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Mars Base

Higgs-like Particle Discovered at CERN - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...ke-particle-discovered-at-cern

scibyte53 HiggsBoson

shared by Mars Base on 04 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • According to the theory, a particle acquires mass through its interaction with the Higgs field, which is believed to pervade all of space and has been compared to molasses that sticks to any particle rolling through it.
  • the Higgs would be responsible for how particles come together to form matter, and without it, the universe would have remained a formless miss-mash of particles shooting around at the speed of light.
Mars Base

At Long Last, Physicists Discover Famed Higgs Boson - ScienceNOW - 0 views

news.sciencemag.org/...-last-physicists-discover.html

scibyte53 HiggsBoson

shared by Mars Base on 04 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Both the CMS (top) and the ATLAS (bottom) detectors see evidence of the Higgs boson decaying into a pair of photons in the form of a peak in a so-called mass plot. The agreement of the two peaks and other data clinch the discovery of the Higgs.
  • CMS detector see clear signs of the Higgs decaying into two photons
  • From the energies of the two photons, physicists can infer the mass of their supposed parent particle
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • peak atop a background produced by random photon pairs
  • signals the presence of a Higgs-like particle with a mass of 125 giga-electron volts (GeV) or about 133 times the mass of the proton
  • CMS researchers also see evidence of the Higgs decaying to a pair of particles called W bosons or a pair of particles called Z bosons
  • ATLAS team sees a similar peak in the mass plot for Higgses decaying into photon pairs
  • ATLAS researchers also see the Higgs decaying into Z bosons and other combinations of particles
  • Taken together, ATLAS's signals just meet the 5 sigma standard of discovery, Gianotti reported, earning immediate applause
  • in 1970, theorists predicted the existence of a particle called the charm quark; two experimenters independently discovered the particle in 1974, for which they received the Nobel Prize in physics 2 years later
  • In 1968, theorists predicted the existence of the W and Z bosons; in 1983, those particles were also discovered
  • won the Nobel Prize in
  • won it in 1984
  • Physicists say that conceptual holes in the standard model strongly suggest that the theory is incomplete
  • in the standard model interactions between the Higgs and the other particles ought to force the mass of the Higgs to skyrocket to a value a trillion times larger
  • that doesn't happen
  • most physicists suspect there are new particles out there that somehow counteract ballooning of the Higgs mass.
  • But will such particles have low enough masses to be discovered with any conceivable human-made atom smasher? "There's absolutely no guarantee,"
  • Peter Higgs
Mars Base

Peter Higgs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/Peter_Higgs

scibyte53 HiggsBoson

shared by Mars Base on 04 Jul 12 - Cached
  • Peter Ware Higgs, FRS, FRSE, FKC
  • British theoretical physicist and emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh
  • so-called Higgs mechanism, which was proposed by several physicists besides Higgs at about the same time, predicts the existence of a new particle, the Higgs boson (often described as "the most sought-after particle in modern physics
Mars Base

Cosmology group finds measurable evidence of dark matter filament - 0 views

phys.org/...up-evidence-dark-filament.html

scibyte53 DarkMatter

shared by Mars Base on 05 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • As time passes and more research is done, more evidence is compiled supporting the theory that suggests that dark matter is a real thing, even though no direct evidence for its existence has ever been found
  • evidence comes about as measurements of other phenomenon are taken, generally involving gravitational pull on objects in the universe we can see that cannot be explained by other means
  • One of these instances is where weak gravitational lensing occurs, which is where light appears to bend as it passes by large objects
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • Theory suggests that in cases where lensing occurs but there is no detectable object behind its cause, the reason for it is dark matter exerting a gravitational influence
  • That has been the case with what are known as filaments; gravitational effects that connect galactic superclusters, keeping them bound together.
  • Abell 222/223 is a galactic supercluster system in the constellation Cetus. It’s made up of two parts, 222 and 223, separated by a gas cloud and something else that cannot be seen
  • Dietrich and his team found that lensing occurred as light behind the gas cloud made its way to us by passing between the two parts
  • after careful study and mathematical analysis, they found that the observable matter that existed in the gas cloud could only account for about nine percent of the mass required to cause the degree of lensing that was occurring
  • the only possible explanation was that dark matter in the shape of a filament was the cause.
  • results
  • are doubly interesting
  • they strengthen all of the theories surrounding dark matter
  • because the team has found a means of not just demonstrating an example of dark matter at work, but have done so in a way that is so precise that they were able to determine the actual shape of a dark matter filament
  • measurements of lensing were taken at different parts of the area between 222 and 223 showing different degrees of light bending
  • only possible because of the unique way the supercluster is situated relative to us, allowing a nearly straight on view
Mars Base

