2011 Physics Nobel Laureate Saul Perlmutter is on mission to equip future generations with critical thinking, an approach taken from the scientific toolbox, that can be useful within and outside science, he believes. In this podcast interview with EuroScientist, Perlmutter shares his views on how this can be done. Read more […]
Last years’s results of the CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) brought the director general of the European Particle Physics Laboratory, Rolf-Dieter Heuer, to comment that “a Higgs boson” had been discovered. He nuanced his statement by saying it was “not necessarily the standard model Higgs boson”. One might wonder whether such a “non-standard Higgs” is a true triumph of the so-called standard model, or has a “non-standard” standard model still to be developed to make use of such a triumph? Read more […]
It’s a moot point that perhaps only one of Einstein’s papers went through the modern scientific peer review process and I often wonder whether an email received from him today suggesting that he’s overturned Newton’s work with talk of warped space-time and wormholes wouldn’t simply fail at the first or second step of my ”Fraudulent Invention Debunkifier” flowchart mentioned around this time last year on the Pivot Points column. Read more […]
So. There have been lots of responses to my last article on the faster than light neutrinos. Some readers have asked me to explain to them the consequences of the measurement being correct. Others have been interested to hear more about the changing landscape of digital publishing. While a rare few were quietly satisfied with the idea that the neutrino result was well off being a ‘discovery’, and that we would have to wait patiently for a few years to find out what it might all mean. Read more […]
Bright and early on 3 January 2011, 140 physics lecturers, students and other staff at Utrecht University in the Netherlands made their way from the physics department to the offices of the university administration. The purpose of the demonstration was to submit a petition objecting to proposed cutbacks, and to the removal of department head Casper Erkelens after he refused to sign a document agreeing to the reforms. Read more […]
Fusion power is one step closer to becoming a reality now that a new phase of construction has begun at the site of ITER, the world’s largest experimental fusion reactor. Twenty five years after the first talks of an international fusion energy project, the new works at the site in the south of France mark the beginning of preparations for the tokamak, the core part of the reactor. Sabina Griffith at ITER told the Euroscientist that after waiting for a year for this construction to start, it has had a great effect on the staff on site. ”We can finally see ITER taking shape,” she said Read more […]
Who said physics couldn’t be cute? The Particle Zoo is the brainchild of Particle Zookeeper Julie Peasley who designs and makes subatomic particle plushies for physicists and geeks around the world. Read more […]
European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), with its multitude of accelerators, has opened up the possibility for scientists to answer some huge questions. I imagine CERN’s To Do list to read something like “1 – understand the intricacies of the Big Bang, 2 – find the Higgs boson, 3 – figure out dark matter, 4 – unify fundamental forces.” However, there is one underlying question that is arguably even more challenging – “How are we going to pay for all this?” Read more […]
European science conversations by the community, for the community
