• An experiment: Feynman Diagrams for Undergrads

    Updated: 2012-05-31 19:34:22
    The past couple of weeks I’ve been busy juggling research with an opportunity I couldn’t pass up: the chance to give lectures about the Standard Model to Cornell’s undergraduate summer students working on CMS. The local group here has a fantastic program which draws motivated undergrads from the freshman honors physics sequence. The students take [...]

  • Underground science lab dedicated deep in the Black Hills

    Updated: 2012-05-31 16:21:27
    Wednesday, May 30, marked the official opening of the Davis Campus of the Sanford Underground Research Facility, 4,850 feet down in the former Homestake gold mine in Lead, South Dakota.

  • Vital Signs: A Leg of Legendary Size | DISCOVER Magazine

    Updated: 2012-05-31 03:10:00
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  • Please Peter, do not give up!

    Updated: 2012-05-30 05:46:00
    : , Physics Without Ideology Bite by Bite The search for a theory of everything : satire about bad candidates and gentle fun about good candidates , such as the strand-spaghetti . model 30 May 2012 Please Peter , do not give up Peter Woit is one of my heroes . One of the few men who tell clearly what is right and what is wrong . He is one of those people who are an example of what a man should be . If all people were honest and straight like he is , the world would be a better . place In his new post he writes about a German mathematician . And he writes that this guy clarified the math of the standard model . But all the work of this mathematician concerns continuous space and continuous time both described by real number coordinates . But neither time nor space are continuous We can

  • DOE awards $2.5 million to Fermilab’s Brendan Casey

    Updated: 2012-05-29 14:00:38
    This month, the Department of Energy’s Office of Science named Fermilab's Brendan Casey a recipient of the 2012 DOE Early Career Research Award. It will support his research on the detector technology for the Muon g-2 experiment with a total of $2.5 million over five years.

  • Viewpoint: Mimicking Magnetic Fields in Optical Lattices

    Updated: 2012-05-29 14:00:00
    Two groups use different approaches to realize artificial magnetic fields for atoms trapped in a one-dimensional optical lattice. Published Tue May 29, 2012

  • Computing for particle physics in perspective

    Updated: 2012-05-28 02:41:24
    1985: First Computing in High Energy Physics (CHEP) conference is held in Amsterdam. 1991 or 1992: I encounter the World Wide Web for the first time. There is no graphical browser for it yet, so I am underwhelmed and not sure what it would ever be good for. 1998: CHEP to be held in Chicago. [...]

  • Science: The Art of the Appropriate Approximation

    Updated: 2012-05-25 23:30:06
    There is this myth that science is exact. It is captured nicely in this quote from an old detective story: In the sciences we must be exact—not approximately so, but absolutely so. We must know. It isn’t like carpentry. A carpenter may make a trivial mistake in a joint, and it will not weaken his [...]

  • Quantum Mechanics When You Close Your Eyes | Cosmic Variance

    Updated: 2012-05-25 19:22:35
    Here’s a fun thing that has been zipping around the internets this week: a collection of “back of the envelope problems” put together by Edward Purcell. Hours of fun reading if you’re the kind of person who likes to spend their leisure time doing word problems (and I mean that in the best possible way). [...]

  • CERN’s prodigal neutralino comes back from outer space

    Updated: 2012-05-25 15:54:07
    Christer Fuglesang, a former physicist who worked at CERN and now an European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut brought back to CERN a neutralino he had taken along on his mission to the Internal Space Station in 2009. Yesterday, Christer Fuglesang (right) former physicist from CERN and now astronaut with the European Space Agency, brought back [...]

  • Le neutralino prodigue revient au CERN après un voyage dans l’espace

    Updated: 2012-05-25 15:33:04
    Christer Fuglesang, un physicien ayant travaillé au CERN avant de devenir astronaute pour l’Agence Spatiale Européenne (ESA), a ramené hier au CERN un neutralino qu’il avait emporté avec lui lors de sa mission vers la Station Spatiale Internationale (ISS). Christer Fuglesang (à droite), astronaute de l’agence aérospatiale européenne (ESA) remettant à Sergio Bertolucci (à gauche), [...]

  • Focus: How to Make Soft, Wavy Structures

    Updated: 2012-05-25 14:00:00
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  • Physicists, start your searches: INSPIRE database now online

    Updated: 2012-05-24 16:00:27
    The next generation of the iconic SPIRES particle-physics database, called INSPIRE, is now online and operational, ready to serve scientists around the globe.