Smart headlights let drivers see between the raindrops - 0 views

phys.org/...dlights-drivers-raindrops.html

scibyte53 headlight

shared by Mars Base on 05 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • During low-light conditions, drivers rely mainly on headlights to see the road but the same headlights reduce visibility when light is reflected off of precipitation back to the driver
  • Carnegie Mellon professor and his team
  • Computer science professor Srinivasa Narasimhan
  • ...22 more annotations...
  • stream light in between the drops
  • answer consists of a co-located imaging and illumination system-- camera, projector, and beamsplitter
  • integrate an imager and processing unit with a light source
  • camera images the precipitation at the top of the field of view
  • processor can tell where the drops are headed and sends a signal to the headlights
  • make their adjustments and react to dis-illuminate the particles
  • entire action, starting from capture to reaction, takes about 13 ms.
  • system runs at 120 Hz. The camera uses a 5 ms exposure time and the system has a total latency of 13 ms
  • how fast will the system need to be, to be actually effective, in a car
  • simulations show that a system operating near 1,000 Hz, with a total system latency of 1.5 ms, and exposure time of 1 ms can achieve 96.8% accuracy
  • 90% light throughput during a heavy rainstorm [25 mm/hr] on a vehicle traveling 30 km/hr
  • 400 Hz with less accuracy will be a significant [>= 70%] improvement for the driver
  • operating range is about 13 feet in front of the headlights
  • recent computer vision methods that digitally remove rain and snow streaks from captured images
  • simulation results show that it is possible to maintain light throughput well above 90 percent for various precipitation types and
  • prototype system operating at 120Hz on laboratory-generated rain, which validated their earlier simulations
  • prototype consists of a camera with gigabit ethernet interface (Point Grey, Flea3), DLP projector (Viewsonic, PJD62531), and desktop computer with Intel architecture (Intel i7 quad core processor).
  • next steps will involve making the system faster and more compact to test on a moving platform
  • research for those ends may take three to four more years and “commercializing it as a product will take additional years.”
  • the prototype was built with off-the-shelf components
  • data transfer speed is slower than if the components were more closely integrated
  • more sophisticated algorithms are needed to maximize system speed and account for factors such as vehicle motion and wind turbulence
Mars Base

CERN physicists report strong evidence of Higgs boson (w/ live video from CERN) - 0 views

phys.org/...-strong-evidence-particle.html

scibyte53 HiggsBoson

shared by Mars Base on 05 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Joe Incandela, leader of one of the teams known as CMS, told scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, that his team of 2,100 scientists has "observed" a new particle that is a boson
  • data as consistent with the elusive Higgs boson
  • stopped short of definitively declaring discovery of the Higgs boson.
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • they have discovered a new particle that is consistent with the long-sought Higgs boson
  • which is believed to give all matter in the universe size and shape
  • We observe in our data clear signs of a new particle, at the level of 5 sigma, in the mass region around 126 GeV
  • it must be a boson and it’s the heaviest boson ever found
  • A more complete picture of today’s observations will emerge later this year after the LHC provides the experiments with more data.
  • The next step will be to determine the precise nature of the particle
  • LHC will continue running until the end of this year, and is expected to deliver twice as much data as we have so far
  • After that, it will be upgraded, and will be able to run at higher energy, which will help with the measurements.
  • . In the Standard Model (the simplest theory which describes the fundamental subatomic particles and the forces between them) it is hypothesized that there is only one Higgs Boson
  • in the Supersymmetric Model (which, unlike the Standard Model, incorporates the physics of dark energy and the full theory of gravitation) there could be up to five Higgs Boson
  • how will they know if it is one of many?
  • detailed decay properties of a supersymmetric Higgs Boson are different from those of the Standard Model version. Therefore, with sufficiently precise data we will be able to tell the difference
  • Supersymmetry is an extension of the Standard Model, rather than a replacement
  • The Standard Model will always remain as an excellent description of Nature at energies below those explored at the LHC
  • similar to the way in which Einstein’s General Relativity is the best description of very strong gravitational fields, but Newton’s gravity works perfectly well for almost all normal situations.
Mars Base

