Conceptual design of the Fermilab holometer (Fermilab) During the hunt for the predicted ripples in space-time — known as gravitational waves — physicists stumbled across a rather puzzling phenomenon. Last year, I reported about the findings of scientists using the GEO600 experiment in Germany....

I am fascinated with outer space, this is true. But if you stop to think about it, the inner space between the atoms is just as awe-inspiring as the vast distances separating the planets, stars and galaxies. In actuality the volume inside an hydrogen atom is essentially empty; the single electron “orbits”...

General relativity and quantum dynamics don’t get along too well. If you had to compare the two it would be like evaluating the differences between a Mac and a PC; both are well-honed examples of modern computing, but both are hopelessly incompatible. In computing, this isn’t too much of...

Peter Higgs holds his very own Higgs boson (©Particle Zoo/Peter Higgs) In October, something very special happened to me. There, on the doorstep, a Higgs boson sat, waiting to be picked up and unwrapped from his packaging (and yes, I can confirm, he is a he). Of course, he wasn’t the same...

Luke and Obi-Wan look at a 3D hologram of Leia projected by R2D2 (Star Wars) Could our cosmos be a projection from the edge of the observable Universe? Sounds like a silly question, but scientists are seriously taking on this idea. As it happens, a gravitational wave detector in Germany is turning up...

You don’t need the Large Hadron Collider to discover the Higgs boson after all… The moment of discovery. It turns out Higgsy is a little shy. This evening I went outside to investigate a noise. On opening the door I saw a small box lying awkwardly on its side against a flower pot. A little...

Collect them all! The Standard Model of plushie particles (© Particle Zoo & Julie Peasley) Astroengine exclusive interview with Particle Zoo founder, Julie Peasley The hunt for the Higgs particle may have come to grinding halt until 2009, but that doesn’t mean you can’t discover...

The decay rate of the radioactive isotope 32Si appears to correlate with orbital distance from the Sun (Jenkins et al. 2008) Wouldn’t you think that the decay rates of isotopes found on Earth would remain fairly constant under controlled conditions? Statistically-speaking one would be able to make...

Billions of Euros have been ploughed into the construction of the largest experiment known in the history of mankind. The Large Hadron Collider (officially due to be “switched on” September 10th 2008) will eventually create proton-proton collision energies near the 14 TeV mark by the end...

Or else... what? (BBSpot) Hold on, I’ve just found out some worrying news from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This mammoth experiment goes online in one month and two days and I don’t think we’ve fully grasped what this machine is going to do. It will kill hadrons, by their millions. I...