Fascinating…

The Incredible Shrinking Proton That Could Rattle the Physics World | 80beats | Discover Magazine: “But the big story this week in Nature is that we might have been wrong all along in estimating something very basic about the humble proton: its size.

A team from the Paul-Scherrer Institute in Switzerland that’s been tackling this for a decade says its arduous measurements of the proton show it is 4 percent smaller than the previous best estimate. For something as simple as the size of a proton, one of the basic measurements upon with the standard model of particle physics is built, 4 percent is a vast expanse that could shake up quantum electrodynamics if it’s true.”

Of course this has major ramifications for how we view the current model of the nucleus, atom and the quantum world.

As we continue to learn more and more about the quantum world (using the LHC and other particle accelerators), we’ll continue to run into problems like this… which is why we need you all to hurry up and become scientists.

Yet another great reason to know and understand the Periodic Table…

U.S. Discovers Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan – NYTimes.com: “The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.”

Wow.

Yikes!

YouTube – Neil DeGrasse Tyson – Death By Black Hole

Just in time for our studies of electron mechanics!

OHIO: Research | Physicists capture first images of atomic spin: “Though scientists argue that the emerging technology of spintronics may trump conventional electronics for building the next generation of faster, smaller, more efficient computers and high-tech devices, no one has actually seen the spin—a quantum mechanical property of electrons—in individual atoms until now.”

Exciting news.

Go read the rest of the article (there may be some extra credit available tomorrow based on the article).

2 Points Extra Credit for the best response (click the link to learn more about Dihydrogen Monoxide)…

Facts About Dihydrogen Monoxide: “Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) is a colorless and odorless chemical compound, also referred to by some as Dihydrogen Oxide, Hydrogen Hydroxide, Hydronium Hydroxide, or simply Hydric acid. Its basis is the highly reactive hydroxyl radical, a species shown to mutate DNA, denature proteins, disrupt cell membranes, and chemically alter critical neurotransmitters. The atomic components of DHMO are found in a number of caustic, explosive and poisonous compounds such as Sulfuric Acid, Nitroglycerine and Ethyl Alcohol.”

Dihydrogen monoxide:
- is called “hydroxyl acid”, the substance is the major component of acid rain.
- contributes to the “greenhouse effect”.
- may cause severe burns.
- is fatal if inhaled.
- contributes to the erosion of our natural landscape.
- accelerates corrosion and rusting of many metals.
- may cause electrical failures and decreased effectiveness of automobile brakes.
- has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients.

Despite the danger, dihydrogen monoxide is often used:
- as an industrial solvent and coolant.
- in nuclear power plants.
- in the production of Styrofoam.
- as a fire retardant.
- in many forms of cruel animal research.
- in the distribution of pesticides. Even after washing, produce remains contaminated by this chemical.
- as an additive in certain “junk-foods” and other food products.

What should we do about the Dihydrogen Monoxide problem? Should Dihydrogen Monoxide be banned?

Make sure to use your brain

Fascinating how relevant our studies of isotopes can be to “everyday life”…

Shortage Slows a Program to Detect Nuclear Bombs – NYTimes.com: “WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security has spent $230 million to develop better technology for detecting smuggled nuclear bombs but has had to stop deploying the new machines because the United States has run out of a crucial raw material, experts say.

The ingredient is helium 3, an unusual form of the element that is formed when tritium, an ingredient of hydrogen bombs, decays. But the government mostly stopped making tritium in 1989. “

Awesome!

16 Golden Retrievers Teach You About Atoms:

I’ve often found that, when I can’t understand a concept in science or math, putting it into pictures will make everything make more sense. It’s like magic. Now, none of the visualizations I used as a kid involved a cadre of trained golden retrievers, but maybe that’s a flaw the Kansas school system needs to correct.

(Via Boing Boing.)

We’re back online!

Proton Beams Are on Track at Collider – NYTimes.com: “Physicists returned to their future on Friday. About 10 p.m. outside Geneva, scientists at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, succeeded in sending beams of protons clockwise around the 17-mile underground magnetic racetrack known as the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s biggest and most expensive physics experiment.”

You can see more pics here.

You can follow LHC updates via CERN here.

Amazing times you live in, students… amazing times.

Check out the assignments calendar and you’ll see that the Journal Article due date has been moved to Friday December 4, 2009 and will count as part of your exam grade.

That is due to the web being down at school today and the possibility that it will be down more this week.

In the meantime, we’ll be working on our intro to energy (which is a bridge to what we are studying in the Spring).

See you tomorrow!

This is just getting odd…

LHC Shut Down Again — By Baguette-Dropping Bird: “This time, it is not falling cranes, cracked magnets, liquid helium leaks or even links to Al Qaeda, that have halted man’s efforts to understand the meaning of life, the universe and everything. It now appears that the collider is hindered from an initial firing by a baguette, dropped by a passing bird: ‘The bird dropped some bread on a section of outdoor machinery, eventually leading to significant over heating in parts of the accelerator. The LHC was not operational at the time of the incident, but the spike produced so much heat that had the beam been on, automatic failsafes would have shut down the machine.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Maybe our future selves really don’t want us to turn on the LHC!

Bagel or fate?

Ah, science!