  • Synopsis: Phasons Passing By

    Updated: 2012-05-24 14:00:00
    Simulations help to visualize the propagation of structural excitations, called phasons, that occur in quasicrystals. Published Thu May 24, 2012

  • Synopsis: Training Catalytic Atoms to Stop Fidgeting

    Updated: 2012-05-24 14:00:00
    Single atoms deposited on an iron oxide surface provide a valuable model system for studying catalysis. Published Thu May 24, 2012

  • Synopsis: Deconstructing the Quark Gluon Plasma

    Updated: 2012-05-24 14:00:00
    Clues about the briefly liberated quarks and gluons in high-energy collisions lie in the relic hadrons they leave behind. Published Thu May 24, 2012

  • Synopsis: Using Topspin to Probe the Standard Model

    Updated: 2012-05-24 14:00:00
    The decay of top quarks could reveal physics beyond the standard model, but so far shows nothing unusual. Published Thu May 24, 2012

  • Driving the next magnet revolution

    Updated: 2012-05-22 15:20:43
    The Department of Energy recently presented an Early Career Award to Tengming Shen, an engineer working to spur the next magnet revolution.

  • Higgs Update

    Updated: 2012-05-21 15:45:03
    The announcement of new Higgs results from the LHC is now scheduled for about a month and a half from now, July 7th, 9:30 and 10am Melbourne time, at ICHEP2012. The LHC is performing well, with nearly 2.5 fb-1 of … Continue reading →

  • Synopsis: Layering to Warm Up

    Updated: 2012-05-21 14:00:00
    Alternating layers of insulating materials form a rudimentary device that controls thermal currents. Published Mon May 21, 2012

  • Viewpoint: Quantum Dipolar Gases in Boson or Fermion Flavor

    Updated: 2012-05-21 14:00:00
    Lanthanide atoms are offering the best opportunities to study the effects of strong dipolar interactions in a quantum gas. Published Mon May 21, 2012

  • On the long road

    Updated: 2012-05-19 00:00:02
    Finally, it’s summer time! As I’ve said from the beginning, summer is a very nice time to be a professor, as we don’t have to do half of our job for these few months. But already this summer is filling up with things to do, and a lot of it involves travel. I have trips [...]

  • 20 Things You Didn't Know About... Allergies | DISCOVER Magazine

    Updated: 2012-05-18 15:15:00
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  • Focus: Electron Spin Influences Nanotube Motion

    Updated: 2012-05-18 14:00:00
    The oscillations of a carbon nanotube can strongly affect the spin of an electron trapped on the tube, and the tube can also be affected by the spin, according to theory. Published Fri May 18, 2012

  • Scientists celebrate completion of underground physics laboratory

    Updated: 2012-05-17 14:00:18
    The elevator that sinks into the Vale Creighton Mine near Sudbury, Ontario, is a gateway to two different worlds. One is Canada’s largest nickel mine, opened at the turn of the last century and still in operation. The other is SNOLAB, a large underground particle physics laboratory, the grand opening of which will take place today.

  • Synopsis: U-shaped Grains Get Clingy

    Updated: 2012-05-17 14:00:00
    Piles of staples stand up to shaking better if the staple prongs have an intermediate length. Published Thu May 17, 2012

  • Synopsis: Two Donors Are Better Than One

    Updated: 2012-05-17 14:00:00
    Pairs of donor atoms read out the energy levels in a silicon nanowire. Published Thu May 17, 2012

  • Synopsis: Wave of Correlation

    Updated: 2012-05-17 14:00:00
    Theorists can now calculate the speed with which correlations travel in a chain of interacting atoms. Published Thu May 17, 2012

  • The Smell of SUSY

    Updated: 2012-05-17 00:34:42
    The implications of the failure to find SUSY at the LHC are beginning to sink into the particle physics community: the paradigm that dominated the subject for the past 30 years has collapsed in the face of experimental (non)-evidence, threatening … Continue reading →

  • Thursday: Chat with physicists on Twitter

    Updated: 2012-05-16 20:08:23
    Tomorrow at 1 p.m. EST, accelerator physicists from four national laboratories will take to Twitter to discuss discovery science with the tweeting public. To take part in the event, dubbed Lab Breakthrough Office Hours, use the hashtag #labchat.

  • Supersymmetry, epicycles and Santa Claus

    Updated: 2012-05-16 05:05:00
    : , Physics Without Ideology Bite by Bite The search for a theory of everything : satire about bad candidates and gentle fun about good candidates , such as the strand-spaghetti . model 16 May 2012 Supersymmetry , epicycles and Santa Claus 1. Experiments show that there is no supersymmetry in nature . For most humans , this argument is sufficient . For the rest , here are a few more . arguments 2. The standard model has around 20 unexplained parameters . Supersymmetry introduces another 100 or so , even less unexplained ones , to explain the twenty . This means : supersymmetry has zero explanatory power . Nobody would believe that intelligent people reason like this . Supersymmetry is the epicycle theory of modern physics . No , epicycles needed fewer additional parameters , and epicycles

  • Researchers developing underwater neutrino experiment make oceanographic discovery

    Updated: 2012-05-15 22:45:53
    Researchers deciding where to place the planned Neutrino Mediterranean Observatory, or NEMO, were measuring water currents and temperatures when they stumbled upon unexpected patterns in the water.

  • CHARM of Hawaii

    Updated: 2012-05-14 20:43:50
    I’m blogging from the site of CHARM-2012 conference, which has just started in Honolulu, Hawaii. This is a fantastic conference at a fantastic place! The conference will have four full-packed days filled with many aspects of physics related to charmed quark. As I reported earlier, many exciting recent results are associated with charm quark. Why [...]

