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Physicists About to Narrow the Range of "God Particle"
Two teams of scientists have reported on December 13, 2011 the research findings on the so-called building blocks of the Universe, i.e., Higgs Boson, named after the British Physicist Peter Higgs who, along with others, theorized 40 years ago that sub-atomic particles--the so-called the building blocks of Universe--have mass. Before Higgs' theory, scientists used to think that atom is the least possible obtainable block with mass. Higgs Boson has fascinated scientific community for long time, and often referred to as "The God Particle". However, until recently, scientific community was unable to pinpoint the range of mass for Higgs Boson. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) underneath the Alps on the Swiss-French Border has been used to estimate the range of mass for Higgs Boson. The $10 billion LHC, also known as Big Bang Machine, is apt to create the scenario of the mini-Universe during the time of inception by using the super-power magnets to race protons at the 99% speed of light and colliding among each others. The LHC is run by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, also known as CERN, based near Geneva.
Two teams who have reported the recent findings on Universe are:
(1) Team, led by Italian Physicist Fabiola Gianotti, involved in the so-called ATLAS experiment.
(2) Team, led by Guido Tonelli, involved in the so-called CMS experiment.
Both teams have reported that the most likely range of the mass of Higgs Boson is between 114 and 130 billion electron volts. One billion electron volt is roughly the mass of a proton. This is the first time scientific community has grasp of some finite mathematical range of the mass of Higgs Boson with high confidence.Blueprint of Next Gen Collider Unveiled
On March 31, 2025, The planners associated with the European experiment into fundamental composition of the particles and what make them so unique have unveiled a blueprint for the successor of Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, that will consist of 56-and-1/2-mile loop of atom smasher underneath the Swiss-French border and spanning underneath the Lake Geneva. The Future Circular Collider, or FCC, blueprint next goes to the CERN, or European Organization for Nuclear Research, member nations, all of which barring Israel are in Europe.
The CERN member nations will make a final decision in 2028 on whether to go forward with the $16 billion plan. If the blueprint is implemented, the first phase will focus on completing the component related to the high-precision experimentation by 2040s, followed by a more complex second-phase high-velocity collision experimentation facility by 2070s. The experimentation involving FCC will lead to a spurt of innovation in Cryogenics, super-conducting magnet technology, vacuum technology and more insight into Higgs Boson particles, founding block of the Universe.
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Pollution-Free Fusion Energy Production Possible, even for a Fraction of Seconds
It remains an enigma on how or whether we may one day generate pollution-free energy like Sun. The answer to that mysterious question is found by a team of researchers at a novel test at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California when a combination of more than 192 lasers and temperatures more than three times hotter than the center of the Sun has produced, even for a split of a second, a near pollution-free fusion energy. The research has been published in the Nature on January 26, 2022. The end-goal for the scientists to scale up the pollution-free fusion energy like Sun does it by pressing hydrogen atoms to combine into helium, which releases torrent of energy. What more than 100 scientists have accomplished is a "spark" to produce, for a split of a second, the near pollution-free fusion energy. Their next step is to achieve "ignition" that helps fuels burn on its own and generate more energy.
De-carbonized Energy Produced in Lab
Scientists used laser to carry out fusion ignition for the first time to generate more energy than what is in the laser. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, announcing the generation of clean energy, said on December 13, 2022 that the fusion "ignition allows us to replicate for the first time certain conditions that are found only in the stars and the sun". Granholm has added that the fusion ignition is "one of the greatest scientific feats of the 21st Century". Appearing alongside White House Science Adviser Arati Prabhakar, Granholm said that the successful outcome happened on December 5, 2022 at Lawrence Liverpool National Laboratory in California. President Joe Biden hailed the scientific marvel and expected a lot of "good news on the horizon".
In the nuclear fusion reaction, LLNL scientists leveraged a laser to exert tremendous pressure and heat to fuse two Hydrogen isotopes (Tritium and Deuterium) to mesh together to form Helium. There are other byproducts too: leftover neutrons and a large amount of energy. The amount of produced energy is as large as 1.5 times the laser used to carry out the nuclear fusion ignition. There is no nuclear waste, thus creating an environment as safe as possible. The nuclear fusion is a fascinating area that has offered scientists a tantalizing potential for generating clean energy. The occurrences are littered all across our universe, including stars and our sun. The concept remains simple: when two atoms blend each other to form a third atom with a mass less than combined mass of the original two atoms, the excess energy will be formed.
The key challenge now is how to scale us the nuclear fusion technology to a level of electricity generation on a sustainable, dependable and scalable manner.
