The End of Story of Faster Than Light Neutrinos?

Recently some possible explanations of the faster than light neutrinos were announced. And guess what, after all of these mind blowing speculations of neutrinos travelling through other dimensions or Einstein's theories being wrong it's likely that all of this fuss was basically due to a flawed cable.

So there are two likely explanations - one is basically that one of the cables had a flawed connection, which caused a slight discrepancy, while other explanation is that a timing instrument called an oscillator had a problem.
as CERN press officer Arnaud Marsollier said, the flawed cable connection could account for the 60 microsecond difference between the measured neutrino speed and the speed of light. Although further tests will be needed to fully confirm the explanation, it's the most likely explanation we have.

So I don't know what you think about this guys, but I'm quite happy that the experiment was not confirmed and Einstein's theories still hold. I think we already have too much unsolved questions in the world of physics these days so the fall of Einstein's theories would simply be too much.

  

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The Eye of God

Hey guys, if you recently noticed a drop in productivity in the blog it's because I'm currently working on a new physics website, but more about that later. Meanwhile let's checkout something cool. Every sky gazer loves nebulas. After all, these giant clouds of ionized gases are perhaps the most beautiful thing in outer space. These nebulas can take various forms and have a variety of eye-catching colours. So let's check out one of the most popular nebulas - Helix nebula also known as the Eye of God. 

Helix nebula is an example of a planetary nebula. It's a relatively small remnant stellar core surrounded by a cloud of ionized gas. Here are some pictures (click on pictures for a full resolution view):

Infrared:

Image credit

Image Credit

Picture with fake colour:

Image Credit

And finally here's an amazing video:

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Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science by Lawrence Krauss

Year 2011 was a really good year for science literature. Many amazing physics books were released. Both laymen and experts had a pretty big share of various titles. So let's check out this list of top 10 physics books by Physics World.

Physics World's 2011 Books of the Year

I won't comment on all of the books but I would really like to recommend my personal favourite - Quantum Man, which is an amazing book about perhaps the most charismatic physicist ever - Richard Feynman.

After the death of the famous physicist there were plenty of books on the biography of this exceptional personality, so how does this book stand out? The author, who is also a physicist, digs deeper into the head of Feynman, to find out exactly what kind of physicist he was. Krauss even uses some original research papers to find out more about what was going in the mind of this great physicist. This is very refreshing, as the charismatic character of Richard Feynman is well known, yet his theories and thinking process is still a mystery to most.

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However, don't worry if your physics is a little bit rusty, as this book is perfectly readable for every physics fan. The author also digs up some amazing new facts from Feynman's biography so even if you already read some books on Feynman don't skip this one.

All in all, it's a great and easily readable book, which offers not only the life story of Feynman, but also digs deeper to the mind of one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century.

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Playing With Fire

So recently I found some great clips showing some awesome  experiments illustrating the basic principles of physics. Let's start with an amazing representation of sound waves. Oh and the best part is that it includes fire!

This is an experiment that is very popular in presentations as it's quite simple, yet really amazing. I remember seeing this in my physics lecture. Everyone was amazed, even though the lecturer did not use music.

Oh and if you want to try this at home be sure to check out this video of Mythbusters, which show the same kind of tube (it's called Ruben's Tube by the way) and it's construction, which is really simple.

Thanks for reading and be sure to follow, like and subscribe for more videos, articles, book reviews and all that good stuff. Cheers

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Significant Progress at LHC!

In the seminar back at 12th of December held at CERN presented the current results of the search of Higgs boson. The great news was that some significant progress was made. Yet Higgs boson is still not found, let's check out what's  the latest progress update from CERN is all about.

The main conclusion of the seminar was that the most likely mass ranges of Higgs was discovered to be 116-130 GeV  and  115-127 GeV. What is even more amazing that huge hints of Higgs were detected in the latter mass region, yet it's still too weak to confirm the discovery of the particle.