Quantum Diaries - 0 views

www.quantumdiaries.org/...he-way-towards-new-discoveries

scibyte53 HiggsBoson

shared by Mars Base on 06 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • All theorists today agree that our current theoretical model has its limits
  • the Standard Model
  • has more than 100 free parameters, making it impossible to obtain predictions without assigning fixed values to some of these parameters
Mars Base

CERN - Glossary - 0 views

public.web.cern.ch/...Glossary-en.php

scibyte53 HiggsBoson

shared by Mars Base on 08 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Boson The collective name given to the particles that carry forces between particles of matter
  • Higgs boson A particle predicted by theory. It is linked with the mechanism by which physicists think particles acquire mass.
Mars Base

Strange Vortex On Saturn Moon Titan | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/n-moon-titan-polar-vortex.html

GrabBag TitanVortex

shared by Mars Base on 11 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Cassini scientists will keep a close eye on Titan's south pole for further developments, which could shed light on the moon's complex, methane-based weather system
Mars Base

Surprising Swirls Above Titan's South Pole - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...swirls-above-titans-south-pole

GrabBag TitanVortex

shared by Mars Base on 11 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • new vantage point granted by its inclined orbit researchers have gotten a new look at the south pole of Titan
  • We suspect that this maelstrom, clearly forming now over the south pole and spinning more than forty times faster than the moon’s solid body, may be a harbinger of what will ultimately become a south polar hood as autumn there turns to winter.  Of course, only time will tell.
Mars Base

Moon Patterns Explained - Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...Moon_patterns_explained

GrabBag LunarSwirls

shared by Mars Base on 11 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • New research suggests that swirling designs on the dusty lunar surface might be the product of electric fields generated by pockets of magnetic bubbles.
  • looking at these strange, mysterious structures since the invention of the telescope
  • long suspected that weak magnetic fields near the moon’s surface might shape the looping patterns
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • created a scaled-down laboratory version to find out if man-made magnetic bubbles could also deflect rushing rivers of particles
  • used a device called a solar wind tunnel to shoot a jet of blazing particles down a tube
  • a thin electric field formed around the magnet, shielding it — and anything behind it — from the scorching flow
  • if a tiny magnet — only slightly larger than an eraser tip — could make a protective electric skin, the moon’s much larger magnetic bubbles might also be able to
Mars Base

Hubble Space Telescope detects fifth moon of Pluto (Update) - 0 views

phys.org/...pace-telescope-moon-pluto.html

scibyte54 PlutoMoons

shared by Mars Base on 12 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • 4 percent as bright as Pluto II (Nix) and half as bright as S/2011 (134340) 1
Mars Base

