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Apr 14, 2020
Higgs turning up everywhere, this time in paint
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: particle physics, quantum physics
:oooo circa 2009.
The portrait of Peter Higgs is on display at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics. Photograph: Ken Currie.
It seems that Peter Higgs, despite his known aversion to publicity is turning up everywhere. Of course the potential discovery of the particle in the next few years by either/both of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and the Tevatron at Fermilab is bringing a lot more attention to him, and a little to the other theorists, such as Guralnik, Hagen, Kibble, Brout, and Englert, who also developed the ideas behind a mass-giving spontaneously symmetry broken quantum field and its manifestation as a particle, now known as the Higgs boson. (Yep, that sounds scary because it gets technical.)
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Apr 14, 2020
What do soap bubbles and butterflies have in common?
Posted by Quinn Sena in category: genetics
Edith Smith bred a bluer and shinier Common Buckeye at her butterfly farm in Florida, but it took University of California, Berkeley, graduate student Rachel Thayer to explain the physical and genetic changes underlying the butterfly’s newly acquired iridescence.
Apr 14, 2020
Department of Energy Announces $32 Million for Lower-Cost Fusion Concepts
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: innovation, nuclear energy
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy today announced the winners of $32 million in funding for 15 projects as part of the Breakthroughs Enabling THermonuclear-fusion Energy (BETHE) program. These projects will work to develop timely, commercially viable fusion energy, with the goal to increase the number and performance levels of lower-cost fusion concepts.
“Fusion energy technology holds great potential to be a safe, clean, reliable energy source, but research and development of fusion technology is often constrained by prohibitive costs,” said Under Secretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes. “BETHE teams will build on recent progress in fusion research and the growing fusion community to lower costs and further foster viable commercial opportunities for the next generation of fusion technology.”
“These BETHE projects further advance ARPA-E’s commitment to the development of fusion energy as a cost-competitive, viable, energy generation source,” said ARPA-E Director Lane Genatowski. “Commercially viable fusion energy can improve our chances of meeting global energy demand and will further establish U.S. technological lead in this crucial area.”
Apr 14, 2020
The Technology That Could Free America From Quarantine
Posted by Quinn Sena in category: surveillance
Apr 14, 2020
The Air Force is funding research into piranha-proof Amazon fish scales for future body armor
Posted by Quinn Sena in category: futurism
The scales of the Arapaima, an Amazonian freshwater fish that can weigh up to 440 pounds, possess all the best attributes of a bulletproof vest, but the elements are better integrated into one solid piece combining imperviousness and flexibility, researchers say. The Air Force is funding a study of the fish for potential body armor development.
The Pentagon’s new program, Ground X-Vehicle Technologies (GXV-T), calls for a rugged but nimble war machine that can detect and dodge incoming fire.