Vacuum energy

I typically lack energy to vacuum.

Hey it’s a new year, I should be recharged. Oh, but we are not simple rechargeable batteries. (Although I have learn some people are on Lithium)

Vacuum energy is an underlying background energy that exists in space throughout the entire Universe (reference link). Well that’s what physics tells the people that listen to physicists. I enjoy learning about the marvelous discoveries of physics. But if this vacuum energy is underlying, then might it be underlying my carpet? Why should there be a need to vacuum my bedroom?

The "Casimir Effect" demonstrates the effects of vacuum energy and it's named after Hendrik Casimir. Hendrik was a Dutch physicist but I don't know if he vacuumed his room much.

 

I would much rather read about vacuum energy than vacuum a room. I believe vacuum talk must include dust talk. Here’s a picture from space from June 2020. We might not be as dusty as Mars where I think every storm is a dust storm but take a look at the mess heading out to the Atlantic from North Africa.

Look at the mess Sahara is making

Oh I also read about cosmic dust. It’s a real thing and probably related to dust bunnies. Interplanetary dust causes the zodiacal light, so dust is not all that bad. Thousands of tons of cosmic dust are estimated to reach the Earth's surface every year. So we need to figure how to use the vacuum energy to clean it up.

Astronomers study dust. I can only imagine young graduate students explaining to their parents that they are studying dust. I suspect the parents would question why they didn’t start years ago in their own bedrooms.

(apparently if I were a Brit this post would not work since I don’t believe there is any Hoover energy in physics.)

Watching

All I can say is that my life is pretty plain
I like watchin' the puddles gather rain

This pandemic still has many still working at home. I’m not working at home but retired at home instead.

I did some watching. Watching the heavens (I’m not convinced about this religious heaven concept but calling the dark sky the heavens still sounds good to me) fuels my wonder.

Why bother to watch the heavens? Jupiter and Saturn are mostly huge balls of gas. Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids, in fact it's cold as hell.

I believe knowledge of the night sky objects creates more wonder as you watch these objects move through the heavens.

Back to the original thought for this post, this past month (sorry this is not a site for what’s in the sky tonight) the northern hemisphere had the opportunity to view a comet zipping by. It was given the name comet NEOWISE. The strange name was assigned for a reason. The NEO part stands for Near Earth Orbit and WISE stands for Wide-field Infrared Space Explorer. The NEOWISE project is the asteroid-hunting project that discovered this comet, hence the name.

I saw the comet with binoculars on two different evenings. Sadly the suburban area around Chicago is not the best for a good dark sky. I managed to see this fuzzy stretched out dirty ice ball but I’m sure it would have look better in a darker sky. I recall seeing the comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. That one was easier to see.

 
On nice afternoons I’ll find myself enjoying a beer and watching clouds pass overhead. Clouds have pros and cons. Clouds on the ground (fog) are bad unless you’re a psycho murderer stalking their next victim (how did I go off on that tangent?). Clouds blocking the sun are good on a hot day but bad at night when I’m trying to see a comet. Of the many things I really don’t know, clouds are probably low on the list.

 

Please enjoy a few thoughts that popped up in my brain long enough to be written down: 

 

• “Stand By Your Man” - While I’m not an expert, I don’t think it applies well to grizzly bear families.
• It occurred to me that receiving long sentences doesn’t help you write long sentences. However, it does give you time to work on it.
• I’ve noticed that Tik Tok is a popular app for the younger generation. If anyone is developing an app for the older generation they should call in Ticky Tacky.
• I heard this good advice the other day: “But I’m going to take a step back and make sure that we learn the facts before we start talking about it.” - Dr. Fauci 
  

 

Even if you don’t watch the weather it will change your day. Don’t most people enjoy a good storm if they are in a safe place? No matter, the weather will find you.

If you read my last post, you should be expecting these two musical videos.

I'm just a blogger in a web of confusion

If I could sing, my wish would be to say, "I'm just a singer in rock'n'roll band".

their blog would have been fun to read

Recently, I replied to a blog comment with:

“Don't sit on those eggs of ideas too long. Let them hatch!”

