The Missing Higgs

Again, we are visiting CERN's Web site, this time for an article entitled The Missing Higgs. Since we are taking time to follow the exciting and possibly pardigm changing events with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, we should take a few minutes and look at one of the potential outcomes that have captured many scientists attention: The Higgs Boson, a theoretical particle which is thought to give matter its mass.

A major breakthrough in particle physics came in the 1970s when physicists realized that there are very close ties between two of the four fundamental forces – namely, the weak force and the electromagnetic force. The two forces can be described within the same theory, which forms the basis of the Standard Model. This ‘unification’ implies that electricity, magnetism, light and some types of radioactivity are all manifestations of a single underlying force called, unsurprisingly, the electroweak force. But in order for this unification to work mathematically, it requires that the force-carrying particles have no mass. We know from experiments that this is not true, so physicists Peter Higgs, Robert Brout and François Englert came up with a solution to solve this conundrum.

They suggested that all particles had no mass just after the Big Bang. As the Universe cooled and the temperature fell below a critical value, an invisible force field called the ‘Higgs field’ was formed together with the associated ‘Higgs boson’. The field prevails throughout the cosmos: any particles that interact with it are given a mass via the Higgs boson. The more they interact, the heavier they become, whereas particles that never interact are left with no mass at all.

This idea provided a satisfactory solution and fitted well with established theories and phenomena. The problem is that no one has ever observed the Higgs boson in an experiment to confirm the theory. Finding this particle would give an insight into why particles have certain mass, and help to develop subsequent physics. The technical problem is that we do not know the mass of the Higgs boson itself, which makes it more difficult to identify. Physicists have to look for it by systematically searching a range of mass within which it is predicted to exist. The yet unexplored range is accessible using the Large Hadron Collider, which will determine the existence of the Higgs boson. If it turns out that we cannot find it, this will leave the field wide open for physicists to develop a completely new theory to explain the origin of particle mass.

The race is on to hunt for the Higgs – the key to the origin of particle mass. Finding it would be a big step for particle physics, although its discovery would not write the final ending to the story.

Secret Dimensions

Experiments with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will allow collisions between protons to give insights into dark matter and what gives mass to other particles, and to show what matter was in the microseconds of rapid cooling after the Big Bang. This week we will be exploring these concepts a little deeper. Today: Extra dimensions.

Secret Dimensions

In everyday life, we inhabit a space of three dimensions – a vast ‘cupboard’ with height, width and depth, well known for centuries. Less obviously, we can consider time as an additional, fourth dimension, as Einstein famously revealed. But just as we are becoming more used to the idea of four dimensions, some theorists have made predictions wilder than even Einstein had imagined.

String theory intriguingly suggests that six more dimensions exist, but are somehow hidden from our senses. They could be all around us, but curled up to be so tiny that we have never realized their existence.

Beyond the Third Dimension

Some string theorists have taken this idea further to explain a mystery of gravity that has perplexed physicists for some time – why is gravity so much weaker than the other fundamental forces? Does its carrier, the graviton, exist and where? The idea is that we do not feel gravity’s full effect in the everyday world. Gravity may appear weak only because its force is being shared with other spatial dimensions.

To find out whether these ideas are just products of wild imaginations or an incredible leap in understanding will require experimental evidence. But how?

High-energy experiments could prise open the inconspicuous dimensions just enough to allow particles to move between the normal 3D world and other dimensions. This could be manifest in the sudden disappearance of a particle into a hidden dimension, or the unexpected appearance of a particle in an experiment. Who knows where such a discovery could lead!

Well, here we go again talking about extra dimensions. And this blog is taken directly from CERN's Web site. Things disappearing into and appearing out of hidden dimension? I think we blogged about this very concept last week. Very interesting.

Question Posed: If these high-energy experiments offer additional insight into extra dimensions, what do you think this will mean to mankind and how we perceive our universe? Or is this not of concern to you regardless of these outcomes?

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is back

The LHC is back - Geneva, 20 November 2009. Particle beams are once again circulating in the world's most powerful particle accelerator, CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This news comes after the machine was handed over for operation on Wednesday morning. A clockwise circulating beam was established at ten o'clock this evening – Retrieved from CERNs Web site 11/22/09.

Who or what is CERN

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the biggest particle physics laboratory in the world. CERN is run by 20 European Member States, but many non-European countries are also involved in different ways. Scientists come from around the world to use CERN’s facilities in Geneva, Switzerland.

What is the Large Hadron Collider?

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a gigantic scientific instrument near Geneva, where it spans the border between Switzerland and France about 100 m underground. It is a particle accelerator used by physicists to study the smallest known particles – the fundamental building blocks of all things. It will revolutionize our understanding, from the minuscule world deep within atoms to the vastness of the Universe.

What the Scientists are Looking For:

LHC experiments will address questions such as what gives matter its mass, what the invisible 96% of the Universe is made of, why nature prefers matter to antimatter and how matter evolved from the first instants of the Universe’s existence.

Two beams of subatomic particles called 'hadrons' – either protons or lead ions – will travel in opposite directions inside the circular accelerator, gaining energy with every lap. Physicists will use the LHC to recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang, by colliding the two beams head-on at very high energy. Teams of physicists from around the world will analyze the particles created in the collisions using special detectors in a number of experiments dedicated to the LHC.

There are many theories as to what will result from these collisions, but what's for sure is that a brave new world of physics will emerge from the new accelerator, as knowledge in particle physics goes on to describe the workings of the Universe. For decades, the Standard Model of particle physics has served physicists well as a means of understanding the fundamental laws of Nature, but it does not tell the whole story. Only experimental data using the higher energies reached by the LHC can push knowledge forward, challenging those who seek confirmation of established knowledge, and those who dare to dream beyond the paradigm.

Here is a link to a guided tour of the LHC from particle physicist Dr. Brian Cox, a professor at University of Manchester and Royal Society research fellow a Large Hadron Collider

References Used:

CERN www.cern.com
CERN Twitter Page

Question Posed: Some areas of scientific research, such as particle physics and cosmology, seem remote from everyday life and unlikely to bring immediate practical applications. Are they worth the effort in human and material resources?

Black Holes

In his book 2005 book Parallel Worlds, Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at City University of New York, likens General Relativity to a Trojan Horse. On the surface, it is magnificent and one can obtain the general features of the cosmos, such as the Big Bang theory and the bending of starlight. However, inside lurk all types of ghosts, goblins, and other strange creatures like “black holes, white holes, wormholes, and even time machines, which defy common sense” (pg. 111).

Even parallel universes and their respective connecting portals are theoretically possible. Einstein thought these anomalies would never be found. Yet today, 100 years later, physicists cannot easily ignore these concepts. Kaku likens this world to Shakespeare’s metaphor that all the world is a stage. Yet on this stage are trap doors that, should you fall through one, you may not end up in the basement. Rather, you might end up in parallel stages that may be very similar to your original stage, yet have a separate set of unique laws, rules, and possibly even a new script.

Okay, very simply, a black hole is a region of space that is the result of the collapse of a star. According to NASA, if a star that massive or larger undergoes a supernova explosion, it may leave behind a fairly massive burned out stellar remnant. With no outward forces to oppose gravitational forces, the remnant will collapse in on itself. The star eventually collapses to the point of zero volume and infinite density, creating what is known as a " singularity ". As the density increases, the path of light rays emitted from the star are bent and eventually wrapped irrevocably around the star. Any emitted photons are trapped into an orbit by the intense gravitational field; they will never leave it. Because no light escapes after the star reaches this infinite density, it is called a black hole.

Some general (but not absolute) concepts about black holes

* A black hole has an extremely very high gravitational field where nothing can escape, not even light, although Dr. Stephen Hawking suggests black holes could emit particles due to quantum effects, called Hawking Radiation.

* Only stars considerably more massive than our sun, about 10-15 time heavier, could end up as a black hole. So we don’t have to worry about being sucked into a black hole. Our sun will never turn into a black hole. And even if it did, earth would remain outside the event horizon and not be sucked in.

* Astronomers have long suspected that supermassive black holes sit at the heart of most galaxies. Astronomers are closing in on proof that a supermassive black hole is the source of mysterious radio waves at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way.

* The event horizon is the area surrounding the black hole where the escape velocity equals the velocity of light. Outside the horizon, light, and a rocket ship, can escape because the escape velocity is less than the speed of light. Inside the horizon, however, light is pulled into the black hole, never to escape. And your rocket ship, well, if light cannot escape, then neither will you, or your ship.

* As you approach the event horizon, you would be experience spaghettification where you would be stretched from head to toe like spaghetti noodles by the gravitational gradient.

* In astronomy, the singularity is a term often used to refer to the center of a black hole, where the curvature of spacetime is maximal. At the singularity, the gravitational tides diverge; no solid object can even theoretically survive hitting the singularity. Mathematically, a singularity is a condition when equations do not give a valid value, and can sometimes be avoided by using a different coordinate system.

Remember earlier in the blog when I said we don’t have to worry about being sucked into a black hole? There are plenty of people who believe scientists are trying to create a mini-black hole in a laboratory using atom-smashing particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), thus sowing the seeds for our own destruction. But scientists at CERN say these fears are unfounded, and even if a mini-black home were ever created, it would have a very short lifetime.

References Used:

* Prof. Michio Kaku, Professor Of Physics, City College of New York
* NASA
* Ted Bunn Associate Professor of Physics Ph.D., University of California - Berkeley
* CERN
* Fred K.Y. Lo, the director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia

Question Posed: Are you following events at CERN or other scientific research facilities? Do you care about the potential breakthroughs in physics mankind may be on the cusp of discovering?

E=MC2 Just What the Heck Does it Mean Anyway, And Why Should I Care?

E=MC2. Everybody knows it. We see it on the opening for the Twilight Zone floating past that black and white swirling thing. This famous formula has taken on an almost pop-icon status, being used in art and advertising.

But what does it really mean? Einstein was smart and he was curious. A double threat. He thought outside of the box. He was a dreamer who pondered what it would be like to travel on a beam of light. Sounds like my high school days.

In 1905 he published a series of four articles in the Annalen der Physik scientific journal that helped form modern physics. His third article, On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, introduced to the world his Theory of Special Relativity. This was the beginning of a revolution in the field of physics that is still reverberating today. His fourth article, Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon its Energy Content, introuduced us to the famous equation E=MC2.

E=MC2
E represents energy
m represents mass
c² (a very large number, indeed) represents the square of the speed of light

Einstein's realized matter and energy are different forms of the same thing and matter can be turned into energy and energy turned into matter. This is important because, according to the formula, a small amount of mass, multiplied by the square of the speed of light, equals a whole lotta energy. Remember, there is an equal sign in this equation. If mass is reduced on one side of the equation, energy has to be released on the other side to keep the equation, well, equal.

However, for all energy to be released, all matter would have to be destroyed and for this to happen, matter has to meet an equal part of anti matter. Has anyone read the book or seen the movie Angels and Demons? The evil Camerlengo Ventresca breaks into CERN, kills the director, and steals a quarter gram of antimatter so he can blow up Vatican City. Fortunately, a breakthrough in antimatter is science fiction, at least for now.

On a smaller scale, we have been able to harness the power of nuclear fusion and nuclear fission. In nuclear fission, heavy, unstable elements such as uranium are made up of atoms that fall apart as their protons repel away from each other. The extra mass disappears as energy. These atoms are radioactive.

In nuclear fusion, protons from are attracted together rather than repelled. When this happens, protons that are combined at very high speeds have less mass than when they were single protons because they now require less energy. The decrease in mass is released as energy. This is how our sun burns. We can replicate this process in the laboratory using lasers and in atomic bombs.

As powerful as this release of energy seems, these examples represent less than 1 percent of total available energy. So we can begin to see just how powerful the energy released when matter meets anti-matter and total energy is realized. Should science be able to one day harness this energy, without blowing up everything in site, perhaps unmanned or even manned space travel to other solar systems could be attainable.

Now we can easily see just how important of a discovery E=MC2 really is and how our lives have been drastically changed by it, for better or for worse.

Question Posed: Do you feel safer or less secure with the breakthroughs science is discovering?

Interview With Helena Harper

Hi everyone, and as always, thanks for stopping buy. Today we interrupt this regularly scheduled blog for an interview with a very wonderful and exciting guest, Helena Harper. I like to help support and promote other authors, especially children's writers.

Helena Harper is a native of England, but she grew up in a household that did things somewhat differently to other English households, because her mother was German (her mother had met her father in Hamburg at the end of WWII, when as a British soldier he had been stationed there). This mixed background has had a profound influence on Helena and her understanding of so-called national divisions and whom we call an 'enemy' and whom we call a 'friend'.

From an early age she loved to read and write, particularly fantasy stories, and later she enjoyed studying foreign languages. At Surrey University she studied German, Russian and International Relations and spent considerable periods of time in Germany, Austria and Russia as part of the course. After the university she went into banking, but soon realized that was not her calling. “I felt like I was being suffocated,” she recalls of the experience.

Helen completed her Postgraduate Certification in Education at Exeter University and fro the past 20 years worked as a modern languages teacher. During that time she has continued to write, focusing primarily on fantasy stories for young children. Recently she discovered the joys of writing poetry for adults. Her first two books, drawn from personal and professional experiences, are collections of poetry: It's a Teacher's Life...! and Family and More – Enemies or Friends?

Helena is now a private tutor and translator. She continues to write children's stories. Her goal is to see the book in print before year end. Many people ask Helena why she likes to write. She feels she can best express it like this:

The blank page calls,
the heart responds,
imagination spreads wide its wings
and launches into infinity...
Fingers dance,
words flow,
the page fills,
the soul takes flight
and the spirit sings.

Copyright © Helena Harper

Interview questions

1. Have you always been interested in writing poetry? Actually, no! I've always loved to write, but my first love has always been writing fantasy stories for young children. I wrote poetry at school, of course, and every so often when I was on holiday, but it wasn't a regular thing.

2. What inspired you to write your first book “It's a Teacher's Life...!” Well, I've been a teacher for 20 years and about three years ago, when I was having a lovely holiday at a beautiful place in the country, I was inspired to write some poetry, and when I came home, I then had the idea to write some more poems about my life as a teacher. Each poem would concentrate on a different aspect of school life, such as the lessons, what went on in the staffroom, school trips, exams, report writing, and so on. I also wanted to pay tribute to some of the support staff who do so much to keep a school running, but are often forgotten about e.g. the cook, the caretaker/janitor, the nurse, the school secretary – the unsung heroes of life is what I call them.

3. Do you have a favorite poem? No, I can't say I've got a favorite. Each one is written from the heart and it's impossible for me to single one out in particular.

4. What inspired you to write your book “Family and More – Enemies or Friends?” I had the idea one day whilst driving to work. I was just thinking about my family and other people in my life who've had a big influence on me, one way or the other, and suddenly the idea popped into my head that I could write a second collection of poems about them and the lessons I've learnt from them.

5. How did you come up with “Enemies or Friends?” That's got a lot to do with the fact that my mother is German and my father was English, and I just couldn't get my head round the fact that, had I been born a few years earlier, all my German relatives would have been my 'enemies'. To me they could never have been 'enemies', just 'family'. It got me thinking about how futile it is to talk about so-called national divisions.

6. What did you find the hardest about writing your book(s)? Finding the time to finish them and then the editing, the endless checking and re-reading – it drove me crazy!

7. What was the easiest part? Just writing the poems – I was totally absorbed by the process and really enjoyed it.

8. How do you describe your style of poetry? Easy-to-read, easily accessible free verse. I want people to be able to read and understand what I'm writing about from the word go. I don't like things to be hidden in obscurity. I write simply as I'm inspired to write. The poems I've had published in my two collections are really stories and character sketches that just happen to be in verse. One of the reviews on Amazon talks about me developing a new form of poetry, called the 'anecdotal poem', and I think that describes my style of poetry very well.

9. What's the attraction of writing poetry as opposed to writing children's stories? When I write poetry, I can concentrate on the rhythm and sound of the words and use vocabulary I wouldn't be able to use in my children's stories. It's a marvellous linguistic challenge - the sound of words has always been something that's fascinated me. It's one of the reasons I studied modern languages. When I write my children's stories, it's more about escaping into a wonderful world of fantasy, leaving the mundane 'real' world behind – I find it wonderfully exciting and liberating.

10. When you're not writing, what are you doing? Tutoring, translating, reading, walking, playing tennis or dancing, doing Pilates, spending time with my niece and nephew.

11. What are your future writing goals? The illustrations for my first children's picture book are being done at the moment and I will then get the illustrations done for my second picture book. I'm really looking forward to having my children's books published and going into schools to talk about them. Having been a school teacher for 20 years, I'm no stranger to the school environment, although it will perhaps be a little strange that I will be going into schools first and foremost as a writer rather than a teacher, although everyone can learn something useful, I hope, from my stories.

12. Is there anything else you'd like to add? Yes - if you want to write, just give it a go! You have to be willing to step into the unknown, but if you don't try, you'll never know and you may end up regretting that. All you need is an idea. It doesn't have to be fully developed, just sit down and start writing something and it will develop as you go along. You never know, it may be the best thing you ever do!


LINKS AND PURCHASING INFO. FOR “IT'S A TEACHER'S LIFE...!”

Available in paperback from all major online retailers. Can be ordered through any bookstore. Stocked by Haslemere Bookshop and Weybridge Books in the UK.

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/mwenxr

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/yzt44vl

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/yj5dh6f

Barnes and Noble: http://tinyurl.com/yjbhv5o

Google: http://tinyurl.com/yzacuv6


PURCHASING INFO. FOR “FAMILY AND MORE – ENEMIES OR FRIENDS?” AND LINKS

Available at present as an ebook from:

http://www.eloquentbooks.com/Familyandmore.html

The Multiverse

"Listen: there's a hell of a good universe next door; let's go.” - E. E. Cummings

Where exactly do you live? No cheating. Don’t pull out your driver’s license or look at the address on your utility bills for clues. The answer, if you’ve been reading my blogs this week, may not be as simple as one might imagine.

We are used to thinking of our world as a single universe, and within the universe are hundreds of billions of galaxies, of which our Milky Way is one. Within the Milky Way are 100-400 billions stars (depending on you who listen to) of which our sun is one. And our sun sets at the center of our solar system. Sounds like a pretty big place.

And yet, our universe may be one of countless other universes out there. There may be multiple universes, or a multiverse that supersedes our puny little ol’ universe. The multiverse is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes (including our universe) that together comprise all of reality. These multiple universes, each with their own unique structure, together compromise the multiverse and are also called parallel universes.

According to theoretical physicist Prof. Michio Kaku of New York University, there is mounting evidence to support the existence of the mulitverse, in which entire universes continually sprout, or “bud” off other universes (Parallel Worlds, pg. 15). This guy is awesome at explaining complex theories in simple, easy to understand layman’s terms.

I encourage you to go to YouTube
and type in Michio Kaku and listen to these short blurbs. In no time, you too can begin to understand many of the breakthrough concepts in the field of physics, technology, and medicine that will soon change the very fabric of our lives and society. Its also great material to weave together with greed, murder, and mayhem when writing an action suspense trilogy like BREAKTHROUGH.

We can go in many directions with this one. Where do we start? Could these parallel universes be where angels and demons live, and they can simply and effortlessly move back and forth from their universe to ours? This may not be so far-fetched. Recall the story of Jacob’s Ladder in the book of Genesis, a literal place here on earth, a portal if you will, where multitudes of angels could enter and leave our world.

This could help explain a lot of crazy things, such as war and mass murderers on one hand, and miraculous healings and other types of miracles on the other end of the spectrum of unexplained phenomena. Something to think about as you drive around town running errands today.

Question Posed: Do you buy into what the scientists are telling us regarding our universe, reality, and the breakthroughs they think mankind is on the cusp of discovering?