Past experimental data have narrowed the range of possible masses for the elusive Higgs Boson to lie somewhere between 120 and 150 GeV. Scientists at Fermilab now believe they will have enough data to close this window completely by the end of September. Although it will take months to process the data, it should reveal with certainty if the Higgs Boson exists or not in the mass range where the standard model predicts it must exist. If the Higgs Boson is not found in this mass range, then certainly something must be wrong with the standard model. Other theories exist that could explain electroweak symmetry breaking, but if any of those theories were correct it would imply that the standard model is not correct. Either way the results will be exciting. The questions should be settled one way or another by the end of 2012.

But, will the Large Hadron Collider find the Higgs Boson, or disprove it's existence, before Fermilab? The LHC is currently on a technical stop, so they will not be able to collect any data before Fermilab collects the data they need to close the 120 - 150 GeV window. But it will still take months for Fermilab to crunch the numbers, and anything is possible in the meantime.

One way or another, 2012 is going to be an exciting year for particle physics.

Bobby McFerrin turns an audience into a keyboard

Richard Feynaman discusses physics as fun to imagine

Researchers at Stanford and Purdue universities seem to have discovered new physiscs.  The main discovery is that the rate of radioactive decay in some elements is not contant over time.  The theory is the variation is due to influence from neutrinos being emitted from the sun. 

Jere Jenkins, a nuclear engineer at Purdue, found the rate of decay of manganese-54 dropped suddenly one night.  Only later was it discovered that at that moment the sun had produced a massive solar flare.  Other observations have found that measurements of the rate of nuclear decay vary seasonally.  Other patterns show a 33 day cycle, which is the rate of rotation of the sun’s core.

This discovery is truly amazing.  Current theories suggest the neutrino does not interact with matter in this way.  If in fact the neutrino is interacting with atomic nuclei and influencing the rate of nuclear decay, than some new principal of physics must be involved. 

Although no theory has yet been put forward as to how this may work, or what new physics might explain the variation, the impact on modern science will be profound.  To begin with, basic assumptions about radioactive decay are used to date things.  If the rate of decay can change, the dates may also change, which could affect everything from paleontology to climate change.

Perhaps more astounding is the possibilities of applications of these new principals of physics.  Being able to manipulate the rate of radioactive decay might bring new kinds of nuclear reactors.  Perhaps a way to stop a nuclear meltdown by arresting the rate of nuclear decay in the fuel rods, or maybe even finding a way to make hydrogen fusion feasible.  Perhaps the transmutation of atomic elements might be possible, if the atomic nuclei can be caused to decay more readily.  More sinister applications might include new kinds of nuclear weapons, or even a disintegration ray that would cause atoms and molecules to simply fall apart.

Curiously, the discovery was originally made by Ephraim Fischbach, a researcher at Purdue, who was trying to use radioactive decay as a source of random numbers.  It was his investigation that led to the discovery that the rate of decay inexplicably varied over time.

New Scientist

It's not your average confession show: a panel of leading physicists … was asked to respond to a single question: "What keeps you awake at night?"

These event horizons don't cause matter to disappear from the universe, but they might potentially create hawking radiation. The idea is to use a chain of SQUID devices to create a moving magnetic pulse that pushes along photons. Like salmon swimming up stream, if the pulses move along fast enough, the photons can not escape, except by quantum tunneling. This should produce hawking radiation the same way hawking radiation is, in theory, produced by the event horizion of a black hole.

Cool idea.

Original link

Physicists Create BlackMax To Search For Dimensions In Space At The LHC

Looks like they are going to use the Large Hadron Collider to create a black hole simulator, with a goal of searching for extra dimensions of timespace predicted by string theory.  Yeah, nothing could go wrong with that.  The scientists at the LHC assure us this is perfectly safe

Back before the physics of the universe were uneerstood philosophers and scientists believed that the earth floated in a sea of aether.

The concept of the aether impacted science long after scientists had rejected the ancient theory of the five elements. Prior to fully modern theories of electromagnetism, many scientists applied the term "aether" to the pervasive medium through which they thought light must propagate.

Aether (classical element)

Of course now-a-days, us being so much more enlightened about the ways of the universe, we are so much closer to knowing how the universe works, we can be more precise...or maybe not.

The newfound flow cannot be explained by, and is not directly related to, the expansion of the universe, though the researchers believe the two types of movement are happening at the same time.

Unknown "Structures" Tugging at Universe, Study Says

The more we know, the deeper the mystery goes.

From 1960 -1972, Yoichiro Nambu, Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa developed theories to explain how and when symmetry can break down at the subatomic level, predicting the existence of quarks and explaining the imbalance of matter and anti matter after the big bang, which explains the existence of all matter in the universe as we know it.