Eggs of ideas?

Where did that come from? I don’t know, was it the three over-easy eggs I ate today?

You probably heard about many different activities people were performing/creating (the able-to-stay healthy ones) during the stay-at-home period.

Of course one requires a decent level of motivation to accomplish many of these activities. I need the motivation bar to be set a very LOW. I'm not jumping. More likely tripping.

Now one day I managed to create a video for the grandkids. I had two things - a hope they might find it interesting and lots of pennies. Here's that video:

Today I found a video of a high school kid who built an amazing gadget during his stay-at-home. After watching I thought he probably was in college but according to his profile he's in high school (maybe he didn't update his profile).

He did have candy as a motivator. Take a look at his automated M&M launcher:

Not only did he cover the physics of trajectories but also added in a quick comparison to spring loaded candy launchers. The kid is motivated. I on the other hand, can stack pennies.

experiemental stream of

You know that Newton guy did a lot of thinking about the movement of things. Why he discovered a whole new branch of mathematics while pondering falling apples. After hearing this latest idea about teaching physics I wonder if Newton had more that falling apples to watch.

public physics lesson

It was in my high school physics class that the power of mathematics became apparent. Our teacher helped us formulate the equation of the path of projectile. Newton's Principia (greatest science book ever written?), explains the workings of the solar system with "simple" equations. His underlying math of moving objects was eventually applied to rockets traveling to outer space.

There are many examples of projectiles that don't require a canon or rocket. Golfing, football, watering your lawn and one that boys often find entertaining - urinating. Yes the path of the stream follows the path of a projectile. It's also a simple way to demonstrate vectors.

You may have heard this story.

Three Australian researchers have proposed an explanation why the largest gaps in performance between girls and boys arise in questions that involve projectile motion. In this report they state:

Playful urination practices – from seeing how high you can pee to games such as Peeball (where men compete using their urine to destroy a ball placed in a urinal) – may give boys an advantage over girls when it comes to physics.

Now until now I never thought my attempt to write my name in the snow had anything to do with my love of physics. Oh the many times I could have just used studying physics as an excuse.

The researchers are serious. They suggest not using projectile motion for the introduction to physics. Another quote from the report:

But despite the surface layer of toilet humour, and the implication that physics may be little more than a pissing contest, we’re making a serious point. As the proportion of jobs in the science and technology sector rises, and many of the complex problems the world faces require high levels of scientific and technological literacy to be understood and resolved, lower achievement and participation rates for young women in physics are set to become even more significant problems.

This outside-the-toilet-bowl idea might be as wrong as leaving the seat wet (I was studying evaporation Mom!) but if anything it will bring more attention to this gender gap.

Here's an example of a woman who had no problem grasping the math of projectiles, Katherine G. Johnson.

the other side

Many times on this blog I've written about time. How many times do I need to write about it? Don't time me. I didn't take your time. I took my time.

checking the time on the other side

Given what I think is the general age group reading A Few Clowns Short, I suspect many of you have thought about the other side. You know the side of your timeline after the line stopped. What do you do while your body is taking that long dirt nap?

Now I’m going to write about this without bringing religion into it. Actually an interesting discussion would be to compare the many religious views on this. But not this post. (let it be known, the Lisleman’s Institute for Better Postings would accept any grant money offered for the development of that idea - yeah I didn’t think so)

Go back to that timeline picture for a moment. You’ll notice that the flow of time constantly nonstop heads toward the future.

What if, over on the other side time went in the opposite direction?

Would it even matter or be noticed? Could the other side have no concept of time. I believe our concept of time has changed over time. It was probably much more relaxing just watching days past and maybe paying a little attention to a moon phases. No clocks ticking or scheduling. No sell-by dates. Que Sera, Sera. Just watch out for those occasional tiger/lion/volcano/tornado/rock-to-head/whatever-oh-shit things that could take you to the other side.

