Tuesday, 18 June, 2013

“Yes, but…” is the word from the frontiers of physics. The world’s largest atom smasher has blasted protons against each other with such enormous energy that they have — apparently — appeared in the debris of decaying particles. At last, matter can have mass!

Why are clouds white? Photograph of Cumulus clouds in fair weather taken by Michael Jastremsk Clouds are made of water and clean water is clear. So why are clouds white? Because clouds are made of billions of small water droplets and ice crystals. When light beams interact with particles suspended in air, some of the [...]

Super Kamiokande detector Buried 1000 meters under the city of Hida, Japan, and packed with 11,146 photomultiplier tubes, the Super Kamiokande detector is set up to capture the presence of what may be the universe’s most bashful particle. The ghost-like neutrino has no electrical charge and a near zero mass. That means it doesn’t like [...]

When the Large Hadron Collider starts running this summer near Geneva, Switzerland, some physicists have predicted that some of its high-energy proton collisions could produce microscopic black holes. Concerned about the ramifications of such black holes, two men filed a lawsuit in March in Hawaii contending that safety concerns have been inadequately addressed at the [...]

Clouds are made of uncountable tiny particles, either water droplets or ice crystals, or a mixture of the two, says Grant Petty, a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The water droplets are usually about 10-20 micrometers across, or about one-twentieth of the diameter of the period at the end [...]

The Spallation Neutron Source, a mammoth science project involving the collaboration of six national laboratories, is scheduled to be completed 2006.

Austrian researchers show quantum entanglement across the Danube River, providing new promise in cryptography and computing. At the smallest scale, you can throw out the usual rules of engagement. What’s up with spooky action at a distance?