Tag Archives: Higgs boson
Is the Higgs boson doing its job?
At the heart of particle physics lies the Standard Model, a theory that has stood for nearly half a century as the best description of the subatomic realm. It tells us what particles exist, how they interact, and why the … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged ATLAS detector, Benjamin Lee, Chris Quigg, deep learning, deep neural networks, electrons, Higgs boson, Higgs field, Higgs mechanism, Hugh Thacker, Large Hadron Collider, longitudinal polarisation, muons, neutrino oscillation, neutrinos, photons, same-sign WW scattering, Standard Model of particle physics, technicolor theory, transverse polarisation, vector boson scattering, W bosons, weak nuclear force, Z bosons
Comments Off on Is the Higgs boson doing its job?
You’re allowed to be interested in particle physics
This piece appeared in The Hindu today. I wrote the lead article, about why scientists are so interested in an elementary particle called the top quark. Long story short: the top quark is the heaviest elementary particle, and because all … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Scicomm, Science
Tagged Higgs boson, mathematical physics, particle physics, Shreya Dasgupta, The Hindu, top quark
Comments Off on You’re allowed to be interested in particle physics
Looking (only) for Nehru
I have a habit of watching one old Tamil film a day. Yesterday evening, I was watching a film released in 1987, called Ivargal Indiyargal (‘They Are Indians’). In a scene in the film, an office manager distributes sweets to … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged Chandrayaan 3, Higgs boson, Indian Space Research Organisation, Ivargal Indiyargal, Jawaharlal Nehru, Satyendra Nath Bose, Vikram Sarabhai
Comments Off on Looking (only) for Nehru
The gap between language and quantum mechanics
Physics World has a fantastic article about the problem with using a language invented, in Terry Pratchett’s words, “to tell other monkeys where the ripe fruit is”, to describe the peculiar but very much real possibilities created by the rules … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Culture, Scicomm
Tagged Embassytown, faith, Higgs boson, language, quantum computing, quantum entanglement, Quantum mechanics, quantum superposition, Werner Heisenberg
Comments Off on The gap between language and quantum mechanics
The Higgs boson and I
My first byline as a professional journalist (a.k.a. my first byline ever) was oddly for a tech story – about the advent of IPv6 internet addresses. I started writing it after 7 pm, had to wrap it up by 9 … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes
Tagged blogging, Higgs boson, particle physics, science journalism
Comments Off on The Higgs boson and I
US experiments find hint of a break in the laws of physics
At 9 pm India time on April 7, physicists at an American research facility delivered a shot in the arm to efforts to find flaws in a powerful theory that explains how the building blocks of the universe work. Physicists … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged anomalous magnetic dipole moment, dark energy, dark matter, Fermilab Muon g-2, g-2 anomaly, Higgs boson, Large Hadron Collider, LHCb, muon dipole moment, Muon g-2, neutrino masses, New Physics, particle physics, physics beyond the standard model, Standard Model, Standard Model of particle physics, supersymmetry
Comments Off on US experiments find hint of a break in the laws of physics
My heart of physics
Every July 4, I have occasion to remember two things: the discovery of the Higgs boson, and my first published byline for an article about the discovery of the Higgs boson. I have no trouble believing it’s been eight years … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes, Scicomm
Tagged ATLAS detector, Atomki, axions, CEPC, CERN, CMS detector, hedonism, Higgs boson, Higgs factory, Large Hadron Collider, particle physics, Quantum mechanics, Sabine Hossenfelder, thermodynamics, XENON excess
Comments Off on My heart of physics
Writing itself is fantasy
The symbols may have been laid down on paper or the screen in whatever order but when we read, we read the words one at a time, one after another – linearly. Writing, especially of fiction, is an act of … Continue reading
Posted in Culture
Tagged Ariekei, Arrival, China Miéville, Dune, Embassytown, Flatland, Frank Herbert, Harry Potter, heptapods, Higgs boson, higher dimensions, hypersphere, language, linguistics, nonlinear storytelling, nonlinearity, Orson Scott Card, sphericity, three dimensions, time, varelse
Comments Off on Writing itself is fantasy
Peter Higgs, self-promoter
I was randomly rewatching The Big Bang Theory on Netflix today when I spotted this gem: Okay, maybe less a gem and more a shiny stone, but still. The screenshot, taken from the third episode of the sixth season, shows … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Science
Tagged C.R. Hagen, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Englert, Francois Englert, Gerald Guralnik, Gerardus t Hooft, Greenpeace, Higgs, Higgs boson, Higgs mechanism, Large Hadron Collider, particle physics, Peter Higgs, Philip Warren Anderson, Robert Brout, Sheldon Cooper, The Big Bang Theory, Tom Kibble, Wolf Prize
Comments Off on Peter Higgs, self-promoter
The not-so-obvious obvious
If your job requires you to pore through a dozen or two scientific papers every month – as mine does – you’ll start to notice a few every now and then couching a somewhat well-known fact in study-speak. I don’t … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged Brian Wansink, Cornell University, data torturing, Higgs boson, Ig Nobel Prizes, incremental research, Large Hadron Collider, Marc Abrahams, modelling, ozone, p-hacking, Ronald H Coase, scientific research, statistical significance, University of Exeter
Comments Off on The not-so-obvious obvious