Having fun yet?

Here’s something you might never heard of - the famous nobel awarded physicist, Richard Feynman provided an interpretation of a positron (anti-matter particle) as an electron moving backwards in time. This idea has the interesting name of retrocausality which to me sounds like something to use in defense of your next parking ticket. From what I can understand this interpretation aids the solution of some equations but probably has nothing to do with reality.

However is the other side a different reality?

No solid answers for you but please leave your thoughts/ideas in the comment section.



If Cher could turn back time would she wear less provocative outfits?




Thanks for taking time to read this.

never been to Ipanema

I've never walked on Ipanema beach. Wikipedia shows me it looks like this at sunset.





Not quite as far south as Ipanema, I took this sunset picture on a beach that I've been fortunate enough to walk on.

Miramar Beach FL

During these sunset events I and everyone that has been around me refers to the sun going down. I can’t recall anyone saying how lovely it is when the earth turns and sun disappears on the horizon. The sun going down is a fine way to describe it even if it not as accurate. Today, most would find it unacceptable to punish Galileo for promoting this earth turning idea.

Perception - Things are not always what they seem.

I’m currently reading, “The Quantum Moment”. (here’s an Amazon link if you want to look it up) The two authors are both professors at Stony Brook University. One a philosopher, and the other a physicist have written this book based on their co-taught class that is taken by both physics and philosophy majors. I’m not finished reading the book yet but I already would highly recommend it. Of course, I read mostly nonfiction and I know many favor fiction.

Once in the dark sky of Montana my wife, youngest daughter, and I watched with amazement the milky way travel over us. That night I didn’t perceive the earth turning but I’m convinced from my education that it does. Even though I’ve never touch the Ipanema beach I have no doubt of its existence. My inability to perceive quantum particles (actually we perceive light which is made up of quantum photons) doesn’t stop me from believing quantum theories. Understanding quantum theories is whole different problem though.

If you have been introduced to the classical physics (based on Newton’s work) and have heard of quantum mechanics then this book should be an easy read. Much of the book tells of the misused and mistranslated quantum theory ideas by popular culture.

I don’t need to understand wave dynamics or the crystal structure of the sand to enjoy a nice beach. However, sitting on a warm beach I do enjoy pondering how it all came to be.

Newtonian motion

Let’s get physical.

Isaac Newton long ago wrote some laws regarding motion. His third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  It's a fundamental law for space travel.

But what about the space your midsection occupies?

a beer ice cream experiment

A new law should be introduced. I’ll call it Lisleman’s third law because he forgot the first two.

For every inaction there will be eventually a bad reaction from looking in the mirror.

Einstein introduced the spacetime concept. Most of us today find as time passes that space around our midsection expands.

Now that my mid-section has expanded over the years (dark energy expansion?) I wonder if I can call a t-shirt a t-shirt. I don’t know what letter to use. It appears more like an ‘A’ with a dull top or maybe a ‘B’ with a large bottom.

Poetry in motion, lovely locomotion, my motion is not. Ok, my motion was never really poetry. However, I’m not broken down like a train wreck yet.



Next time I should try to work the fig newton into this.

 

let's compare

This is not a fair comparison but this is my blog and if expect a fair comparison then go do one on your blog.

First lets examine the following which I'm certain involved the exchange of money.  Hopefully not much money.  The sound effects budget must have been less than a dollar.  Take a look and listen.

Now compare that piece of crap with the clip I recently made.

In the following clip I offer a little physics knowledge (but very very little).  The physics explaining tiny invisible particles is very strange.  The Uncertainty Principle developed by Werner Heisenberg in 1927 is one of the most famous and important aspects of quantum mechanics.  As I said at the beginning, it's not a fair comparison because my clip is not an ad.  Also there was no money exchanged (if you would like to send some let me know).

If you are a regular here, then you might remember I have another blog with a collection of video clips. Most of them are from youtube but there are few other sources too. The collection comes in handy when I'm trying to find a favorite one to show. Interested? Click over to Another Circus - the button below.

another circus 

Happy Birthday Al

Albert Einstein was born at Ulm, in Württemberg, Germany, on March 14, 1879.  (good bio here)

 

His Nobel Prize in Physics (1921) was for Einstein's law of the photoelectrical effect.  Today, his relativity theory brings his work the most attention.  He died in 1955.

Do you use a GPS device?  Did you know your cellphone unless it's really old likely has a GPS receiver in it (good thing for E911)?

What does GPS have to do with Einstein? 

The system would not work if relativistic effects of the satellites' motion and location were not applied to the setup of the system.

Because of its speed and location the atomic clock on the satellite does not run at the same rate as an atomic clock on the ground.  Until I looked up some info on this, I didn't know the location and it's lower gravitational field has the largest relativistic effect that requires adjustment.

So next time you find your way with GPS help - thank Al.

 

flipping fragments fly free

Mrs. 4444, the great teacher from Wisconsin has given me reason to use a favorite word of mine, “serendipity”. Finding her Friday Fragments was serendipity for me. Because of FF I have a regular post writing idea every week and I meet more bloggers.  You should join in.

I had two shout-outs on other blogs this week (very cool - thanks).

1. The Original Bean mentioned my International Women’s Day post that featured the 007 promotion clip made to increase awareness.
2. Eternal Lizdom included my avatar in her funny (slightly odd IMHO) post about the Lizdom way of eating M&M’s.

I mentioned listening to old Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention stuff found on youtube in a recent post. That had me thinking of alternate names for a band today, like Mothers of Detention.

Out of nowhere, days after the post, the best name pops up in my head:

Mothers of Intervention

My Irish friend emailed the following picture to me. Don’t you love it when random stuff lines up. Once I intentionally took a picture of my wife with the Washington Monument sticking up from her head. She didn’t find it that hilarious.

 

He also sent an email about a somewhat strange characteristic of water. 

Hey want to learn an interesting physics fact? Oh c’mon it’s quick and could even prevent an accident.

Pure water in a very clean or no container will in the right conditions become either supercooled or superheated. The “super” part just means that the temperature is below freezing or above boiling. The water molecule needs some impurities to form the ice crystals or to form the vapor bubbles.

Accident prevention - it is possible to superheat water in a microwave and if that happens you don’t want to be near it because it will violently erupt and splash boiling water into the air. Don’t heat pure water into the microware. Add the tea bag first or just heat it on the stove.

Now the supercooled water is much safer to play around with but it is believed to be one of the causes of an Air France crash over the mid-Atlantic.

Oh, I was contacted by CSN. You know the blogland superstore. Do you think I should do a giveaway?

I need to create a superblog. As soon as a reader opens its page, it would instantly start writing a good comment about the post. For now, you will have to do that. Thanks.

on an Einstein roll

Library of Congress picture

Remember I mentioned Einstein in my last post?

Today I come across another Einstein related story.  Maybe I'm on a roll (ok insert bagel pun here).

I don't read People magazine which I guess is about people but I'm not sure which people.

Last November the GM (few clowns short of a circus management) ran an ad in People with this image:

You can read more details about this story on Haaretz.com

But just their headline must have been fun to write:

Hebrew University sues GM over topless Einstein ad

Any wonder why we needed to bail out GM given the clowns making marketing calls over there.  What seems even more bizarre is the vehicle being marketed in the ad.  This buff Einstein guy was pushing GMC Terrains.  Those big SUVs.

Don't most people (maybe not People readers?) associate Einstein with genius and revolutionary ideas?  Please tell how the SUV fits that image.  

Speaking of rolls, I'm guessing Einstein might be doing some right now.  You know, like the rolling in his grave type. Oh, I'm going out to get that tatoo.  I just need to decide where to ink it.

does anybody really know what time it is

Change that song title by dropping one word. 

Does anybody really know what time is?

The answer is NO.

