Physics @LSC //
Some of the latest new in physics.
Below are links to some recent articles on various topics related to physics. I also retweet current articles and bulletins on my Twitter feed, so check that out (Contact Page) for the most up to date news.
Electrons - not so fundamental it seems.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17754216
'Researchers have discovered another way that electrons - one of the Universe's few fundamental particles - can undergo an "identity crisis".
Electrons can divide into "quasi-particles", in which their fundamental properties can split up and move around like independent particles.'
Antihydrogen - first measurements.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17284822
'Scientists expect that antihydrogen will have exactly the same properties as hydrogen; but after 80 years, the test is only just becoming possible.
A report in Nature has shown the first "spectra" of trapped antihydrogen, showing the energy required to change the spins of its positrons.'
Gamma ray production at Crab Nebula.
http://scitechdaily.com/gamma-rays-conclusions-based-on-fermi-data/
The Crab Nebula and other individual point sources are producing less gamma rays than previously thought, helping researchers come to conclusions about the density of cosmic rays and the total amount of gamma radiation.'
Nuclear Fusion - significant progress made.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24429621
Researchers at the National Ignition Facility have passed an important milestone in the quest for economical energy extraction from nuclear fusion.
During an experiment in September (2013), the amount of energy absorbed by the fusion reactants was exceeded by the amount of energy released from the reaction. This was the first time this had been achieved at any fusion facility in the world.
Higgs Boson discovered.
http://press.web.cern.ch/press-releases/2012/07/cern-experiments-observe-particle-consistent-long-sought-higgs-boson
The link is to the initial announcement made by CERN (July 2012) that a particle like the elusive Higgs Boson had been detected by the ATLAS experiment. The discovery was later confirmed. In 2013 Peter Higgs and François Englert were recognised for their work in developing the theoretical prediction of the boson:
Cosmic Inflation findings suffer another setback
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29305985
March 2014 witnessed one of the most significant scientific claims ever: researchers working at the BICEP telescope in the South Pole had observed the tell tale patterns of cosmic inflation in space. They had observed the expected polarisation in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation.
But in September 2014 results from the Planck satellite showed that the amount of dust in the region of space the BICEP team were observing had been underestimated. The problem with this is that dust in space generates "noise" that interferes with the information that BICEP were investigating.
This does not mean that the original claim is now finally disproven, there is still work to be done in this field.
Solar Eclipse in Northern Hemisphere
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEdecade/SEdecade2011.html
On 20 March 2015 at 9:30 AM the UK will be plunged into darkness!
The UK will experience a partial eclipse (ranging from 86-99%), but further north (i.e. the Faroe Islands) there will be a total eclipse.
The physics department at Leyton Sixth Form have bought solar filters to observe the eclipse if the weather is good enough!
Discover more about eclipses on my blog, and on social media: #eclipse20M