Pluto Has a Fifth Moon, Hubble Telescope Reveals | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/fth-moon-hubble-discovery.html

scibyte54 PlutoMoons

shared by Mars Base on 12 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • new moon has been discovered orbiting Pluto, scientists announced
  • July 11
  • discovery comes almost exactly one year after Hubble spotted Pluto's fourth moon, a tiny body currently called P4
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Pluto's other moons are Charon, Nix, Hydra and P4. Charon is by far the largest, measuring 648 miles (1,043 kilometers) across. Nix and Hydra range between 20 and 70 miles (32 to 113 km) wide, while P4 is thought to be 8 to 21 miles (13 to 34 km) across. 
  • concern about hazards is going up," he added, referring to the collision risk New Horizons will face when it cruises by Pluto in a few years
  • provisionally named S/2012 (134340) 1, though it's also going by the moniker P5
  • P5 appears to be irregularly shaped, with a diameter between 6 and 15 miles (10 to 24 km). It zips around Pluto at an average distance of 29,000 miles (47,000 km
  • Charon was first spotted in 1978, 48 years after the discovery of Pluto. Nix and Hydra were found by Hubble in 2005
  • Pluto orbits 3.65 billion miles (5.87 billion km) from the sun on average, about 39 times farther away than Earth does
  • The inventory of the Pluto system we're taking now with Hubble will help the New Horizons team design a safer trajectory for the spacecraft
Mars Base

Fifth Moon Found Around Pluto - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...fifth-moon-found-around-pluto

scibyte54 PlutoMoons

shared by Mars Base on 12 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • lists image sets acquired on 5 separate occasions in June and July. According to the abstract, P5 is 4% as bright as Nix and 50% as bright as P4.
Mars Base

A Big Magnet in a Small Fish - ScienceNOW - 0 views

news.sciencemag.org/...ig-magnet-in-a-small-fish.html

scibyte54 Fish

shared by Mars Base on 12 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • After spending 3 years at sea and traveling up to 300 kilometers away from home, a rainbow trout can swim straight back to its original hatching ground, following freshwater streams inland and rarely heading in the wrong direction
  • likely relies on many senses; the fish have superb eyesight and smell
  • trout also seem to rely on Earth's magnetic fields, which point them in the right direction
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • the first time in any animal, scientists have isolated magnetic cells in the fish that respond to these fields
  • may help researchers get to the root of magnetic sensing in a variety of creatures, including birds.
  • Previous research has shown that many species of fish, as well as migratory birds, have the ability to detect differences in magnetic field strengths, which vary around the
  • magnetism in each cell was tens to hundreds of times stronger than researchers had hypothesized
  • suggests that the fish may be able to detect not only the direction of North based on magnetism, but small differences in magnetic field strength that can give them more detailed information about their precise latitude and longitude
  • between one and four cells that rotated in turn with the rotating magnetic field. The team transferred the rotating cells to individual glass slides to study them further under the microscope.
Mars Base

Study finds switch that lets early lung cancer grow unchecked - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...rly-lung-cancer-unchecked.html

Cancer GrabBag

shared by Mars Base on 12 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Cellular change thought to happen only in late-stage cancers to help tumors spread also occurs in early-stage lung cancer as a way to bypass growth controls
  • study points to EMT as a key step in lung cancer progression during the earliest stages of cancer development
  • Normal cells recognize when they are dividing too rapidly, and turn on programs that block inappropriate cell division
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • found that early-stage lung cancer cells switch on EMT in order to bypass these controls
  • discovery could offer a new way to prevent progression to late-stage lung cancer
  • Because EMT is a well-recognized late-stage transition that occurs in all sorts of solid tumors, the researchers say they believe that the same early-stage use of EMT they found in lung cancer is likely occurring in other cancers.
  • Late-stage cancer uses EMT to change tumor cells into a form that can migrate through blood.
Mars Base

Study identifies how muscles are paralyzed during sleep - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...2012-07-muscles-paralyzed.html