In my last post I mentioned that the current issue of Scientific American had an interesting article I wanted to share. I wish I could share a deeper understanding of it but while I have read many physics books and have visited a particle accelerator I don't know the theory that well. (maybe they could accelerate me)  I'll just point out a few things I found amazing and maybe you will find it amazing too.

Part of the physics world believes time does NOT exist. (well who has time for those guys?)

Good news you can't be late anymore but then since many are paid by a time factor your paycheck might not exist either. Thinking of money is a good analogy for this because money doesn't exist. No, I'm not referring to a parent's wallet who has teenagers. Money is an invention of man. It's been around for a long time but not from the beginning of time. Oh wait, there is no time. Time is really so interwoven into our experience that it's hard to talk about it not existing.

Like the value of money some think time is an invention within our minds or an illusion. They did change the definition of a second back in the sixties. That is when they based time on the cesium atom. Given that it was the sixties I hope they got it right and weren't influenced by any drugs. I guess it was cesium and not LSD.

Back when Newton's laws ruled (they are still good but they fall apart at high speeds or large gravity) time was a master clock that ticked the same everywhere. Einstein comes along with general relativity in 1915 and we get spacetime. Now time can be changed by speed or gravity.

In another article or documentary I learned that time would stop - just freeze - at the edge of a black hole.

Now any of you with teenagers have probably witness this when you approach the entrance to their room. Certainly cleaning stops in their black hole rooms.

Then we get advances in quantum mechanics and things just get worst. Someone blows off a bomb. People worry about the China Syndrome and that was before China was even the big economical power of today.

It turns out (I don't know but I'll assume they are being honest) that quantum mechanics and general relativity don't mix together well. So in the pursuit of unifying the physics it looks like time might be thrown out.  (could you imagine a prisoner doing time hearing this?)

Back in the sixties (again I'm suspect of this sixties work) two physicists (Wheeler, DeWitt) took a different approach to Einstein's gravity equations. Their result didn't have time in it anymore. I wonder, how much time did it take to get rid of time?

Here's an idea for you. Since we invented it and defined it, why not double the length of the year so we will all age at half the current rate. We could call it birthday savings time. It would work until everyone got used to it.

Well thanks for giving me your time even though it's just an illusion.  Oh since time isn't, you won't be too rushed to leave a comment.

I also have watched countless Nova programs, so this clip was especially funny for me.

Jokes.com
Brian Regan - Nova
comedians.comedycentral.com
Futurama New Episodes Ugly Americans Funny TV Comedy Blog

life - walks game cycle

The diversity of life provides me constant amazement. Just looking at human life reveals such a variety of options and directions. The many types of people and what they do makes the world interesting (and sometimes dangerous).

Each of us get a unique view of the world.

What's your walk of life?
What role do you play in the game of life?

I was thinking how people within the same culture/society can live in different worlds. Your job, family, location, gender, etc. shape your day.

You know the expression, "walk in my shoes".

Not being part of one of these 'worlds' doesn't stop us from commenting about somebody when hear of or see an event. For example, I watched a clip of our impeached governor Blagojevich on the Bonnie Hunt show and thought what a sociopath!

But then, what do I really know of his world. Politics and power, books, news conferences, talk shows - nothing of that in my experience.

Still with me?

Let's switch to another 'walk of life'. Not really a part of mine either, but maybe a little closer. At least I respect this industry more - a scientist. Also, I've been fortunate enough to talk with a few.

At the end of the summer my wife and I visited Argonne National Labs for their open house. I was not expecting anything as big as it was.

I felt like I went to Disney World. People, tents, shuttle buses, lines, just no Mickey or Minnie (well we didn't see one). It was well organized. But I just expected something about a tenth the size.

The big crowd is really good news because it shows some interest in science. We should have arrived earlier, because we were short of time to see even half of the exhibits.

Photo by Wes Agresta/Courtesy Argonne National Laboratory.

I'm glad we made it to the Advanced Photon Source. It's the size of a major league baseball stadium and produces this nation’s most brilliant x-ray beams for research in almost all scientific disciplines. The above picture is the main entrance to the APS.

