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A Research Position In Neuromorphic Computing And Nanophotonics Open In Padova, Italy

Five days are left to apply to a 2-year research position at INFN-Padova, to work in the context...

Apply For The USERN Prize, Win Cash, And Get A Keynote Talk In Astana

Nowadays it has become exceedingly hard to distinguish legitimate academic endeavours from scam...

A Record Of Past Activities

Every now and then, for one reason or another, an academic will have to update one's own CV. This...

Surviving Queues: 2 - On The Road

[For the first part of this two-part post, see here]...

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Tommaso DorigoRSS Feed of this column.

Tommaso Dorigo is an experimental particle physicist, who works for the INFN at the University of Padova, and collaborates with a number of exxperiments in physics and astrophysics, including the... Read More »

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On vacation

On vacation

Jul 22 2012 | comment(s)

I am spending my vacations in the beautiful island of Leukada, in the Ionian sea. Consequently, my posting rate here has dropped significantly in the last few days. I will return in August; in the meantime I will still post something, but expect a much smaller rate of articles for a while here.

Guest Post: Higgs ? 126 GeV, Said The Four Colour Theorem

Guest Post: Higgs ? 126 GeV, Said The Four Colour Theorem

Jul 20 2012 | comment(s)

The following text has been offered as a followup of the Higgs observation by the LHC experiments, which finds a signal at a mass compatible with the pre-discovery predictions made some time ago by Vladimir Khachatryan - ones which I published in this blog. - T.D.

Considerations following the Higgs boson discovery - Ashay Dharwadker
The Quote of the Week: Harrison Prosper, Why We Want To Be Sure

The Quote of the Week: Harrison Prosper, Why We Want To Be Sure

Jul 13 2012 | comment(s)

"Given that the search for the Higgs took some 45 years, tens of thousands of scientists and engineers, billions of dollars, not to mention numerous divorces, huge amounts of sleep deprivation, tens of thousands of bad airline meals, etc., etc., we want to be sure as is humanly possible that this is real."

 Harrison Prosper, Kirby W. Kemper Professor of Physics, Florida State University
Tony Smith: My Two Bets With TD

Tony Smith: My Two Bets With TD

Jul 12 2012 | comment(s)

As I explained yesterday, I am in the process of receiving payment for a few bets on possible discoveries at the LHC. Two such bets were on between me and Tony Smith, a long time reader of this blog and a lawyer with deep interest in particle physics (and a few interesting ideas). Tony now concedes them. These are for a total of $200 and a bottle of Strega (an italian liquor); the latter has been agreed to be turned into a bottle of good wine, much closer to my taste. I will post here a picture of the wine as I get it; in the meantime, Tony agreed to write something to describe the heart of the matter to readers of this blog. So the text below is from him.

LEARNING FROM LOSING
 
Peer Review: The Nuts And Bolts

Peer Review: The Nuts And Bolts

Jul 12 2012 | comment(s)

Sense About Science, the British charitable trust that tries to educate the community on the correct handling of scientific claims, and to "work in partnership with scientific bodies, research publishers, policy makers, the public and the media, to change public discussions about science and evidence", has produced today a very interesting booklet on peer review.
First Effects Of Cuts To HEP Research

First Effects Of Cuts To HEP Research

Jul 12 2012 | comment(s)

I cannot resist stealing the picture below, courtesy "IoNonFaccioNiente", the blog of Paolo Valente. Some context for foreigners is needed: the Italian government, in a rather untimely and shocking move, announced a 10% budget cut to the 2013 INFN, the italian institute for nuclear physics that pays my salary and significantly contributed to the discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN.