The Standard (Model) Pimpernel

5 June 2008 · Comments 

They seek him here, they seek him there…

One of the benefits of working where I do, I have access to some really interesting sources of research. And one of those is physicist Professor Peter Higgs, author of a number of papers on symmetry, gauge fields and massless particles in the 1960s where he first postulated the Higgs field and what became known as the Higgs boson, thought to be the elementary particle responsible for mass and hence gravitational fields, and to complete the Standard Model of particle physics.

However, Higgs is a bit of a recluse and doesn’t crave media attention, but the forthcoming activation of the Large Hadron Collider makes it quite difficult for him to avoid completely, especially when his predicted particle has the (IMO) careless and irresponsible sobriquet of ‘the god particle’ (which Higgs, an atheist, isn’t too keen on either).

So, Higgs recently made a rather low-key (considering the media attention that the facility has otherwise attracted) visit to the LHC facility at CERN, and a number of up-to-date photographs were taken of him posing with the (at the time unfinished) particle accelerator thought to be capable of providing direct evidence of his eponymous predicted particle.

Higgs appears to look much healthier, despite his age, than he did in the most recent photographs previously available. Perhaps leading the shy life is good for you.

The LCH is planned for activation later this month, with the first collisions taking place a couple of months afterwards, although sifting through the mountains of data generated could take a little time. This should still be interesting.

And, of course, I couldn’t close this post off without a few related cartoons…

Apologies to Baroness Orczy for the strained pun in the title of this post. ;-)

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BBC: Science You Can’t See

16 July 2007 · Comments 

I wasn’t aware of this until I saw an advert on News 24, but the BBC are planning to show a series of science programmes under the banner of Science You Can’t See.

The press release names the three programmes as Dangerous Knowledge, Atom and Absolute Zero.

The premise of this season of programmes is described in the press release:

The 20th century saw scientific breakthroughs unprecedented in history, but the most important weren’t just invisible, they were barely comprehensible, even to the geniuses who pioneered them.

This series attempts the impossible – to make these breakthroughs not just visible, but also understandable.

From the particles that go to make up the atom, and the bizarre laws they obey, to mathematics so staggeringly abstruse that they have driven mathematicians to insanity and beyond, welcome to a short season of Science You Can’t See.

Such scientific luminaries as physicists Sir Roger Penrose and Faraday prize winner Jim Al-Khalili feature in these shows, and hope to make some of the more recondite scientific understandings a little more transparent and accessible to those who don’t have much or any exposure to the bleeding edge of hard science.

The season begins on BBC4 on Tuesday 24th July, with Absolute Zero – The Conquest Of Cold at 9pm. Put it in your calendars.

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