The lord of the particle accelerator, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), went out of particle collision business for almost two years as of late last week. For particle physicists, Valentine’s Day 2013…
Scientist Laurence Krauss has said the philosophy of science is hard to justify.
World Economic Forum/Flickr
I really shouldn’t let myself watch Q&A. Don’t get me wrong, the ABC’s flagship weekly panel show is usually compelling viewing. But after just a few minutes I end up with the systolic blood pressure…
The Large Hadron Collider has been used to find out what matter is fundamentally made of, and how the universe was created.
EPA/Martial Triezzini
One of humanity’s eternal questions surrounds what we are fundamentally made of. Many ancient philosophies believed in a set of classical elements: from water, air, fire and earth of ancient Greeks; to…
Some of the isotopes we find here on Earth were created in supernova explosions like this one.
NASA
If you’ve ever studied a periodic table of the elements (see below), you’re probably already aware that this table reveals a great deal about the chemical properties of the atoms that make up our world…
Sometimes the juiciest treats come in small packages.
Dylan Parker
Most people outside the esoteric worlds of little-science physics (aka quantum mechanics) and big-science physics (aka cosmology) will at some point realise both worlds fly in the face of intuition.
Why…
The cobalt hues of the sky above are thanks to all manner of molecules in the air.
djking
A young child looked up in the sky,
And said, “It’s so blue, Mum, but why?”
You see, blue scatters more,
(There’s this power of 4),
So it rarely comes straight to your eye.
– Author unknown
Most of what…
Everything we see around us could be little more than bits in a giant supercomputer.
petertandlund
As a cosmologist, I often carry around a universe or two in my pocket. Not entire, infinitely large universes, but maybe a few billion light years or so across. Enough to be interesting.
Of course, these…
There are many ways physical laws can be exploited to trick cameras, detectors and eyes.
Niels Linneberg
What do Casper the Friendly Ghost, Harry Potter and H.G Wells' Griffin all have in common? The answer, of course, is “the ability to become invisible”.
And these three characters weren’t the first to…
A combination of wax and coiling makes carbon nanotube muscles stronger than ever.
Science/AAAS
Just on a year ago my colleagues and I announced our discovery that carbon nanotube yarns could be made to twist and rotate at great speeds when electrically stimulated.
In this way we had created “artificial…
When you shine a torch into a dusty room, not all the photons reach their destination.
Simon Greig (xrrr)
All of the light we see around us comes in chunks of energy known as photons. As well as making up light, photons can be used to carry and process information and their quantum properties make possible…
Diamond: more useful in the lab than on a finger.
Charlene/Flickr
Diamond is well known for its appeal as a gemstone. Perhaps less well known are some of its extreme material properties.
As well as being the hardest material in nature, diamond is very good at conducting…
You’d probably get a bit of a fright if ball lightning started moving through your house.
Wikimedia Commons
Ball lightning is one of the strangest phenomena on our planet. It’s usually seen during thunderstorms as a ball of light about the size of a grapefruit, with the intensity of roughly a 40W light bulb…
There’s an ongoing push to open the world of academic knowledge to the wider population … for free.
Jackman Chiu
There’s an ongoing debate in the world of academic publishing about whether the public should be allowed open access to research publications we all pay for in the first place.
“If we are paying for this…
“We’re accused of sitting in our ivory tower when we don’t engage with the public, and of sensationalism when we do.”
photosteve101
Melbourne Researchers Rewrite Big Bang Theory sang a recent headline in the Sydney Morning Herald. It was one of many suggesting the Big Bang theory had been somehow overthrown.
As the principal investigator…
Imagine a magic prism for the entire range of electromagnetic waves.
TORLEY
By Andrew W Wood, Swinburne University of Technology
Visible light forms part of the electromagnetic spectrum. So do emissions from TV and radio transmitters, mobile phones and the energy inside microwave ovens.
The X-rays used in diagnostic imaging and…
“Most people just get used to the concept and get on with their lives.”
Roger McLassus
Our notion of reality is built on everyday experiences. But wave-particle duality is so strange that we are forced to re-examine our common conceptions.