Just as the open house was coming to a close. I decided to peek into the physics building. I'm very glad I did. I knew time was short so I just picked a room that had people talking, charts, and displays.

I walk over to this table covered with a poster that made no sense to me. It had this waterfall type of look to it. So I asked, "what's this about?"

The gentleman on the other side of the table tells me it's about the structure of atomic nuclei.

Ok, I'm thinking interesting but still wondering what's being explained on the poster.

Then the man identifies himself as one of the authors of the research behind the poster. He is Dr. R. B. Wiringa. We went to the same school (U of I), except I point out that I only got a BS degree (engineering) there.

So here is a poster summarizing a life long quest researching nuclei structure. He's been creating models and simulating neutrons and protons since they had supercomputers. ALL ON A SHEET OF GLOSSY PAPER - your life quest. (nice poster multi colored - hey what do I have? a blog?)

After hearing about the years of simulation and prediction followed by experimental support, I realized the poster didn't do their effort justice. Think of a diagram of the Eiffel tower as describing the whole effort of Mr. Eiffel. There is so much more behind the scenes and the challenges.

I asked questions and I followed his explanations but I could have used up even more of his time. I learned something about neutron stars. The protons are transformed into neutrons.

There was another contributor there too, Kenneth M. Nollett. He talked with us some too.

Here's a link to page about Dr. Wiringa.

Ok so maybe I'll suggest sending Blago to Argonne and getting his head (and hair) x-rayed. I think he would do it if there was a TV camera in the room.

Fly Me To The Moon

A favorite song covered by a favorite singer Diana Krall. If you missed my earlier post on Apollo 11 please take a look.




So 40 years ago this month much of the world got a view FROM the moon. The moon has been important to our life on earth. I recently read that the moon stabilizes the earth's orbit and without it some theorize that life on earth would have been cut short.




About six or seven years ago, I took my young grandson to Kennedy Space Center. We walked around the massive Saturn V rocket that was used in the Apollo program.


The size of this machine is hard to describe. They have a special building to display it and it is laying on its side. Here's more info on it.


At the business end of this beast are five F1 rocket engines. Just walking under these engines made the trip worthwhile. I stared up at these engines imagining the forces being created. Each one produced 1 and half MILLION pounds of thrust. That is definitely going to get you going quickly. Here's a picture I took.



Any of you actually witnessed a launch? I never have but would be interested in hearing your story.

She Blinded Me With Science

The Cockcroft Walton at Fermilab. (Courtesy of Fermilab Visual Media Services)

The world premiere of Angels & Demons came with a special series of lectures. Now I haven't seen the movie yet but I was able to attend a lecture at my favorite science place - Fermilab.

The connection between the movie and the physic lab is the use of antimatter in the plot. I don't know who thought of the creating the series of lectures but I find it a brilliant idea to use the marketing of the movie to generate an interest in science.

Besides being conveniently located for me, Fermilab is currently the largest producer of antimatter (oh did you think this stuff didn't exist?). Very small amounts of the stuff is spinning around their rings.

The lecture was given by the lovely Dr. Marcela Carena.

She explained the facts regarding antimatter. As Hollywood typically does it exaggerated the use of antimatter and incorrectly created some situations with it. One big mistake is the amount of antimatter the bad guys steal in the movie. Scientist have never produce an amount anywhere near the amount in the movie plot.

In the movie the antimatter is taken from CERN, which will soon become the world's most powerful particle accelerator (they had a few startup problem so Fermilab is still the leading current active one). Here's a few facts from the CERN site:

Even if CERN used its accelerators only for making antimatter, it could produce no more than about 1 billionth of a gram per year. To make 1 g of antimatter - the amount made by Vetra in the movie - would therefore take about 1 billion years. The total amount of antimatter produced in CERN’s history is less than 10 nanograms - containing only enough energy to power a 60 W light bulb for 4 hours.