SleepDisorder GrabBag

shared by Mars Base on 12 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Two powerful brain chemical systems work together to paralyze skeletal muscles during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
  • During REM sleep — the deep sleep where most recalled dreams occur — your eyes continue to move but the rest of the body's muscles are stopped
  • In a series of experiments
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • neuroscientists
  • found that the neurotransmitters gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glycine caused REM sleep paralysis in rats by "switching off" the specialized cells in the brain that allow muscles to be active
  • reversed earlier beliefs that glycine was a lone inhibitor of these motor neurons.
  • By identifying the neurotransmitters and receptors involved in sleep-related paralysis, this study points us to possible molecular targets for developing treatments for sleep-related motor disorders
  • Previous research suggested neurotransmitter receptors called ionotropic GABAA/glycine receptors in the motor neurons caused REM sleep paralysis
  • when the researchers blocked these receptors, REM sleep paralysis still occurred.
  • to prevent REM sleep paralysis, they had to block both the ionotropic receptors and metabotropic GABAB receptors, a different receptor system
  • when the motor cells were cut off from all sources of GABA and glycine, the paralysis did not occur
  • suggest the two neurotransmitters must both be present together to maintain motor control during sleep
  • finding could be especially helpful for those with REM sleep disorder, a disease that causes people to act out their dreams
Mars Base

Faster, less expensive device gives lab test results in 15 minutes at point-of-care - 0 views

phys.org/...ensive-device-lab-results.html

scibyte54 MedicalDevice

shared by Mars Base on 12 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed a lab-on-a-disk platform that they believe will be faster, less expensive and more versatile than similar medical diagnostic tools
  • seeking industry partners to license and commercialize the SpinDx technology
  • can determine a patient's white blood cell count, analyze important protein markers, and process up to 64 assays from a single sample, all in a matter of minutes.
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • Patients merely have to provide a pin-prick sample of blood.
  • The device uses a spinning disk, much like a CD player, to manipulate a sample. The disks contain commercially available reagents and antibodies specific to each protein marker.
  • envisions a "plug and play" approach whereby the physician chooses among a "cardiac disk," "immune disk" and similar options.
  • The disks
  • cost pennies to manufacture
  • Results can be delivered to the physician's computer in 15 minutes.
  • recently led a National Institutes of Health grant
  • to adapt the lab-on-a-disk platform for toxin diagnostics
  • device could be the most accurate method available to detect the botulinum toxin
  • despite scientific advances, laboratory mice remain the only reliable way to test for botulism
  • mouse bioassay is primitive, but remains the gold standard due to its sensitivity
  • SpinDx botulinum assay vastly outperformed the mouse bioassay in head-to-head tests, and requires absolutely no animal testing. Plus there are a lot of cost and speed advantages
  • botulism is quite rare — only about 145 cases are reported in the United States each year
  • lethality of the toxin makes it an attractive candidate for bioterrorism
Mars Base

'Post-it note' on breast cancer gene signals risk of disease spreading - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...reast-cancer-gene-disease.html

Cancer GrabBag

shared by Mars Base on 12 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Methylation of the gene could be used to flag up breast cancer patients who have a greater chance of the disease spreading – helping doctors decide what treatment plan would be most effective.
  • high levels of a molecular modification called methylation on a gene called CACNA2D3, were linked to the spread of the disease in breast cancer patients
  • gene CACNA2D3 is a known tumour suppressor gene which prevents cancer
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • next stage is to repeat these findings in larger studies with patients to confirm whether analysing methylation of the gene could be a useful test
  • research suggests that methyl groups can muffle the messages given by the CACNA2D3 gene - blocking its potential protective effect against breast cancer
Mars Base

Ex-Google VIP Joins Private Moon Race Team | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ize-moon-express-crawford.html

scibyte54 LunarXPrize

shared by Mars Base on 13 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Jimi Crawford, who had been engineering director for the Google Books project since 2009, has signed on with Moon Express
  • will serve as chief technology officer and software architect for the Silicon Valley firm, which is competing in the Google Lunar X Prize, a $30 million private race to the moon.
  • 25 teams participating in the Google Lunar X Prize, an international challenge to land a robot on the lunar surface, have it travel at least 1,650 feet (500 meters) and send data and images back to Earth.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • first privately funded team to do all of this will receive the $20 million grand prize
  • additional $10 million is set aside for second place and various special accomplishments, such as detecting water, bringing the prize's total purse to $30 million.
  • wraps up whenever all prizes are claimed — or, failing that, at the end of 2015
  • Moon Express officials say they're on target to beat the deadline.
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