  • Viewpoint: A Closer Connection Between Entanglement and Nonlocality

    Updated: 2012-05-14 14:00:00
    A generalization of one of the most famous experiments in quantum foundations provides a powerful new unifying concept. Published Mon May 14, 2012

  • Viewpoint: The Smallest Thermal Machines

    Updated: 2012-05-14 14:00:00
    New functionalities might arise from rethinking the essential ingredients needed to build a heat-driven machine. Published Mon May 14, 2012

  • Focus: Metallic Glass isn’t All Glassy

    Updated: 2012-05-11 14:00:00
    Metallic glasses, new materials that are strong and durable, are not entirely disordered on the atomic scale but can have regions of near-crystalline order. Published Fri May 11, 2012

  • Needle in a haystack

    Updated: 2012-05-10 15:31:33
    We are back to discussing B physics today, with the observation of the rare decay: \(B^- \rightarrow \pi^- \mu^+ \mu^-\). So what is this decay? It’s a \(B^-\) meson (made of a b and an anti-u quark) decaying into a \(\pi^-\) meson (made of a d and an anti-u quark) and two muons. And why [...]

  • Synopsis: Thinking Inside the Box

    Updated: 2012-05-10 14:00:00
    Finding the optimal solution to filling a volume with spheres could be useful for modeling nanoparticles. Published Thu May 10, 2012

  • Synopsis: Scaling the Heights

    Updated: 2012-05-10 14:00:00
    Researchers have found an exact solution to an equation describing growth of materials at interfaces. Published Thu May 10, 2012

  • New accelerator to study steps on the path to fusion

    Updated: 2012-05-09 15:30:27
    Berkeley Lab scientists and engineers announced in a press release today that they have completed a machine tailor-made to examine an approach to fusion power.

  • Phenomenology 2012

    Updated: 2012-05-09 01:20:54
    This week at the University of Pittsburgh the Phenomenology 2012 Symposium has talks reviewing the current situation in particle physics phenomenology. Not much new, but there is one plenary talk on string phenomenology, Cumrun Vafa’s Stringy Predictions for Particle Physics. … Continue reading →

  • 20 Things You Didn't Know About... Science 
Fraud | DISCOVER Magazine

    Updated: 2012-05-08 15:50:00
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  • Fermilab scientists revise plans for construction of new accelerator project

    Updated: 2012-05-07 22:16:21
    With their eyes on the tight federal budget, scientists plan to divide Project X, the accelerator project that will power Fermilab's future experiments, into phases in order to lessen the initial costs.

  • Viewpoint: Pushing Bits Through a Spin Wire

    Updated: 2012-05-07 14:00:00
    Short chains of iron atoms deposited on a metal surface could be used to transmit bits of magnetic information. Published Mon May 07, 2012

  • Viewpoint: Wiring Up Displacement Currents

    Updated: 2012-05-07 14:00:00
    Specially designed waveguides act like conduits for high-frequency displacement currents. Published Mon May 07, 2012

  • And So It Begins: Pheno 2012

    Updated: 2012-05-07 12:00:31
    Hi All! Today marks the beginning of the Phenomenology 2012 Symposium, Pheno for short, or #Pheno2012 if you are into hashtags, here at the University of Pittsburgh.     It will definitely be an exciting three days because this conference is dedicated solely to promoting the partnership and collaboration between experimentalists and theorists. For experimentalists, [...]

  • イギリスの重い雲の下で.

    Updated: 2012-05-07 01:54:42
    Quantum Diaries Thoughts on work and life from particle physicists from around the . world Home About Quantum Diaries Latest Posts All Blogs John Felde UC Davis USA View Blog Read Bio Latest Posts 2012.03.05 Fast Photosensors for Neutrino Physics 2011.11.22 Recent Events at UC Davis 2011.11.09 First Double Chooz Neutrino Oscillation Result USLHC USLHC USA View Blog Read Bio Latest Posts 2012.04.30 We’ll deal with that later 2012.04.28 The LHC sneaks along 2012.04.24 Tetrahedral Carbon Lattice Frank Simon MPI for Physics Germany View Blog Read Bio Latest Posts 2011.12.14 After the talk is before the talk 2011.10.24 Breathe 2011.10.22 The CLIC Physics and Detectors CDR Flip Tanedo USLHC USA View Blog Read Bio Latest Posts 2012.04.17 Name these brands plants Name these particles 2012.04.11

  • Half Hour to Midnight

    Updated: 2012-05-05 18:24:31
    Matt Strassler posts here about a recent panel discussion of phenomenologists talking about the implications of the latest results from the LHC. You can listen to the thing for yourself, and see what Matt has to say at his blog, … Continue reading →

  • Focus: Proteins Hook up Where Water Allows

    Updated: 2012-05-04 14:00:00
    The binding of two proteins is strongest in regions where the packing of surrounding water molecules is already disrupted. Published Fri May 04, 2012

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