The CERN Announcement, In Brief [Science!]

ATLAS Collision Events All of the following images represent the same event. In some theories, microscopic black holes may be produced in particle collisions that occur when very-high-energy cosmic rays hit particles in our atmosphere. These microscopic-black-holes would decay into ordinary particles in a tiny fraction of a second and would be very difficult to observe in our atmosphere. The ATLAS Experiment offers the exciting possibility to study them in the lab (if they exist). The simulated collision event shown is viewed along the beampipe. The event is one in which a microscopic-black-hole was produced in the collision of two protons (not shown). The microscopic-black-hole decayed immediately into many particles. The colors of the tracks show different types of particles emerging from the collision (at the center).

Today, a much-awaited live press conference from CERN announced a glimpse of the elusive Higgs boson. The two teams working on isolating the so-called God Particle have isolated the mass region to a narrow location about 15 GeV wide, somewhere between 116-130 GeV in the ATLAS sector’s experiments and between 115 and 127 GeV in […]

Eyes on the Sky Tonight: 2011 Geminid Meteor Shower

It’s that time again, Geeks. Bundle up and head outdoors tonight between 10PM local time and sunrise Wednesday morning to catch the incoming Geminid meteors. The map above should give you a good idea of where to look; if you’re feeling especially Citizen Sciencey, check out the just-released, free Meteor Counter app for iPad and iPhone. […]