Featured Articles

Tuesday's Geology Photo: Ngauruhoe

Tuesday's Geology Photo: Ngauruhoe

Dec 13 2011 | comment(s)

Day two of Evelyn Mervine's photo meme, and today I have a picture of Ngauruhoe, New Zealand.  Ngauruhoe makes almost a perfect cone, broken only at the top by a small crater.  This photo was taken from the summit, looking north.  A small amount of steam can be seen rising from Ngauruhoe itself, showing this volcano is far from dead.  Further in the background is part of Tongariro, the larger volcanic complex that Ngauruhoe is just one vent of.  In the distance is lake Taupo, which is itself a large, volcanic caldera
What A Standard Model Higgs Could Mean for Theoretical Physics

What A Standard Model Higgs Could Mean for Theoretical Physics

Dec 13 2011 | comment(s)

News like today's new evidence for a standard model light* (~125 Gev) Higgs particle does much for theoretical physics.  In one fell swoop many theories can be ruled out.  While at the same time other theories gain direct support.  Still other theories, and the theorist who propose them, are vindicated for putting their faith in the standard model.  This model that has worked perfectly in every test it has had for 30 or so years.  One area which this will affect in the latter way is that of quantum gravity.

Firm Evidence Of A Higgs Boson At Last!

Firm Evidence Of A Higgs Boson At Last!

Dec 13 2011 | comment(s)

Updates:

- Philip Gibbs does a great job, as always, at combining -albeit approximately- the results of different experiments in the Higgs search. He now has even a full combination of LEP II + Tevatron + CMS + ATLAS, where the signal strength, in SM units, fits absolutely bang on for a Higgs mass of about 125 GeV. Please see his article at the link above; but I cannot resist from stealing his most intriguing picture (sorry Phil!):

Spinning the Interaction Story: Spin 2 (2 of 3)

Spinning the Interaction Story: Spin 2 (2 of 3)

Dec 13 2011 | comment(s)

The spin 2 story unfolds much like that for spin 1. The stories are so similar, I want to take a step back and take a big picture view.

<Higgs digression>
QED works so darn well because Maxwell's theory works so well. In Maxwell's EM, action happens at a distance. Working instantaneously is a great approximation. It is only when people make refined measurements that something goes amiss. It is QED that provides the corrections. This can be done because the coupling constant for EM is small. A Feynman diagram is a visual way of keeping track of the corrections that need to be made to classical theory. Later on today, much will be said about the following three Feynman diagrams:
Understanding The Higgs, Sigma And High Energy Physics: A Mini-Guide

Understanding The Higgs, Sigma And High Energy Physics: A Mini-Guide

Dec 13 2011 | comment(s)

For decades, physicists have used a theory known as the Standard Model to explain the interactions of subatomic particles, and the theory works beautifully. It's guided our way through the world of nuclear power, television, microwave ovens and lasers. One problem: The theory needed something extra to explain why some particles have mass and some don't. Back in the 1960s, physicist Peter Higgs and his colleagues proposed the existence of a mysterious energy field that interacts with some particles more than others. That field is known as the Higgs field, associated with a particle called the Higgs boson.
Debunking Myths About Gender And Math

Debunking Myths About Gender And Math

Dec 13 2011 | comment(s)

Is there still a gender gap in math?  There is if you are selling cultural drama but in actuality, not so much.  Complaints aside, the No Child Left Behind program accomplished its mission; by focusing on the same sort of educational system other countries use that allowed them to beat American kids in standardized tests - namely, teaching to the test - American children performed better in each international test and for the first time in history boys and girls achieved math parity.  That's a win.

But perceptions die hard - some people still insist Republicans are more anti-science than Democrats, for example, and some (not surprisingly the same people) use words like 'dismal' and 'failure' about American girls and math.  
Deviations From The Born Rule

Deviations From The Born Rule

Dec 12 2011 | comment(s)

  After recent claims by Henry Stapp, I'd like to write about his violations of the Born Rule. For those who don't know quantum mechanics the laws come in two parts. First Unitary Evoluation. We start a set of amplitudes for a how likely each of a set possible occurances are, and write it as a column vector, describe a physical processes as unitary matrix that multiplies this vector, resulting in a output vector again describing how likely each set of outcome.

;

The Born rule is that the probability of observing a particular outcome  happening is


Monday Geology Picture: Tilted ripples in the Pyrenees

Monday Geology Picture: Tilted ripples in the Pyrenees

Dec 12 2011 | comment(s)

Like Evelyn Mervine over at the Georneys blog, I have been neglecting this blog a little this past week (although I don't have as good an excuse as she does, I was just having fun...).  I do like the idea of posting a geology photo each day this week, so I have accepted her invitation to join her.
Pro-Abortion And Anti-Choice Absolutists - Why They Are Wrong

Pro-Abortion And Anti-Choice Absolutists - Why They Are Wrong

Dec 12 2011 | comment(s)

America is the only civilized country that allows late-term abortion on demand yet America is regarded as more hung up on abortion than European countries.  What gives?  Outside the recurring re-election campaigns of people like Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer, who insist if they do not get 80% of the votes in Democrat bastion San Francisco women will be 'having abortions in back alleys', abortion is not really an issue.
Christmas On The Brain

Christmas On The Brain

Dec 12 2011 | comment(s)

Xmas time is here again. Unlike many people I have no particular aversion to the holiday season. I don’t have too many emotional scars from Christmases past. Getting presents was always fun, I liked the lights on our tree, even stringing popcorn, and these days I try to keep awkward gatherings to a minimum. For me it breaks up the endless round of quotidian drudgery in a relatively pleasant way. But this year I can’t help viewing the whole spectacle through the eyes of human evolution and psychology. No matter how you might feel about the holiday season personally, it’s interesting to think about what may be behind all the crazy traditions: a little bit of the science behind the season. 
Solving Insomnia Without Drugs

Solving Insomnia Without Drugs

Dec 12 2011 | comment(s)

BMC Neurology has published the results of the HYPNOS I clinical trial demonstrating the sedative action of the Cefaly medical device (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22035386).