Wave-particle duality refers to the fundamental…
The Higgs boson is alive with the sound of music.
rafeejewell
The July 4 discovery of a particle that closely resembles the Higgs boson opens a new era in science: it should help us understand some fundamental mysteries, such as how microscopic particles attain their…
“Physics permeates the language we use to describe music, and the concepts we use to understand it.”
Ravages
My ANU colleague John Rayner’s excellent recent article
on the physics of music seemed to touch a nerve with the readership of The Conversation.
Although beautifully framed by the personal and anecdotal…
Music is the language of love – and it exemplifies some principles of science.
Roxanne Milward
My wife Theresa represents many things for me – in addition to being my partner, I see her as a 17cm-long quarter-wavelength resonator (which I hope you’ll understand and agree with by the end of this…
Results pertaining to the Higgs boson are “consistent with its existence”.
jef safi
This expert reaction comes via the Australian Science Media Centre:
CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) has this evening announced that the long-sought Higgs boson probably exists, after…
Where one search ends, a whole lot of new searches begin.
Robbie Biller
Physicists working at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Geneva, have announced the observation of a new particle widely thought to be the elusive Higgs boson.
Announced via a live two-way video…
Ripples in a pond help to illustrate wave motion and the Doppler effect.
*˜Dawn˜*
When an ambulance passes with its siren blaring, you hear the pitch of the siren change: as it approaches, the siren’s pitch sounds higher than when it is moving away from you. This change is a common…
Life would be pretty boring if we could predict what was coming next.
ModernDope
The term “uncertainty principle” suggests some grand philosophical idea, like “you can never be sure of anything”, or “there are some things you can never be sure of” and sometimes people use it as if…
A simple desire to understand the way the world works has landed some Iranian researchers in hot water.
On a given day, your typical physicist is mainly preoccupied with trying to understand the intimate secrets of the universe. As with most academics, we get to visit one another in parts of the world to…
Chief Scientist Ian Chubb’s report, released today, presents some serious concerns for the future of Australian science.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
Chief Scientist Ian Chubb’s Health of Australian Science report, launched today at the National Press Club, starts on an optimistic note. Australian science is generally in good health: school students…
The global push to detect gravitational waves could provide an enormous return for science.
Wikimedia Commons
Albert Einstein made an executive decision to revolutionise our understanding of gravity in a paper published in 1916. Nearly 100 years on, a key prediction of Einstein’s theory has eluded direct detection…
The ghost-like image of Tupac captured the imagination of concert-goers … imagine if they’d seen a real hologram.
Last week the world watched on as a supposed hologram of the late rapper Tupac Shakur performed at the Coachella music festival in California.
But was it a hologram?
The term “hologram”, (“holos” meaning…
Pepper’s Ghost is an amazing technique, but holograms, done right, are so much cooler.
kisokiso
Last week rapper Tupac Shakur performed at the Coachella music festival in California – a notable feat given he was shot dead
in 1996.
Tupac’s glowing image appeared on stage, rapping, dancing and interacting…
The multi-million dollar facility provides cutting-edge tools for scientists.
Nancy Mills, Australian Synchrotron.
Science is like high-performance racing: today’s Formula One machine is all too soon the jalopy of tomorrow. The Australian Synchrotron, opened in 2007 and located in Melbourne, is currently at the F1…
Iran is constructing nuclear power stations; that much is clear.
AAP
There is much concern that Iran is in the process of developing nuclear weapons. Such a development, we’re told, could induce Israel to launch a unilateral military strike with all types of unpredictable…
More fossil fuel is out there, but if policy doesn’t stop us, physics will.
EvolveLove/Flickr
In his recent Quarterly Essay, Man-made world: choosing between progress and planet, economist Andrew Charlton presents technological innovation as the solution to climate change and the route to unbounded…
Photosynthesis converts low-energy photons into usable energy; it may teach us how to do the same.
papalars
As the great spectre of climate change continues to loom large over the future, the search for viable, renewable energy sources is becoming ever more important.
Solar power has long been seen as a vital…
If the signs are right, fundamental equations of cosmology may need altering.
waljoris
A radical discovery by my colleagues and I – reported this week in Physical Review Letters – could help explain why it was possible for life (at least as we know it) to develop on Earth, but not in other…
The GPS on your phone couldn’t work without General Relativity.