Saturn's Moon Has the Best Shot of Supporting Life
The Dallas Morning News reported on June 15, 2023 that based on the data sent by NASA's Cassini mission, a key element, Phosphorus, that had been thought of missing was eventually found in the subsurface ocean in Saturn's moon Enceladus. Six basic elements--CHNOPS (Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus and Sulfur)--form the sextet of elements that along with water and energy act as the fuel for nurturing and sustaining life. Now, with the discovery of traces of Phosphorus in the subsurface ocean of Enceladus, there may be a supporting ecosystem for life. After 13 years of collecting data and researching on Saturn and its moons, NASA had directed a managed destruction of Cassini by plunging the spacecraft into the gaseous giant in 2017.
A New Epoch Has Started in Mid 20th Century, A Geological Working Group Says
The Dallas Morning News reported in its July 16, 2023, edition that a new geologic epoch, Anthropocene Epoch, might have started between 1950 and 1954. The idea was first floated by a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, Late Paul Crutzen, at a science conference about 20 years ago. A working group of geologists was subsequently formed to assess and analyze the geologic evidence and markers to conclude whether there was indeed a new epoch that had begun. The working group, Anthropocene Working Group, is now proposing that a new epoch has begun sometime between 1950 and 1954 as the "effects of humans overwhelm the earth system". The impact of humans in creating an entirely new epoch is comparable, but on a much smaller scale, to the meteoric strike 66 million years ago that has led to the Cenozoic Era. The Ground Zero of the Anthropocene Epoch is the Crawford Lake in Canada. The site has been chosen over 11 other places as Crawford Lake preserves the human effects on earth's environment with different layers of sediments in the lake reflecting those impacts and imprimatur in a surprisingly unperturbed levels.
Geologic time is split on a narrowing scale into (1) Eons, (2) Era, (3) Periods, (4) Epochs and (5) Ages. The effects of humans on the earth system is consequential enough to trigger a new epoch, but not a period as the ongoing Quaternary Period that has begun 2.6 million years ago is still associated and linked to permanent ice on the poles. However, rapid pace of Global Warming may chip away the permanence of icing layers on the poles in few hundred years, triggering the beginning of a new period. Anthropocene Epoch followed the Holocene Epoch that started about 11,700 years ago at the end of ice age. Geologists are proposing a new age too with the start of a new epoch. They are calling it Crawfordian Age, naming it after the lake in Canada. Prior to making it official, three other working groups of geologists have to give their approvals which are expected in the next several months.
PATENT: DOJ Files on Behalf of Moderna
Two small biosciences firms--Arbutus BioPharma and Genevant Sciences--filed lawsuits in 2022, accusing Moderna of unauthorized use of their patented technology to speed up COVID-19 vaccines. The U.S. Department of Justice intervened in this case, according to Meng Xi who had penned an article in the June 17, 2024, edition of The Dallas Morning News. The Biden administration's argument hinges on a World War I-era statute, Section 1498, that can be leveraged by the government during the time of the war and national emergencies to allow the patent of a firm to be leveraged for a scaled-up and mass production in exchange for compensation for the firm's patent, or patented technology. Meng Xi accused Democrats and Progressives of pushing the Biden administration to increasingly use Section 1498 as a tool to push drug prices lower. In this respect, Meng Xi referred a June 2022 letter co-written by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, urging the U.S. Health and Human Services to use Section 1498 to weaken the patent protection to lower drug prices.
Fruit Fly Employs Smart Techniques to Locate Food
A research article published on July 26, 2024 in the Current Biology provides interesting insight how fruit flies may find their food using appropriate strategies and odor-based approach. Scientists at the University of Nevada used genetically modified fruit flies, Drosophila Melanogaster, that had light-activated neurons in the antenna acting like a nose, but instead of being triggered by food, it would be tickled by turning on light.
The researchers have concluded based on experiment that when there is wind, the fruit flies employ cast and surge technique. The cast and surge technique helps the flies to fly upward when there is breeze and subsequently, when they lose the odor, they fly sideways to locate the source.
When there is no wind, the fruit flies employ sink and circle strategy, according to the research. This strategy helps flies to circle around moving downward as part of the technique to locate the source of food.
Earth's Inner Core Changing, Research Finds
A tantalizing research is published in Nature Geoscience on February 10, 2025 that has driven home some key insights about the morphing through which the earth's inner core is undergoing. The inner core is changing in shape too. The earth is composed four distinct layers:
* Inner Core: Made of iron and nickel, it's of 759 miles in radius and as hot as under 9,800 degree Fahrenheit
* Outer Core: 1,400 miles in radius, and composed of iron and nickel fluid
* Mantle: It's the thickest of all four layers, and 1,800 miles in depth
* Crust: It's 19 miles deep in reference to the surface, and at the bottom of the ocean, it extends an additional 3 miles beyond sea floor.
