Physics

Nature Has A Tendency To Reduce Complexity

There exists a tendency in nature to reduce complexity via modularization. This tendency grows when more modules become available. Finally this tendency enables nature to create intelligent and very sophisticated creatures. I encountered relations in sever ...

Article - Hans van Leunen - Dec 17 2010 - 4:50pm

An Exercise In Relativistic Kinematics

A faithful reader of this blog has been asking me for answers to some of the 42 questions which were given at an exam for particle physics researcher wannabes in Italy in 2005. I already provided some answers in a separate post a few months back, but the r ...

Blog Post - Tommaso Dorigo - Dec 20 2010 - 1:05am

From hammock to armchair

You haven't seen any new hardcore physics posts entering this blog in recent weeks. Reason is a new role in my professional life, combined with a new science project that I have started in my spare time (if successful, you will definitely read more ab ...

Blog Post - Johannes Koelman - Dec 19 2010 - 1:31pm

The Say of the Week

An expert is a man who has made all of the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field. Niels Bohr ...

Blog Post - Tommaso Dorigo - Dec 20 2010 - 12:00am

The case of the trilobite molecule

Ten years ago the trilobite molecule came into the Physics media, like Physics News, Physical Review focus etc. It reappeared about a year ago, in fact in Nature. I am planning to demonstrate here that the trilobite molecule is not at all trilobite-like, i ...

Blog Post - Ladislav Kocbach - Dec 21 2010 - 11:12am

10 Inverse Femtobarns: Celebration Time At Fermilab!

As sure as death and taxes, and as timely as a Swiss watch, the Tevatron collider never ceases to awe us. Well into its twentysixth year of life, the aged and celebrated proton-antiproton collider sitting just a few meters underground in the west Chicago s ...

Article - Tommaso Dorigo - Dec 21 2010 - 4:14pm

If That Were A Higgs At 200 GeV...

A reader of this blog asked in the comments thread of a recent piece the following interesting question: "Assuming mH = 201 GeV/c2, how many Higgses shoud have been produced at the Tevatron by now with an integated luminosity of 10 inverse femtobarns ...

Article - Tommaso Dorigo - Dec 23 2010 - 6:15am

Rumors About An Old Rumor

Some unforeseen Christmas-vigil blog activity bringing here a few visitors more than average was traced today back to BBC News, who discussed the 2010 science highlights here. The incoming link is in this paragraph: The evolving role of the blogosphere in ...

Blog Post - Tommaso Dorigo - Dec 25 2010 - 5:40am

Physics Forecasts For 2011

Betting a grand on the existence or not of new physics is cool, but one does not need to be that daring (or to be that daring every other day) to enjoy the game of making predictions for what the fundamental research in experimental particle physics will ...

Article - Tommaso Dorigo - Dec 26 2010 - 9:36am

One In A Million Shots...

Dynamics can be surprising at times, even when applied to well-understood and tested physical systems such as a basketball and a basket. Look what happened to a free shot executed by Kamyl Kawrzydek in a match between Idaho State University and  Utah Stat ...

Blog Post - Tommaso Dorigo - Dec 27 2010 - 1:39am