Jym Dyer
It’s the year 2100. You wake up alone in a small, windowless room. The only other thing in the room is a small ball. Maybe the room is located in your city, but maybe it’s inside that new spaceship everyone…
Our understanding of the universe has been changed for ever.
A. Caulet (ST-ECF, ESA)/NASA
Occasionally, very occasionally, a discovery comes along that reshapes our view of the universe.
Some discoveries teach us about ourselves; some teach us how to better interact with the world around us;…
Confusion and the elusive Higgs boson seem to go hand in hand.
Salvatore di Nolfi/AFP
A recent announcement by the research director of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) indicated the Higgs boson – often referred to as the “God particle” – has been excluded at 95% confidence…
We know they’re out there, and now we’re closer than ever to finding gravity waves.
NASA
Detecting gravity waves is a major goal for astrophysicists.
We know they should be there, but we haven’t found them yet. But today we are one step closer.
By literally squeezing light on a quantum level…
A universe composed differently could still support complex life.
Susan NYC
Welcome to Peer Review, a series in which we ask leading academics to review books written by people working in the same field.
Here Geraint Lewis, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Sydney…
Graphene may have humble beginnings, but it’s becoming a major draw.
qwertyuiop
It inspired the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics.
It’s the best thermal conductor we know of.
It’s a crystal stiffer than diamond, but able to stretch by 20% of its length, and can carry a current density…
How long’s a piece of string? You may want to sit down for a minute.
Gnu2000
String theory entered the public arena in 1988 when a BBC radio series Desperately Seeking Superstrings was broadcast.
Thanks to good marketing and its inherently curious name and features, it’s now part…
Theoretical physics strives towards a (beautiful) description of everything.
Jinx!
The “traditional” beauty of theoretical physics is its equations. If we want to describe something, or the way something behaves, we can write down a relation between some properties we think that thing…
We know how to solve some big problems in physics, we just don’t have the power.
elvissa
Welcome to If I had a blank cheque … a series in which leading researchers reveal what they could (and would) do in their discipline if money were no object.
Today we hear from Dr Jonathan Carroll, Postdoctoral…
You wouldn’t believe what modern telescopes can do.
Professor Fumolatro/Flickr
Last week, scientists set a new distance record, seeing a burst of gamma-rays from a star that exploded when the universe was only 520 million years old. The light from this distant source has been travelling…
Would you behave differently if you knew when the crash was coming?
Dave Hunt/AAP
Economists and physicists may seem like unlikely bedfellows, but then opposites often attract. Their union has recently produced a peculiar baby, a field of research known as “econophysics”.
Physicists…
Could this kitty be both dead and alive? Well, erm, you decide …
ihasb33r/Flickr
Quantum teleportation has been in the news before but last week Japanese and Australian scientists went one better, managing to teleport every physicist’s favourite feline: Schrödinger’s cat.
Before you…
Quantum mechanics (the theory of atoms, quarks and photons) is definitely weird and, thanks to the work I’m doing, it might be getting weirder.
Allow me to throw a quantum spanner in the works.
In the…
As yet we can only guess what the Higgs boson might look like.
DESY Zeuthen
Theoretical physics is full of mysteries and unknowns. In the case of some particles, we can predict their existence even if we can’t find them.
Such is the status of the Higgs boson. And yet detecting…
Nanoparticles, as used in sunscreen, are readily absorbed by the body.
Tony Bartlett/AAP
For the public, the jury is still out on nanotechnology – the media simultaneously extols its promise and warns of the potential calamity facing humanity.
But what is it? How does it work? Is it dangerous…
Is the “Z-prime” lurking within a “jungle” of particles at the LHC?
Argonne National Laboratory
There’s nothing like an unexpected result to get physicists excited.
So in 2008, when some strange behaviour was detected from a rarely-produced particle known as the “top quark”, there was much interest…
Time travel has long been a staple of science fiction but the LHC might make it a reality.
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP
Switzerland’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) can be called a time machine in one sense: it enables us to examine conditions as they were during the universe’s early stages.
But is the 27km-long particle…
Could neutrinos be responsible for the shape of the universe?
The Super-Kamiokande Neutrino Detector, Japan
Of all the known particles in our universe, neutrinos are perhaps the most elusive; their origins are mysterious, their purpose unknown and they are notoriously difficult to detect.
You’ll already know…
