Happy 80th Birthday Prof. Peter Higgs!

Peter Higgs, the eminent British physicist who co-proposed a mechanism for how particles in the universe acquired mass, turns 80 today. The Higgs mechanism supposes that the very early cosmos went through a phase transition, similar to the freezing of water into ice. Just as ice freezes into particular patterns, Higgs posited that the universe "froze" into special values of mass. Consequently, the stuff of matter is weighty rather than ethereal.

If Higgs's theory is correct, a remnant of the agent that caused the transition should be around today, at an energy that may be detectable in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Thus, one of the LHC's goals is the quest for the long-sought Higgs particle (nicknamed the "God Particle").

Wishing Prof. Higgs many happy returns! Let's hope he will soon be able to unwrap a wonderful present -- news of the discovery of the particle that bears his name.

More information about the quest for the Higgs particle can be found in my new book: Collider: The Search for the World's Smallest Particles

Turning a Page

It was exciting yesterday to finish looking over the index of my new book: Collider: The Search for the World's Smallest Particles and then sending it off to the production editor. The next step is for the book to be printed, which should occur sometime in the next month. It will be warehoused and then available during the summer. I will be blogging about some of its themes as the publication date approaches. Stay tuned!

In the meanwhile, wishing the readers of this blog a relaxing, enjoyable spring!

Broken Symmetry

It's very exciting to read that the Nobel Prize in Physics this year has been awarded to three Japanese particle physicists, Yoichiro Nambu, Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa, who each mapped out mechanisms for broken symmetry in particle physics. They borrowed the idea from low temperature physics, where a similar phenomenon explains superconductivity. Not often do particle theorists get the Nobel these days, so it is quite a significant event.

Broken symmetry explains differences in mass and other properties on the fundamental level. It posits that at high enough energies, particles exist in a kind of democracy--all of them equal--but as temperatures lower, they lock into particular configurations like crystalline patterns of ice on a pane of glass. It's a brilliant idea, and part of what will be tested at the Large Hadron Collider.

Hearty congratulations to the new Nobel Laureates!

A Parade of Oliphants

Pat Oliphant is one of the best-known cartoonists working in the U.S., and is often the subject of controversy with his cutting satires. Born in Adelaide, Australia he has lived in the States since the 1960s. His cartoons have been awarded with the prestigious Pulitzer Prize.

Interestingly, his uncle, Mark Oliphant, who died in 2000 at the age of 98, aimed at a different target--the world of nuclei. Oliphant was one of the few researchers who worked with two of the greatest 20th century experimental physicists-- Rutherford at Cambridge and Lawrence at Berkeley. Oliphant played an important role in the Manhattan Project, and built in Birmingham, England one of the earliest cyclotrons (circular particle accelerators), in some ways a precursor to the Large Hadron Collider. Oliphant later became governor of South Australia.

Each Oliphant has been richly rewarded with accolades for his creative accomplishments. After all, Oliphants don't work for peanuts.

A New Era for Science

Several days ago, the LHC passed its first beam test with flying colors. It was truly a momentous day for science.

Researchers wait eagerly for the results of proton-proton (and later ion-ion) collisions, hoping to test the Standard Model (uniting electromagnetism with the weak interaction) and to explore the possible existence of supersymmetric companion particles and extra dimensions. Perhaps the secrets of the dark matter that makes up the bulk of the universe's mass will soon be unveiled. Exciting revelations surely lie ahead.

Harmonies of the Spheres

In the very caverns where high energy protons will soon collide at particle energies matching the embryonic moments of the universe, the harmonies of the spheres have already come to life. It's not yet the long-awaited proof of string theory, but rather another class of chords that has resonated hundreds of feet underground. CERN science writer Kate McAlpine has posted her clever Large Hadron Rap, filmed on site at the LHC, on You Tube. Check it out:

Large Hadron Rap