In a way, the concept of symmetry is similar to the concept of relativity.  Symmetry says that there is no point of view which is "special".  In nature, every event must take place symmetrically, so that if you look at it one way or another you see essentially the same picture.  Perhaps the most important example of this is the symmetry between matter and anti matter.  In physics, for every particle there is an anti particle.  The particles and anti particles are perfectly symmetric.  Everything a particle can do, the anti-particle does the same, and for every property of the particle the antiparticle has an equal but opposite property.  So, for example, the mass fo an electron and a positron (which is the antiparticle for the electron) are the same.  They both have the same charge, although the electron carries what we call a negative charge and the positron carries a positive charge.  If either the mass or charge were different, that would be a breakdown of symmetry.

Now, one of the big mysteries of the universe is, why is most of it made of "normal" matter and not antimatter?  The only reasonable explanation is that, in the big bang, slightly more matter was produced than antimatter.  Most of the matter and antimatter immediately annihilated and became energy, but a small surplus of normal matter was left over, which became the universe we see today.

Prior to 1960, physicists were at a loss to explain how this imbalance came about.  However, in 1960, Yoichiro Nambu introduced a description of spontaneous symmetry violation.  Nambu's theories now permeate the standard model of particle physics.  In 1972, Kobayashi and Maskawa expanded on this idea, explaining how kaons fail to follow the rules of symmetry.  This explanation actually predicted the existence of quarks, which were discovered later.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27057042/

The CERN Large Hadron Collider is scheduled to begin operating tomorow. Kiss the world goodbye and prepare to be sucked into an 11 dimensional tear in the fabric of time and space!

Looks like they are still working on it, Better hurry!

But seriously, looks like they are planning a live webcast at 8:30 AM on 9/10. I'm not sure if that's GMT or LHC local time, but if you go there now there is a cool video

By the way, ever wonder where exactly the LHC is? It's here

So I have kids and I am constantly looking for fun, educational, entertaining, games for them to play.  I like discovering open source free applications that satisfy this most of all.

Some examples of great programs: tux paint and tux typing.

Phun is different.  Where those two programs excel in teaching kids, Phun is just fun.

It's interactive in a way that not many programs are.  It actually has the playability that feels much like an RTS.  It does what you make it do now.  You add something and the environment acts upon it.

Watch this video.

And it's a toy...except it isn't: 

Radial engine:

Gears:

It's a remarkable achievement.

One big benefit I see in Phun over the other kid applications I've found is that Phun uses an almost standard application user interface.  The user needs to navigate menus and toolbars and context menus.  The other kid apps focus on learning something or doing something.  Phun does that also, but because of its complexity the standard UI is leveraged as the simplest solution.

This is a great side benefit.  Kids get exposure to the standard UI and how applications work.  This has direct impact on any and all other applications they might encounter.

If you have kids go get this program now.  Install it, run it and watch your kids be sucked in for hours.  Heck go do it yourself.  It's really addicting.

Update:  Garrett Lisi is called on the carpet by a fellow physicist Luboš Motl for shoddy work.  Debunked?

Why? Well, we have seen that a completely continuous spectrum of people between serious physicists and manifest crackpots has been created and the recent fashionable trend is to accept an ever broader set of passionate amateurs and undereducated, intellectually challenged loons into the physics circles. [emphasis mine]

But the article is filled with vitriol and me being a layman when it comes to physics of this depth can't make a clear call as of right now as to what is true or false.

Anyways, I'll fall back on the truism, if it looks too good to be true then it probably is.  String theory has years of blackboard chalk and millions of lines of code behind it trying to disprove it and it hasn't been brought down yet.

Hadron collider, tell us what is the truth.

Posted previously:

Garrett Lisi - Surfer...Snowboarder...Supra-Genius!

Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything

Yes that is Garrett in the middle also.

Einstein for the 21st Century.

From what I gather there has been a breakthrough over the past several years with regards to an elegant geometric pattern named E8. It was first discovered in 1887 but only completely understood this year by mathematicians.

To solve that problem it took a huge effort.

Mathematicians are known for their solitary style of working, but the combined assault on what is described as "one of the largest and most complicated structures in mathematics" required the effort of 18 mathematicians from America and Europe for an intensive four-year collaboration.

Once the structure of E8 was understood, Garrett Lisi had a basis upon which to build his work.

In fact the article from last March regarding the understanding of E8 Symmetry has a lot of foreshadowing for the discoveries that Garrett has gone on to submit.

"This is an impressive achievement," said Hermann Nicolai, Director of the Albert Einstein Institute in Potsdam, Germany. "While mathematicians have known for a long time about the beauty and the uniqueness of E8, we physicists have come to appreciate its exceptional role only more recently - yet, in our attempts to unify gravity with the other fundamental forces into a consistent theory of quantum gravity, we now encounter it at almost every corner," he said, referring to efforts to combine the theory of the very big (general relativity) with the very small (quantum mechanics). "Thus, understanding the inner workings of E8 is not only a great advance for pure mathematics, but may also help physicists in their quest for a unified theory."

So perhaps the discovery that Garrett made would have been reached soon by other physicists.

But credit needs to be placed where it is due.  For Garrett has a great mind that was able to see a potential answer to one of the great remaining questions in physics and mathematics.