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Here's a qoute from the press release:

"We have restricted the most likely mass region for the Higgs boson to 116-130 GeV, and over the last few weeks we have started to see an intriguing excess of events in the mass range around 125 GeV," explained ATLAS experiment spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti."This excess may be due to a fluctuation, but it could also be something more interesting. We cannot conclude anything at this stage. We need more study and more data. Given the outstanding performance of the LHC this year, we will not need to wait long for enough data and can look forward to resolving this puzzle in 2012."
"We cannot exclude the presence of the Standard Model Higgs between 115 and 127 GeV because of a modest excess of events in this mass region that appears, quite consistently, in five independent channels," explained CMS experiment Spokesperson, Guido Tonelli. "The excess is most compatible with a Standard Model Higgs in the vicinity of 124 GeV and below but the statistical significance is not large enough to say anything conclusive. As of today what we see is consistent either with a background fluctuation or with the presence of the boson. Refined analyses and additional data delivered in 2012 by this magnificent machine will definitely give an answer."


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Book of the Week: "General Relativity and Cosmology: A First Course"

So this week let's check out something a little bit more serious. I would like review this great book on the basics of GR and cosmology by Tai L. Chow.

About the Author

Tai L. Chow was born and raised in China. He received his BSc. degree in Physics from the National Taiwan University and later his Phd from the University of Rochester. He has published more than 30 research papers, mostly in astrophysics. In this book he shares his knowledge and experience on special and general theories of relativity, which he has been teaching for more than thirty years.

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Short Review

As the title says it this book is basically an introductory textbook on general relativity and cosmology. From my experience I can assure you that it's quite hard to find a good book on the basics of GR, as most of the books are either too advanced or almost have no maths at all. This book seems to be one of those rare books, which fall somewhere in between - it has all the required maths and some philosophical considerations as well. Another great thing is that the book has everything you need for the basics of GR, that is it has a couple of chapters on Newtonian Mechanics, Newton's law of gravity and special relativity. Some problems are added after every chapter as well.

The book is not too hard, if you have some experience in special relativity, calculus and tensors. I would probably recommend this for at least 1st or 2nd year students, as the later chapters get quite hairy. But nonetheless, check out this nice little book (270 pages), as it is a great choice for students.

Chapters of the Book:

1. Classical Mechanics
2. Special Relativity
3. Basic Ideas of General Relativity
4. Curvilinear Coordinates and General Tensors
5. Einstein's Law of Gravitation
6. The Schwarzschild Solutions
7. Experimental Tests of Einstein's Theory
8. The Physics of Black Holes
9. Elements of Cosmology
10. Cosmic Dynamics
11. The Physics of the Early Universe


Also you can find the book here:

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Some Explanations for Crazy Neutrinos

So as you all know neutrinos have been behaving in a rather bizarre way these days. And even though thousands of headlines already declared Einstein's theories wrong, in reality more independent tests are needed to confirm the results. So meanwhile let's check out some possible explanations for this strange behaviour of neutrinos.

This pictures illustrates how the experiments were done:

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Perhaps the most famous explanation is that neutrinos might be travel some of the way in another dimension, which enables them to complete the journey faster. This short cut scenario would explain the strange results without challenging relativity. Perhaps the simplest analogy would be travelling between two points on the surface of Earth through a tunnel instead of travelling on the surface. The main problem however is that extra dimensions still belong to the more exotic theories of physics. That is there is no direct proof of any extra dimensions yet. Also, if neutrinos could do something as fancy as extra dimensional travel we should have detected it when observing massive supernova explosions, which enable quite accurate predictions of the speed of neutrinos. However, no such faster than light travel was ever detected.

Of course there are scientists who think that neutrinos have indeed travelled faster than light. However, according to physicist Sheldon Glashow, if neutrinos were indeed travelling faster than light in vacuum, they would radiate electron-positron pairs and would simply lose energy. This change in energy would be noticeable in the OPERA experiment, however no energy loss was detected. So this means that there simply is some kind of systematic error or that something really bizarre is going on.

So the other possible explanation might be some kind of unknown factor, which messes up the experiment and gives faster than light results. After the famous results were published, scientists were flooded by emails asking whether they included rotation of the Earth, general relativity, continental drift and other similar factors to their calculations. So far it seems that everything was included, as even the second experiment gave positive results that neutrinos travelled faster than they should. Yet, one of the newest explanations says that the anomaly in the speed of the particles could be explained having in mind that satellites were used to accurately determine the distance between Cern and Gran Sasso. And since the satellites where moving relatively to the observers on Earth, the calculations should be slightly different, which could give a change in the results of about 64 ns., which is very close to the result found in the experiments.

