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Neutrinos can’t beat speed of light

It is now official: neutrino researchers admit Albert Einstein was right.

Mark Brown, Wired UK, writes:

Back in September 2011, a team of particle physicists detected neutrinos moving faster than the speed of light as they traveled from CERN to the Gran Sasso lab. They smashed the universal speed limit by 60 nanoseconds — a result that was constant, even after 15,000 repetitions of the process. The results seem to run counter to a century’s worth of physics and would overturn Einsten’s special theory of relativity if true. As such, CERN called for more experiments to double-check the findings.

[…] At the International Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics in Kyoto on June 8, CERN research director Sergio Bertolucci presented results on the travel time of neutrinos from CERN to the INFN Gran Sasso Laboratory, on behalf of four experiments — Borexino, Icarus, LVD and Opera. All four experiments measured a neutrino time of flight that was below the speed of light, confirming that neutrinos respect Einstein’s cosmic speed limit. The previous anomaly was “attributed to a faulty element of the experiment’s fibreoptic timing system.”

If you don’t get why it would have been a big deal to prove Einstein’s theory wrong, a news on The Guardian explains it all:

Travelling faster than the speed of light goes against Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity. If it were possible, it would open up the troubling possibility of being able to send information back in time, blurring the line between past and present and wreaking havoc with the fundamental principle of cause and effect.

 Now we know where we stand.

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‘Fahrenheit 451’ author Ray Bradbury dead

Ray Douglas Bradbury was an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer and he died in Los Angeles, California, on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91.

Bradbury’s bio on his official site introduces him very well:

Ray Bradbury is one of those rare individuals whose writing has changed the way people think. His more than five hundred published works — short stories, novels, plays, screenplays, television scripts, and verse — exemplify the American imagination at its most creative.

Once read, his words are never forgotten. His best-known and most beloved books, THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, THE ILLUSTRATED MAN, FAHRENHEIT 451 and SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, are masterworks that readers carry with them over a lifetime. His timeless, constant appeal to audiences young and old has proven him to be one of the truly classic authors of the 20th Century — and the 21st.

 On Mashable, Chris Taylor wrote a great piece about Bradbury and Fahrenheit 451:

The most important thing to know about Fahrenheit 451 is that it is explicitly not about government censorship. (Bradbury was so firm on this point he once walked out of a UCLA class when his students tried to insist it was so.)

The firemen aren’t burning books on the orders of some shadowy Big Brother. They’re doing it, protagonist Guy Montag is told, because society as a whole turned away from the scary cacophony of knowledge, from the terror of differing opinions and the burden of having to choose between them, from deep and troubling thoughts.

We turned away from literature and towards vapid reality television and radio shows, the book says. We spurned any kind of poetry (Montag’s wife Millie slams Matthew Arnold’s classic Dover Beach as depressing and “disgusting”) and preferred to listen to the noise of our cars as they speed across the landscape at 100 mph.

Even when Guy wants to read his stolen books, he can’t, because the ubiquitous ads drown out his thoughts.

Any of this starting to sound familiar?

Yes, indeed!

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The 2012 Transit of Venus

I was in orbit around Earth and I could observe the 2012 transit of Venus. The planet Venus appeared as a small, dark disk moving across the face of the Sun, and the transit won’t be repeated until the year… 2117.

The transit of Venus is an old story, as described on the NASA website:

There is some evidence that the ancient Babylonians saw and recorded on a tablet something about Venus and the Sun in the 16th Century B.C., but the record is not clear. It is fair to say though that Galileo Galilee with his telescope, in 1610, was the first human to actually see Venus as more than just a bright point of light in the sky.

Johannes Kepler, meanwhile, was shaking up the world with his meticulous use of astronomical data assembled by Tycho Brahe. He predicted that Venus would pass in front of the Sun on December 6, 1631, but unfortunately the transit was not visible from Europe at all.

The first recorded sighting of this transit was by British cleric, Jeremiah Horrocks, and his friend William Crabtree, on December 4, 1639—only because Horrocks had mathematically predicted it, using better data than Kepler did.

I told you, it all started a long time ago… Now the best view of the transit of Venus, from Hong Kong, China.

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Dishonored, a Neo-Victorian, Steampunk video game

I love playing video games and the least I can say is that Steampunk is not a common genre. But it will change soon with Dishonored, developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks.