The results show, in a statistically highly significant manner using four clinical measurement methods, a pronounced reduction in vigilance induced by the action of the Cefaly(R) Hypnos medical device, by comparison to a placebo.

This sedative action on the central nervous system is observed after application for 12 minutes in 83% of individuals whose mean increase in tiredness was of 73%.

Squeeze and Release: The Joys of Teaching

Squeeze and Release: The Joys of Teaching

Dec 12 2011 | comment(s)

The pressure that's squeezed me for months has loosened. It had gotten progressively stronger, more forceful, wringing me exhausted even before the morning started. It's loosened, but it's not gone, and I know that it won't ever fully leave. I will get periodic reprieves, opportunities to rest, and I must make the most of those moments so that I am girded and ready when the pressure tightens again.

I am not unique, not even extraordinary. I am a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a teacher, a  friend, and so I am pressured. Each and every day, as I expand my heart and let more people into it, I am pressured. I am squeezed with worries and concerns and fears.
J.Markovitch: Mixing Angles Numerology

J.Markovitch: Mixing Angles Numerology

Dec 12 2011 | comment(s)

I received the text  below from Jim Markovitch, and decided it was fun enough to make a guest post entry with it. Markovitch worked for the world's largest supplier of corporate credit information, where he designed and implemented algorithms to estimate the probability of the equivalence, for credit purposes, of two name/address records. More recently he has adapted these algorithms to help identify unusually efficient approximations of fundamental constants. Let us see what this is about - TD

---

Individualism And The Concept Of Rights

Individualism And The Concept Of Rights

Dec 12 2011 | comment(s)

Well over a year ago, someone asked for a response to the following quote from Ayn Rand.  I suspect this was largely due to the idea that such a view of individualism would be difficult to refute and consequently establish its legitimacy.  So, here's the quote:
Scientists Develop Method (That Works) To Create Proteins In Laboratory

Scientists Develop Method (That Works) To Create Proteins In Laboratory

Dec 11 2011 | comment(s)

The most abundant and important molecules in all living organisms are proteins; after all they manage to participate in every single one of life’s essential reactions. So it is easy to see why scientists have been making such a fuss trying to learn how to synthesise them in laboratory as this would provide them with a tool of extraordinary potential. Unfortunately, this has not proved easy.

Do You Trust Technology?

Do You Trust Technology?

Dec 11 2011 | comment(s)

An organizer of the 18th Americas Conference on Information Systems (http://amcis2012.aisnet.org/) sent a CFP for a minitrack on Trust in Information Systems:
A user’s trust and distrust in information systems [IS] are important components in the interactive relationship between users and their systems. A user has to trust a technology before the technology is adopted and fully used. While there is a rich literature on interpersonal trust, trust in information systems has been under-researched...
Regress Type Arguments Are The Single Biggest Problem In All Of Fundamental Science And Philosophy

Regress Type Arguments Are The Single Biggest Problem In All Of Fundamental Science And Philosophy

Dec 11 2011 | comment(s)

Those who somewhat grasp Einstein’s general theory of relativity are proud to be elevated over the folk-philosophical level. They understand that the Big Bang did not explode to expand space outwards into some “meta-space” that contains space. There is space, but not necessarily an outside, a space of space. The latter would start a so called regress without definite termination (similar to the Regress argument), namely the questioning of where that space of space in turn is located and what its physics would be. Such leads to the next level of the space outside of the space that contains space and so on.

Women Quit Using Breast Using Cancer Drugs That Prevent Recurrence - Here's Why

Women Quit Using Breast Using Cancer Drugs That Prevent Recurrence - Here's Why

Dec 11 2011 | comment(s)

36% of post-menopausal women who are treated for estrogen-sensitive breast cancer quit using drugs that help prevent the disease from recurring after four years.

Why? The first study to actually ask the women themselves reports those women quit early because of the medications' side effects, which are more severe and widespread than previously known. A new Northwestern Medicine survey reveals a big gap between what women tell their doctors about side effects and what they actually experience.
Want Someone Who Listens? Get A Baby

Want Someone Who Listens? Get A Baby

Dec 11 2011 | comment(s)

Babies love to communicate and they're great listeners, even early on.  

New research shows that during the first year of life, when babies spend so much time listening to language, they're actually tracking word patterns that will support their process of word- learning that occurs between the ages of about 18 months and two years.
Nifty Squid Vid

Nifty Squid Vid

Dec 11 2011 | comment(s)

The Humboldt squid's "invasion" of California has been a sophisticated series of move and counter-move. They're here, then they're gone; they're big, then they're small.

I've explained--and Professor Gilly has explained in greater detail--how these animals have probably been reacting to environmental change. But if you'd rather watch a short video than have to read all that stuff, KGO-TV will oblige you: