What the Higgs boson means for the future of science

 

First of all, the known interactions of the elementary particles fail to account for one of their most crucial properties: mass. Without mass, nature would be very different, as complex structures such as atoms, materials and stars would be unable to form. It was the quest for the origin of mass that was the biggest single motivation for building the LHC. The first theory for producing mass, the Higgs mechanism, was invented nearly 50 years ago in 1964. The idea was that empty space was not really empty but was filled with a field that affected the propagation of particles, giving them mass. It is different from the more familiar electric, magnetic and gravitational fields. These fields result from symmetries and are only generated by sources. But there are some similarities. Oscillations of fields lead to quantum particles: the photon for electric and magnetic fields and the Higgs boson for the Higgs field.

Second, the Higgs boson is different, unlike any other known fundamental particle. All other particles are either matter particles or force carriers, and the Higgs boson is neither of those. For instance, the electrons and quarks are constituents of the atoms, while the photon is the force carrier of the electromagnetic force. The Higgs is not part of the building blocks of the atom, and it also does not mediate a conventional force. The matter and force particles interact in a very simple and beautiful way that is dictated by symmetry and has only one parameter for each force. The Higgs, however, has a plethora of interactions with many parameters. Furthermore, it destroys some of the original symmetries, leading to the observed diversity of particle masses and to the complexity of the structures we see in nature.
Third, if this particle really is a Higgs boson, and it certainly looks like one so far, we are now confronted with the pressing question of the instability of the Higgs field. In the mid-1970s, a very puzzling aspect of the Higgs was discovered; the Higgs field that pervades all space has a tendency to grow in strength, increasing particle masses almost without limit. In other words, the Higgs seems to do its job too well! In some sense, discovering a Higgs boson is a huge relief, as the entire theory of how fundamental particles interact with each other needed a mass-generation mechanism. But in another sense it leads to a huge puzzle: Why aren’t the particle masses much larger?

get answered at genuine:adapted from  DAILY CALIFORNIAN

Whole Stuffed Camel

World's ever largest meat item to be included in the menu of any countries. Whole stuffed camel is served for the wedding functions of Arabs.

World's lightest material: Scientists create carbon aerogel

Chinese scientists have developed the world's lightest substance - carbon aerogel - 
with a density only one sixth of that of the air.
Scientists at Zhejiang University produced the solid material which has a density of only 
0.16 mg/cubic
 centimetre, breaking the previous record of the world's lightest material held by 
graphite aerogel.
The graphite aerogel was developed by German scientists last year with a density
 of 0.18 mg/cubic 
centimetre.Aerogel is a material produced with semi-solid gel dried and solvent removed.
 It appears
 in a solid state with many internal pores filled with air, and thus it's of minimal density.
The research team led by Professor Gao Chao freeze-dried solutions of carbon 
nanotubes and
 graphene to remove moisture and retain integrity.
"Carbon aerogel is similar to carbon sponge in structure. When an aerogel of the
 size of a mug is
 put on Setaria, the slender grass will not bend," Gao Chao said in a statement.
Despite its fragile appearance, carbon aerogel is excellent in elasticity. It can 
bounce back when 
compressed.
In addition, it's one of the materials with biggest oil absorption capacity. Current 
oil absorbing 
products can usually absorb organic solvent of about 10 times of their own weight. 
The carbon aerogel newly developed can absorb up to 900 times their own weight.
"Carbon aerogel is expected to play an important role in pollution control such
 as oil spill control, water purification and even air purification," Gao Chao said.
In addition to pollution control, carbon aerogel is expected to become an ideal 
material for energy storage insulation, catalytic carrier and sound-absorption.

40TH ANNIVERSARY OF FIRST MOBILE COMMUNICATION

The first mobile phone call was made 40 years ago today, on 3 April 1973.

Martin Cooper, a senior engineer at Motorola, called a rival colleague at another telecoms company and announced he was speaking from "a 'real' cellular telephone".
In 2012 a report carried out by the International Telecommunication Union found that there were six billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide.
At the time the global population was seven billion.
"In 40 years we've moved rapidly from the mobile phone as a businessman's tool, through consumerisation and internet access to everything being connected," Dr Mike Short CBE, former president of the Institute of Engineering and Technology and Vice President of Telefonica Europe, told the BBC.
"In the future we will see a much wider range of devices - many of which will be wearable," he added.
"We will work more fully with all the senses. The move to glasses has begun - how can we use eye control to change and look at pages?
"Wearables, in terms of (smartphone) watches, are coming. We'll also see health measurement body vests that can communicate with your phone and then your doctor," said Dr Short.
Phone father Martin Cooper, now aged 85, is renowned as the "father" of the mobile phone.
In a previous interview with the BBC he admitted he thought the initial cost of the devices (in 1983 the first models cost $3,500, or £2,300) might be prohibitive to the mobile phone becoming a mass-market product, but he did recognise that the hefty handsets would probably shrink.
"We did envision that some day the phone would be so small that you could hang it on your ear or even have it embedded under your skin," he said.
Mr Cooper said his vision for a mobile phone was first conceived in the late 1960s when the car telephone was invented by AT&T.
He wanted to create "something that would represent an individual so you could assign a number not to a place, not to a desk, not to a home but to a person," he said.
"It pleases me no end to have had some small impact on people's lives because these phones do make people's lives better. They promote productivity, they make people more comfortable, they make them feel safe and all of those things," Mr Cooper added.
He was also pleased to have been one step ahead of the competition.
"When you are a competitive entity like we were, it's one of the great satisfactions in life," he said.

from BBC

 SCIENTIFIC QUEST 4

DO YOU KNOW HOW A TEST TUBE BABY IS BORN????


ANSWER:

IVF=InVitro Fertilization
In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process by which an egg is fertilised by sperm outside the body: in vitro. IVF is a major treatment for infertility when other methods of assisted reproductive technology have failed. The process involves monitoring a woman's ovulatory process, removing ovum or ova (egg or eggs) from the woman's ovaries and letting sperm fertilise them in a fluid medium in a laboratory. When a woman's natural cycle is monitored to collect a naturally selected ovum (egg) for fertilisation, it is known as natural cycle IVF. The fertilised egg (zygote) is then transferred to the patient's uterus with the intention of establishing a successful pregnancy. The first successful birth of a "test tube baby", Louise Brown, occurred in 1978. Louise Brown was born as a result of natural cycle IVF. Robert G. Edwards, the physiologist who developed the treatment, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2010.
The term in vitro, from the Latin meaning in glass, is used, because early biological experiments involving cultivation of tissues outside the living organism from which they came, were carried out in glass containers such as beakers, test tubes, or petri dishes. Today, the term in vitro is used to refer to any biological procedure that is performed outside the organism it would normally be occurring in, to distinguish it from an in vivo procedure, where the tissue remains inside the living organism within which it is normally found. A colloquial term for babies conceived as the result of IVF, "test tube babies", refers to the tube-shaped containers of glass or plastic resin, called test tubes, that are commonly used in chemistry labs and biology labs. However, in vitro fertilisation is usually performed in the shallower containers called Petri dishes. One IVF method, Autologous Endometrial Coculture, is actually performed on organic material, but is still considered in vitro.

LOUISE JOY BROWN

Louise Brown was born at Oldham General Hospital, Oldham, by planned Caesarean section delivered by registrar John Webster. She weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces (2.608 kg) at birth. Her parents, Lesley and John Brown, had been trying to conceive for nine years. They faced complications of blocked fallopian tubes.
On 10 November 1977, Lesley Brown underwent a procedure, later to become known as IVF, developed by Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards. Edwards was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Medicine for this work. Although the media referred to Brown as a "test tube baby", her conception actually took place in a petri dish. Her younger sister, Natalie Brown, was also conceived through IVF four years later, and became the world's fortieth IVF baby. In May 1999, Natalie was the first IVF baby to give birth herself—naturally—to daughter Casey.
In 2004, Louise married nightclub doorman (bouncer) Wesley Mullinder. Dr. Edwards attended their wedding. Their son Cameron, conceived naturally, was born on 20 December 2006.
John, Louise's father, died in 2006. Her mother, Lesley, died on 6 June 2012 in Bristol Royal Infirmary at the age of 64 due to complications from a gallbladder infection.

 SCIENTIFIC QUESTION-3

ALMOST ALL TIME THE COLOUR OF SKY IN CITIES BECOME GREY. WHAT IS THE REASON BEHIND THIS?


ANSWER:

Since the rate of pollutants in the atmosphere is greater, size of dispersing agents is greater and therefore the rate of scattering of all colours of light will be almost equal. Hence sky turns grey.