Dishonored is a Neo-Victorian/steampunk stealth, action game that will be launched on October 9th 2012 for the PC, PS3, and XBox 360.

Shaun McInnis, Editor at Gamespot had the opportunity to try the game at the E3 and he posted his hands-on impressions:

Playing Dishonored for the first time, you can’t help but feel sorry for Sam Fisher. The hero of the Splinter Cell franchise has probably spent half his life lurking in the shadows, going from one stealth operation to the next desperately trying to avoid being seen. Poor Sam. He probably could have gotten out into the sunlight once in a while if only he had supernatural powers.

Then again, not everyone can be like Corvo, the stealthy assassin you navigate through Dishonored’s dystopian world of eerie technologies and royal corruption. Corvo is an assassin with access to exotic weaponry and even more exotic supernatural abilities. Using these tools, you realize that actively deceiving your enemies is every bit as important as hiding from them. In other words, creeping through the shadows isn’t always the most effective tactic.

Promising, isn’t it? Watch the video below to learn more about this exciting game!

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Dark matter finds new home in old gold mine

Lead is a town of about 3,100 residents, about a half-hour from the Wyoming border. Nestled nearly 5,000 feet beneath the earth, is a laboratory that could help scientists answer some pretty heavy questions about life, its origins and the universe.

Yes, we’re talking about dark matter. Regular matter — people and planets, for example — make up about 4 percent of the total mass-energy of the universe, he said. Dark matter makes up about 25 percent.

Dark matter is too sensitive to detect in normal laboratories, but one so far underground would help shield it from pesky cosmic radiation. Also, the LUX detector (Large Underground Xenon, the world’s most sensitive dark-matter detector) is submerged in water, further insulating it.

The article published on the Herald Tribune provides more details about this experience which could lead to unexpected results!

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The Steampunk Bible by J.VanderMeer, S.J.Chambers

On my first day, I posted about The Chap Mag. Among the many books I took with me, there is The Steampunk Bible by Jeff VanderMeer and S. J. Chambers. If you ever wondered what is Steampunk about, this is the book you need to buy. For everyone else, this book lives up to its name.

The photography and art are great, and the book is an excellent overview of Steampunk filled with interesting information introducing different aspects of the Steampunk culture like music, movies and books.

The presentation on Amazon:

Steampunk—a grafting of Victorian aesthetic and punk rock attitude onto various forms of science-fiction culture—is a phenomenon that has come to influence film, literature, art, music, fashion, and more. The Steampunk Bible is the first compendium about the movement, tracing its roots in the works of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells through its most recent expression in movies such as Sherlock Holmes. Its adherents celebrate the inventor as an artist and hero, re-envisioning and crafting retro technologies including antiquated airships and robots. A burgeoning DIY community has brought a distinctive Victorian-fantasy style to their crafts and art. Steampunk evokes a sense of adventure and discovery, and embraces extinct technologies as a way of talking about the future. This ultimate manual will appeal to aficionados and novices alike as author Jeff VanderMeer takes the reader on a wild ride through the clockwork corridors of Steampunk history.

Note that the complete title is: The Steampunk Bible : An Illustrated Guide to the World of Imaginary Airships, Corsets and Goggles, Mad Scientists, and Strange Literature. You’d better write it down.

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One day, we will use a neutrinophone, like in Star Trek

This is the kind of news I like. If you thought your new mobile phone was the best ever made, you’re wrong. What about a phone using neutrinos? What about a neutrinophone?

Jeff Nelson is the Cornelia B. Talbot Term Distinguished Associate Professor of Physics at William & Mary and in this article, he explains that the neutrinophone demonstration was a side project stemming from neutrino research at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

About the neutrinos:

Neutrinos are mysterious subatomic particles emitted in unimaginable numbers by nuclear reactions. Despite their high numbers, scientists are just now learning about the characteristics of neutrinos. William & Mary’s physicists are involved in several large multinational collaborations aimed at learning about the properties of neutrinos. In addition to MINERvA and the other Fermilab experiments, William & Mary researchers are involved in other neutrino investigations, most notably the Daya Bay initiative in China.

How it works:

The beam of neutrinos  travels through hundreds of meters of rock on the way to the MINERvA detector, which Nelson explains is designed to study neutrino interactions in detail. For communication over the neutrinophone, the physicists used a simple 1-0 binary code. “If you saw neutrinos, it was a zero; if there weren’t any neutrinos, it was a one,” he explained. “There are standard encoding patterns, ASCII is one of the ones that is used on the computer that tell you what letter corresponds to a series of so many digits of binary bits.”

