The rumors of Higgs boson have been rampant since last week, John’s bump hunting and Tommaso’s notes at 2.1 Sigma excess at 140 to 160 Gev.
I think I’ll wait for the LHC data.
Of course, I don’t particular want Higgs to show up! I think there will be more interesting physics if the standard model is not right. It may be a bit harder but more fun in the long run.
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One forgets the beauty of the fluids and the kinetic poetry they write.
Photo by Irene Muller in Germany. She also has awesome pictures of smoke and dancing drops, and ripples.
The pictures that I really like are the pictures where she shows things “happening” before they happen. Like ripples forming before the drop falls in a pool of liquid!
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This hubble map of dark matter distribution taken in 3D is really interesting.
The part that is new and most exciting is that there are patches of dark matter where there is no visible baryonic matter, and there are other patches where there is baryonic matter but no dark matter.
The normal matter collect collects within the densest concentration of dark matter, so I would have expected every notable structure to be surrounded by darkmatter. Which is not the case. Just the dark matter without the baryonic matter can probably be explained away (but they are a bit strange) but not other way around.
The results are based on about half a million observations of distortion of galaxies’s shape coming from gravitational lensing effect. The data was combined from the Sabaru telescope, the large telescope in Chile, Hubble observations and Newton X-ray satellite.
Source: Massey, R. et al., Dark matter maps reveal cosmic scaffolding, doi:10.1038/nature05497, 7 January 2007 and various other websites.
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A lot of people have Dark Matter measurements as their pick for the Top Physics story of 2006. e.g., AIP Physicsbuzz. I beg to differ. I know its a clean experiment and the dark matter distribution is interesting to see; but I think to call it first “direct” observation of dark matter is going a little too far. We have always known that the gravitational lensing can’t fully be explained by the baryonic matter. This is no more direct than any of those experiments.
Others have argued that the sharpest needle made of tungsten, which is only one atom at the end is one of the top story of the physics. Or that rediscovery of element 118 is one of the top stories.
The story of the sharpest needle reminds me of the joke in which Russians make the sharpest possible needle and then Americans drill an eye in it and then Japanese print “made in Japan” on it! I am sorry, but the sharpest needle has to be much sharper than one tungsten atom.
I guess my filter is different. To me, they are the stories that told me things that I didn’t know before. The discovery of 118 doesn’t surprise me a bit; there is an island of stability that we will continue to discover for a long long time. The discovery of the heaviest baryon didn’t make an impression on me either.
Don’t even get me started on the cloaking thing.
Here are the stories that I found interesting.
The microwave measurements from WMAP. The clustering and anisotropy is interesting. Wished I understood the error bars on the measurements better but it is interesting to see the structure at 200 micro calvin level.
The chemistry of matter+antimatter was expected but was delightful to see. And e-/e+/e- state was in the same league.
The evidence of liquid flow on Mars in last five years was completely unexpected.
The most engaging story was the demotion of Pluto. My daughter, who is 7, was fully immersed in it. I personally wanted the Pluto to be included in the planets. I am perfectly happy to make a distinction between the popular culture and expert level exchanges.
Demotion of Pluto was right down to the wire - it wasn’t clear which way the society will vote. Here is a sea change in the definition of the planet which will require all the text books to be changed and it doesn’t even make it in most lists of the top stories.
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A young physicist, upon learning that he was denied tenure after six productive years, requested a meeting with the Provost for an explanation, and a possible appeal.
At the meeting, the Provost told the young physicist, “I’m sorry to tell you that the needs of the University have shifted somewhat, during the past six-years leading up to your tenure decision. In point of fact, what we now require is a female, condensed-matter experimentalist. Unfortunately, you are a male, high-energy theorist!”
Dejected but not defeated, the young physicist thought for a moment about the implications of the Provost’s words. “Sir,” he said, “I would be willing to convert in two of the three categories you mention, but … I’ll never agree to become an experimentalist!”
Yup, been there, done that!
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I think there was a press release in 2005 about this infrared subtraction, I didn’t buy it then and I am not buying it now. Essentially you look at the infrared from a sliver of a sky, then subtract out all the infrared given by the objects that you know and whatever is left must be really really old stars.
The excercise is like taking a recording of all the sounds in a stadium, subtracting out the noise from every person and whatever is left, one ascribes it to the little goblins in the stadium.
Microwave background, check; Hubble Deep field, check but inbetween the two, the so called Dark Ages, are still kind of dark for me.
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This is the geek version of the Archimedes “Give me a place to stand and lever long enough and I will move the world” 220BC. Now I don’t feel like getting up, just give me the source code and I will move the earth whichever way you want it. Global warming? want me to move the earth orbit?
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Apparently there is a claim that Axion has been found. Even though I want to, I don’t believe it. I am not sure if I agree with the peak they claim at 7MeV. Also I haven’t been too good this year, I am not expecting any treats from Santa this year. But if anybody wants to trade the Axion for a Wii, let me know; considering that both of them are imaginary at this point, its a fair trade!
Wasn’t there a bad joke about Axion? what did a bartender say to an Axion? “No charge!”. Actually this was a joke about neutron and then Higgs and every couple of years, there was a new chargless particle postulated so the joke kept making the rounds.
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I love libraries! In this day and age of “information at your fingertip” is making the whole experience of being in library, breathing the smell of books and a physical connection with the all the fascinating things to learn so extraordinarily rare.
I have a very fond memories of visiting NY Public libraries. I went there looking for a book written in 1860’s; I found the catalog number and went to the front desk to get a copy. They whisked me away in the back, asked for three or four IDs and left me in an empty silent room for 20 minutes or so. And then the librarian came over with the book and my jaws dropped!
It wasn’t a copy of the 1860’s book that I was looking for, it was the original manuscript of the book with notations by the author in the margin. That made a tremendous impression on me. I gingerly read the book, held it close and caressed it. For a moment I was transported back in time to 1860’s, I felt like I was sitting in the same room as the author, drinking warm brandy and talking about wonderful mysteries of the world.
Via thenonist
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Exploring Terra Incognita in Science, Technology, Law and Life.
