Cern? New Particle? Maybe....

Not so long ago we were watching CERN do it's thing and crunch it's numbers - hunting for the elusive Higgs Boson particle.   When confirmed it seemed most of the research community had a collective release, followed almost immediately with a "now what?"

I have to step back here with an observation.  Many of the news outlets treat a possible discovery as the real thing.  Not a maybe but an IS.  

Case in point.  Once the H.B. was confirmed, the data was re-examined for data that seemed to point towards another much more complex particle.   Nothing was confirmed but the data suggested a follow on particle, nothing was confirmed though.   So you can imagine my consternation when I was informed that CERN indeed HAS discovered a new ultra dense particle, leaving Higgs Boson in some sort of particle physics, jerk water by-way, buuuuuuuuuuut..... 

Reading the Wired UK article  - The team at Switzerland's Cern Large Hadron Collider may have discovered a new particle.

Since it's upgrade earlier this year, LHC researchers have observed spikes that could be the
result of particle collisions between a new boson even larger than the Higgs.  In my book, this is a MAY have not an HAS made a discovery. 

The particle -- if truly a new discovery --  would be about four times larger than the top quark,
the heaviest particle so far discovered. And it would be six times bigger than the Higgs. 

In any event, this is still an amazing piece of research on a totally amazing machine. 

To read the complete Wired article  Click Here

Nuclear Fusion Breakes Even For the First Time!

Nuclear Fusion is without too much argument the driving force behind the Universe.   For those of you that  think they don't really have a handle on the fusion process, let me explain at the root of fusion, is a fairly simple possess.

Nuclear fusion is a nuclear reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei collide at a very high speed and join to form a new type of atomic nucleus. During this process,some of the mass of the fusing nuclei is converted to  energy  (most often photons)


Unfortunately, experiments in the lab, though capable of creating fusion, have not come to the magical energy break even point. 

Now, Researchers at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California, have indeed attained the holy grail of particle physics.  Indeed, the BBC is reporting:

• The BBC is reporting, though, that during an experiment conducted in the facility during September the "amount of energy released through the fusion reaction exceeded the amount of energy being absorbed by the fuel".

Here is a link to the Gizmodo article   and a wicked good Wikipedia article

Higgs boson Confirmed?

This is why I love my daughter...Oh she is going to kill me..but early Wednesday morning I receive a call from her. She informs me that something very exciting happened today.. Well a twenty something with two young boys still in diapers I expected what....the oldest has finally decided to use the potty exclusively? Now I am not putting the situation down, but a young family takes up all your time and most of your attention so when she hit me with the discover confirmation of the Higgs boson particle, well I had to pinch myself...Two great things...for all intents, the particle that started everything spinning on it's merry way and my daughter is a geek. Lol...see why she will most likely kill me?! lol.

But there we are. The particle search characterized as "one of the longest, most expensive searches in the history of science.. Has finally been confirmed Wednesday, by the scientists at the Large Hadron Collider.

This is heady stuff. It almost has to be particle physic's version of Apollo 11. This seemingly iniquitous Higgs boson is the particle predicted by the standard model to imbue elementary particles with mass. Think about that for a second....no Higgs no universe...

Of course there are those still hedging their bet with "the new particle may not be the particle that has been described by the Standard model and has been the focus of every Physicist for the last fifty years.

LHC physicist Dr. Rolf-Dieter Heuer called the discovery “a historic milestone.” but It may be an impostor as yet unknown to physics, perhaps the first of many particles yet to be discovered.

Well I am a glass half full kind of person. I think that the hemming and hawing that has taken place since December needs to be over with. I am not a physicist and don't pretend to fully understand the full implications of the discovery, but the addage of "if it quacks like a duck....certainly should be in play now.

Read the complete article in the NYT Science

Has CERN Finally Done It?

How many times over the past year or so have we heard this statement?

• Scientists at CERN might be on the verge confirming the existence of what they call the "Higgs boson"

Well it is making the rounds again according to an article in the Daily Galaxy blog.  

Peter Woit a Columbia University mathematician is saying that "Cern will soon have to decide.....".   What's to decide you ask?  Well according to Woit,:

•  Cern has got to either announce discovery of the Higgs, or will they wait for some overwhelmingly convincing standard to be met.

Woit goes on to say that:

• "....The bottom line though is now clear: there’s something there which looks like a Higgs is supposed to look."

We shall see, I guess...read the complete article here

LHC Finds Bottomonium

Dvice.com has an article about a recent discovery from the Large Hardron Colider of a particle they have labeled Bottomonium. Like the writer of the article says, you can't make this stuff up! Anyway, Bottomonium is a quark "particle" comprised of a bottom quark and it's anti bottom quark double. Usually you combine a normal particle with an anti-particle you would get instant annihilation. But in the sub-atomic world of the quark, the outward forces of the two particles trying to destroy each other can be off set by the same strong force that binds protons and neutrons. At least for a few hundred millionths of a second, ample enough time to study.

Particle physics predicted Bottomonium but this is the first it has been observed in the lab. The particle's name is "χb(3P)" which is pronounced "kye-bee three pee."

Wikipedia article on quarkonium