Physics

First Effects Of Cuts To HEP Research

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 INF ...

Blog Post - Tommaso Dorigo - Jul 12 2012 - 4:05am

Tony Smith: My Two Bets With TD

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 ...

Article - Tommaso Dorigo - Jul 12 2012 - 8:28am

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

" 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 w ...

Blog Post - Tommaso Dorigo - Jul 13 2012 - 6:26pm

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

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 ...

Article - Tommaso Dorigo - Jul 22 2012 - 2:49am

Not Afraid Of The Dark: Dark Energy

There is a “ Carnival of Cosmology: Dark Energy ”; here is my contribution: I will discuss the public acceptance of dark energy (1), then I explain that dark energy is crazy but also that the crazy stuff is actually basic general relativity, so that if you ...

Article - Sascha Vongehr - Jul 23 2012 - 9:35am

The New Date For The End Of The Universe Will Be...

How will the Universe end?  And when? It's been speculation in religion and philosophy since man realized he was special.  Can physics offer anything new? Let's go to the Dark Energy hypotheses and see.  1998 really messed us up, theoretically. U ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jul 24 2012 - 12:11pm

Quantum Randi Challenge News And Plea

Slowly but surely, because it is a good idea, the Quantum Randi Challenge (QRC) generates interest behind the curtains. Some think that because of this, it is all over, but they are mistaken. Several researchers wanted to properly quote the QRC despite of ...

Article - Sascha Vongehr - Sep 13 2013 - 9:47pm

HEP Cartoons: A New Entry

The communication of science to the general public is a subject dear to me, but unfortunately one that the majority of my colleagues neglect to consider as one to which to devote time and efforts. In the last decade blogs have started to fill the huge gap ...

Article - Tommaso Dorigo - Jul 28 2012 - 3:20am

Metamolecules And Light-Speed Chirality

Researchers have created the first artificial molecules whose chirality can be rapidly switched from a right-handed to a left-handed orientation with a beam of light.  Chirality is the distinct left/right orientation or “handedness” of some types of molecu ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 29 2012 - 6:30am

Do Not Bet On Quantum Physics (in Public)

If the odds are in your favor, why not bet some money? There have been plenty of high profile bets in physics. Bets spice up stuff. Moreover: If nobody is willing to take your offer, they effectively publicly admit defeat. If Laplace believes in a determi ...

Article - Sascha Vongehr - Sep 11 2013 - 4:29am