelerators to be obsolete ... or at least cost prohibitive. (Austria announced plans to drop out of CERN involvement, but then changed their mind, bringing up concerns that other nations might start looking to CERN and LHC funding as an optional expense that could be trimmed or re-allocated in their budget debates.) The n...
Source: About.com Physics - June 23, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer

Black Hole For ... Sound?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Physicists have just created a variation of a black hole which, instead of trapping photons (particles of light), traps phonons (particles of sound). Yes, waves of sound vibrations in matter (like waves of light in space) can be expressed as either waves or particles in quantum physics, a principle known as wave particle duality. This strange black hole phenomenon is achieved within the curious form of matter known as a Bose-Einstein condensate. In this rare state of matter, the flow of sound through the material is expressed the same way that the movement of light in a gravitational field is expressed, which has led the...
Source: About.com Physics - June 21, 2009 Category: Physics Source Type: consumer