And the pbest part for the end:

As a practical communications tool, the neutrinophone sits on the border of science and science fiction. Nelson notes that Star Trek characters use neutrino communications, but there are a number of scientific and engineering challenges to creating an interplanetary neutrinophone.

My geek friends and dear Star Trek fans, our dream will, one day, become a reality!

 

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Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has launched!

Yesterday I have seen something amazing whike orbit Earth: Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon spacecraft to orbit in an exciting start to the mission that will make SpaceX the first commercial company in history to attempt to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station.

I have seen the SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and if you don’t know yet what SpaceX is about, here is the press release:

At a press conference held after the launch, SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk began, “I would like to start off by saying what a tremendous honor it has been to work with NASA. And to acknowledge the fact that we could not have started SpaceX, nor could we have reached this point without the help of NASA… It’s really been an honor to work with such great people.” The vehicle’s first stage performed nominally before separating from the second stage. The second stage successfully delivered the Dragon spacecraft into its intended orbit. This marks the third consecutive successful Falcon 9 launch and the fifth straight launch success for SpaceX. “We obviously have to go through a number of steps to berth with the Space Station, but everything is looking really good and I think I would count today as a success no matter what happens with the rest of the mission,” Musk said.

He continued by expressing his gratitude to the more than 1,800 SpaceX employees. “People have really given it their all.” Describing the scene inside of SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, he said, “We had most of the company gathered around SpaceX Mission Control. They are seeing the fruits of their labor and wondering if it is going to work. There is so much hope riding on that rocket. When it worked, and Dragon worked, and the solar arrays deployed, people saw their handiwork in space operating as it should. There was tremendous elation. For us it is like winning the Super Bowl.”

Explaining the significance of the day, Musk stated, “This mission heralds the dawn of a new era of space exploration, one in which there is a significant commercial space element. It is like the advent of the Internet in the mid-1990s when commercial companies entered what was originally a government endeavor. That move dramatically accelerated the pace of advancement and made the Internet accessible to the mass market. I think we’re at a similar inflection point for space. I hope and I believe that this mission will be historic in marking that turning point towards a rapid advancement in space transportation technology.”

I will keep an eye on SpaceX for you 🙂

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Beautiful corsets made by LaBelleFairy

Corsets are sexy, and classy. You can choose your style: Burlesque, Victorian or Steampunk, you are sure to catch everyone’s attention.

While I was browsing Etsy, I saw La Belle Fairy’s store: she has been creating corsets for over 9 years. Her real name is Jenny (but her clients like to call her ‘Labelle‘) and she is a corset maker living in the rural BC Rocky mountains in Canada. Jenny is inspired by Coco Chanel (who died the same day she was born) and she loves Jean-Paul Gaultier.

The corset pictured below is a classic underbust corset in red satin with black overlay. You can find more of her handmade corsets and gowns here.

 

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Digital artist creates new kind of experiment at CERN

I read this news last month and I’m eager to know more about what kind of creative work artist Julius von Bismarck, the winner of the Collide@CERN prize, will present on his experiences at the laboratory in September.

From the article published by Symmetry Breaking Magazine:

If attendees at the welcome reception for CERN’s first artist-in-residence learned one thing last night, it was that Julius von Bismarck is not afraid to disrupt others with his art. In a way, this trait puts him right at home with CERN scientists: the kind of people who always question, the kind of people who fill an auditorium to discuss the possibility that a long-held law of physics could be broken. But von Bismarck is not a CERN scientist. So inviting him into the laboratory, where he will stay for the next two months, is a sign of trust – not that he won’t disrupt the scientists, but that, if he does, the experience could be worthwhile […] Von Bismarck, 28, has used invention, experiment and, in many cases, the participation of an unsuspecting crowd to address questions about how we interact with the world around us. In 2006, he created a white, spherical helmet that blocks the wearer’s view of anything but a live video feed from a camera attached to a balloon overhead. “It totally changes your perception,” von Bismarck said. At last night’s reception, he showed a video of himself walking through Berlin’s central train station wearing the contraption. “After a while you get used to it,” he said. “What never goes away is the shakiness. The world is losing stability.”

Art and science, isn’t that exciting?!

Physicist James Wells with Julius Von Bismarck, CERN’s first artist in residence.
Image: CERN