Dr. Carena pointed off some very interesting facts about antimatter in her lecture.

• Antimatter is responsible for the light coming from the sun
• Antimatter is used in medicine - the PET scan
• It was first seen (and measured) in 1932 by Carl Anderson in a cloud chamber.

You can watch the Fermilab lecture here.

Here's a web site about the lecture series.


Share a smile

question 3 for the physicist

----update Sept. 2010----

This is one of my favorite posts. I enjoy visiting Fermilab and that cool spiral picture (see below) was taken from their website.   I have driven by that piece of outdoor art many times.  I guess it to be 30 - 40 feet tall.

Blogging offers you the chance to discover new people from strange far away places like Wisconsin (hey it's far from somewhere). One blogger I've discovered with a very interesting blog is Mrs. 4444 (I wonder if there's some physics related thing to this number). She is a teacher and she offers up this Saturday Sampling so that readers can find interesting posts easily.

I thought this post should be added to the selection. Let me know if you agree it was a good choice. thanks

----end of update----

Above is slide #3 from a presentation by Dr. Pier Oddone that I was fortunate to attend.

It's a great quote and one that everyone should think about.

The mysterious

Any parents out there might remember when their toddlers possessed that special wonder of the world. Remember when they would start to ask why all the time. Some people (physicist, artists, etc.) manage to hold on to the wonder and mystery, but it's too bad that many lose it or maybe it's even driven away by our culture.

Everyone probably wishes more people would be interested in their own interests. Birds of feather flock together is a truism. So I wish more people took interest in science and Fermilab.

I suspect more people in Chicagoland don't know of it than do. Even worst in my opinion, they don't care when they do hear about it.



Last friday I took advantage of being close to Fermilab and attended the presentation (great value for $5). Fermilab which can be seen often from the air when flying in/out of Ohare, is worth a visit. In addition to the physics they have a natural praire and a herd of buffalo.

Right now it has the most powerful operating particle accelerator/smasher in the world. Soon the CERN (a fun clip about CERN) facility will come online and surpass the energy levels at Fermilab.

But for the next year or so, Fermilab could actually find the next big thing in physics, the Higgs particle. However, most bets (I suspect physicists gamble all the time) are on CERN finding it.

From the presentation I learned the lab is working many different experiments beyond looking for the Higgs particle. One program centers on neutrinos which are strange particles flying through us all the time. Fermilab blasts a stream of neutrinos to a massive detector in a mine located just south of the Canadian border of Minnesota. Strange thing is they shoot this stream through the earth - no tunnel needed.

Their study of neutrinos will hopefully explain why our universe is matter instead of antimatter.

But as Dr. Oddone points out the biggest discoveries will be those that nobody expected - the mysterious

At the end of the presentation, I was lucky enough to ask question #3.

Here's the lecture video (it's over an hour but you can skip ahead)
The Future of Particle Physics & Fermilab, Dr. Pier Oddone March 27, 2009
For those that might recognize my voice, here's how to jump ahead to my question.

1. Click the above link to the streamed video
2. Start the clip (it might start automatically)
   
3. Click on the "thumbnail" button in the upper right corner
4. Go to the last slide (page 40 of 40)
5. Click on last slide

It should go to the last slide and start playing from there. The Q&A starts right after he finishes. I tried moving the video ahead just a little but that didn't seem to work for me. My question is the third question about the Obama administration. You don't see me - only hear my voice.

Share a smile

aliens arriving tonight standby for transport

If I saw this, I would be going to get inline to be beamed up. It does look alien.

Imagine having been drinking and stepping out to see this.

This scene is created from ice crystals in the air. A similar sight is sun dogs. I still remember a cold winter day waiting for a bus when I saw sun dogs. It looked like the sun had split into three.

I enjoy the APOD see this explanation.

Here's more pictures of these light pillars.

rapping physics

CERN Rap from Will Barras on Vimeo.

Sort of a combo of sesame street and hip hop generations. Good stuff. They should make one about Fermilab too.