The Large Hadron Collider is working better than expected. And it has collected oodles of data. But have they found the Higgs, yet? We asked Scientific American’s Davide Castelvecchi, who flew to Geneva to find out.
Tag Archives: physics
Have we found the Higgs, yet?
Filed under episode guide
Tagged Anna Armstrong, ATLAS, Big Science, CERN, CMS, Davide Castelvecchi, Ed Gerstner, Higgs boson, Higgs field, Large Hadron Collider, leptons, LHC, mass, particle physics, physics, quarks, Resonance FM, science
The Trouble With Neutrinos
In September, a group of particle physicists working in Italy made a dramatic announcement. They announced results — and not just one or two outlier results but a metric truckload of results — that suggested that beams of particles known as neutrinos created at CERN in Switzerland were violating the laws of physics established by […]
Filed under episode guide
Tagged Albert Einstein, Big Science, CERN, Chrissie Giles, Ed Gerstner, faster than light, Fermi, Gran Sasso, leptons, MINOS, neutrinos, OPERA, particle physics, Pauli, physics, Resonance FM, Ryan Nichol, science, special relativity
Multiverses and the Big Bang
Earlier this year, a paper appeared in the journal Physical Review D, entitled “First observational tests of eternal inflation: Analysis methods and WMAP 7-year results” describing analysis of 7 year long survey of the Cosmic Microwave Background — which is the afterglow of the big bang — that attempted to identify signatures of a picture […]
Filed under episode guide
Tagged Big Bang, Big Science, bubble collision hypothesis, CMB anisotropy, cosmic acceleration, cosmic inflation, Cosmic Microwave Background, cosmology, Ed Gerstner, Hiranya Peiris, Matt Johnson, multiverse, physics, Resonance FM, science, WMAP
Understanding the Cosmos, Part 1
2011 Nobel Prize in Physics Special In 1917, Albert Einstein added a constant — a sort of ‘fudge factor’ — to his Theory of General Relativity to counteract the force of gravity and keep his Universe static — that is, not expanding, not contracting. A few years later, Edwin Hubble proved the Universe wasn’t, in […]
Filed under episode guide
Tagged Adam G. Riess, Anna Armstrong, Big Science, Brian P. Schmidt, Chrissie Giles, cosmological constant, cosmology, dark energy, Ed Gerstner, Einstein, Hubble, Nobel Prize, Ofer Lahav, physics, Resonance FM, Saul Perlmutter, science, supernova
Higgs update
Particle Physics, or more accurately High Energy Particle Physics, is arguably the most elegant, the most poetic, the most beautiful branches of the physical sciences. In 1969, Robert Wilson – the man responsible for the construction of Fermilab, the National Accelerator Facility in Illinois, was called to justify the multimillion-dollar machine to the Congressional Joint […]
Filed under episode guide
Tagged Anna Armstrong, ATLAS, Big Science, CERN, CMS, Ed Gerstner, Fermilab, Higgs boson, Higgs field, Jonathan Butterworth, Large Hadron Collider, leptons, LHC, mass, particle physics, physics, quarks, Resonance FM, science, UCL
Green car tech
In recent shows we’ve been talked a bit about alternative energy technologies. Most times when people discuss the future of energy, they talk about how to generate it. Of course, that’s an important subject. But most alternative generation technologies aren’t likely to be ready for the big time for decades. What are we going to […]
Filed under episode guide
Tagged Anna Armstrong, batteries, Big Science, Chrissie Giles, Ed Gerstner, electric cars, electricity, formula one, fuel cells, global warming, hybrids, hydrogen, physics, Ralph Clague, Resonance FM, science
Alternative nuclear tech
Last episode we talked about the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. Towards the end of this discussion, we touched on the wisdom of continuing to pursue nuclear power in the light of the events at Fukushima. The usual suspects came up. Solar power, wind power, etcetera. The main concern levelled […]
Filed under episode guide
Tagged accelerator-driven, Anna Armstrong, Big Science, Carlo Rubbia, coal, Ed Gerstner, electricity, energy amplifiers, Fukushima, gas, global warming, Hywel Owen, neutrons, nuclear power, particle accelerators, physics, plutonium, protons, Resonance FM, science, subcritical, thorium, University of Manchester, uranium
Fukushima update
On the 11th of March this year, an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale occurred off the coast of Tohoku, Japan. It was the largest recorded earthquake to hit Japan and in the top 5 anywhere in the world since 1900. It, and the tsunami that followed, killed more than 15,000 people. And it […]
Filed under episode guide
Tagged Anna Armstrong, Big Science, China syndrome, Chrissie Giles, earthquake, Ed Gerstner, Fukushima, Geoff Brumfiel, Japan, meltdown, nuclear power, physics, Resonance FM, science, tsunami, uranium
Nanotechnology: What’s the Big Idea?
What so big about nanotechnology? Does it represent a brave new world? Or is it all just marketing hype? Will it eventually enable Ray Kurzweil to email his friends a pair of pants? In short, what’s in it for us? We ask nanotech guru Tim Harper.
Filed under episode guide
Tagged Big Science, chemistry, Ed Gerstner, nanobots, nanotechnology, physics, Resonance FM, science, Tim Harper
Fukushima meltdown
In the light of events at the Fukushima nuclear plant following the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, we discuss nuclear power and the implications of the unfolding situation.
Filed under episode guide
Tagged Anna Armstrong, Big Science, earthquake, Ed Gerstner, Fukushima, Japan, nuclear power, physics, plutonium, Resonance FM, science, Tanguy Chouard, tsunami, uranium, waste
