Fake Banner
On A Roll

What? Another boring chess game?Buzz off, this is my blog, and if I feel like posting a chess game...

When The Attack Plays Itself

After a very intense day at work, I sought some relaxation in online blitz chess today. And the...

Toponium Found By CMS!

The highest-mass subnuclear particle ever observed used to the the top quark. Measured for the...

The Problem With Peer Review

In a world where misinformation, voluntary or accidental, reigns supreme; in a world where lies...

User picture.
picture for Hank Campbellpicture for Heidi Hendersonpicture for Bente Lilja Byepicture for Sascha Vongehrpicture for Patrick Lockerbypicture for Johannes Koelman
Tommaso DorigoRSS Feed of this column.

Tommaso Dorigo is an experimental particle physicist, who works for the INFN at the University of Padova, and collaborates with the CMS and the SWGO experiments. He is the president of the Read More »

 Blogroll
The 450-GeV Quark That Wouldn't Go Away

The 450-GeV Quark That Wouldn't Go Away

May 06 2010 | comment(s)

Two years ago I discussed the results of a very interesting search performed by the CDF experiment in its dataset of 2-TeV proton-antiproton collisions, provided by the Tevatron accelerator at Fermilab.

The search focused on the hypothesis that a massive fourth-generation quark was produced in the collisions. What was assumed was that the quark was heavy -otherwise previous searches would have found it already-, and that it behaved similarly to the sixth quark, the top, which is by now a well-known animal of the particle zoo.
More On Science Outreach In Blogs

More On Science Outreach In Blogs

May 02 2010 | comment(s)

The matter has indeed been discussed ad nauseam in the recent past. Blog posts, internal discussions, conferences, workshops, other blog posts, threads. But there is always the chance to add some bit of information to the soup, or -more easily- misinformation. In this case, the discussion invests mostly italian blogs, so I figured I would give you a summary here.
Advertising Against Lung Cancer

Advertising Against Lung Cancer

Apr 29 2010 | comment(s)

I cannot but be happy about the decision of the Australian government led by Kevin Rudd to further tighten the moral suasion against smoking. They decided that starting in 2012, the name of the brand of cigarettes and other logos will be moved away from the front of the pack, making all the packs of cigarettes look equal in their appearance: the one of the picture below. On the left how packs look like now, on the right the new look.


The Quote Of The Week

The Quote Of The Week

Apr 27 2010 | comment(s)

"The basic goal for CDF is to measure the energy, momentum, and, where possible, the identity, of particles produced at the Tevatron collider over as large a fraction of the solid angle as practical. Our strategy to accomplish this was to surround the interaction region with layers of different detector components. Starting at the interaction point, particles encounter in sequence: a thin wall Be vacuum chamber, charged particle tracking chambers, sampling calorimeters, and muon detectors."

F. Abe et al., The CDF Detector: an Overview, NIM A271 (1988) 387.
Extraterrestrials: A Dime A Dozen

Extraterrestrials: A Dime A Dozen

Apr 25 2010 | comment(s)

Last Monday Stephen Hawking gave a lecture at the George Washington University for the 50th anniversary of NASA. There he discussed the chance of a contact between our civilization and an extraterrestrial one. And he warned about the risks we may be facing.
Minimalist Biographies Of Scientists - Add Your Own!

Minimalist Biographies Of Scientists - Add Your Own!

Apr 22 2010 | comment(s)

My friend Peppe Liberti, a physicist and blogger from southern Italy, sent me today a amusing list of essential biographies of scientists. I wish to share them with you here, after I explain what this is about.

The rules of the game are quite simple: find an amusing way to summarize as succintly as possible (usually not exceeding two lines of text) the life and works of a well-known scientist.

Here is Peppe's bid: five really good ones.



  • Ludwig Boltzmann was one that sought an equilibrium. He died in an irreversible manner.


  • Georg Cantor tried to order the infinities. Ended in a closed set.