So even though there are many great as well as crazy explanations all of them have to be examined and checked. It will take long and hard work to test all of this, but as history shows, every great revolution in science starts with a crisis.

Also some guys sent me this crazy video. It's a song about neutrinos and it's so cheeeeeeesy. Actually, it's one of the strangest songs I've seen, but check it out :D

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Physics from the Past: Electromagnetism in Silence

So here we have something special. It's an educational video back from the late 1920s about electromagnetism. It's the first silent physics video and by far the oldest I've seen so far.

So it's basically basics of electromagnetism, transformators, electricity transportation and stuff like that. It's hard to believe but it's basically the same stuff that we learn in school these days, even some equipment reminds me of  high school experiments. So but be sure to check this one out as it is really hard to find such old physics videos these days. Cheers

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The Dreams that Stuff is Made Of by Stephen Hawking

About the Author

Stephen Hawking is a theoretical physicist who worked for 30 years as a Lucasian professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge. His research focused mostly on theoretical cosmology, especially black holes. Besides that Stephen Hawking has become widely known for his popular science books like “A Brief History of Time”, “Universe in a Nutshell” and others.

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About the Book

The Dreams that Stuff is Made Of is a great guide by the best-selling author Stephen Hawking to the mysterious world of quantum mechanics. With Hawking's insightful commentary the readers are led to the roots of quantum theory. Starting with revolutionary works of Niels Bohr ending with greatest works of Richard Feynman, all the greatest moments in the history of quantum physics are covered in this huge book (1176 pages). As all books by Stephen Hawking, The Dreams that Stuff is Made Of is interesting and complicated science material written in a very readable manner. And of course the fact that all of the greatest works of quantum physics are finally brought together to one volume, makes this book worth having for every physics fan. 

The book can be found here:

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Nobel Prize in Physics 2011

Today is very special day in the world of Physics as the Nobel prize winners in Physics have been announced today (October 4th). The winners of the prestigious prize are Saul Perlmutter (University of California Berkley), Brian P. Schmidt (Australian National University) and Adam G. Riess (Johns Hopkins University). The prize was given for the astonishing discovery of the acceleration of the expansion of the universe through observations of supernovae.

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It's really nice to see these guys getting the greatest prize in the world of science as the discovery of the acceleration of the expansion of the universe really shook the world. In a sense this discovery brought physicists to the mystery of dark matter, which is perhaps the biggest secret of Physics these days.

If you wish to reed more news check out these links and video:

LINKS: 1) Nobel Prize Website;
2) Videos and other stuff related to Nobel prize in Physics.

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The Grand Design By Stephen Hawking

About the Authors:

Stephen Hawking is a theoretical physicist who worked for 30 years as a Lucasian professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge. His research focused mostly on theoretical cosmology, especially black holes. Besides that Stephen Hawking has become widely known for his popular science books like “A Brief History of Time”, “Universe in a Nutshell” and others.

Leonard Mlodinov is a physicist and an author. He works in Caltech and Max Planck Institute for physics. His research focuses on various problems of Quantum Mechanics. Besides that he also wrote screenplays for Beyond the Horizon and Star Trek the Next Generation.

Short Review of the Book:

The Grand Design is the newest book of Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinov which focuses on explaining the origins of the universe. In this new book Hawking expresses his position that laws of the universe alone are enough to explain the Big Bang, that is, God as a creation of the universe is not necessary. This as you might guess has caused a little controversy, especially among the religious readers.

The aim of this book is to show how laws of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics can lead to the spontaneous creation of the universe from nothing. The authors start by describing the evolution of human thought and science and how this lead to the current understanding of the universe. Starting with ancient Greek scholars and revolutionary works on Nicolaus Copernicus , ending with modern M-theory – authors show how centuries of scientific knowledge help us tackle the greatest mysteries of the universe.  

You can find the book here:

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Top 10 Greatest Physics Experiments: 5. Torsion Bar Experiment

The experiment was performed in 1797–98 by the English scientist Henry Cavendish. He followed a method prescribed and used apparatus built by his countryman, the geologist John Michell, who had died in 1793.
Even though Newton already had calculated the value of the gravitational constant G, it wasn’t confirmed in labarotory. This is where the torsion bar experiment comes into play.

The apparatus employed a torsion balance, essentially a stretched wire supporting spherical weights. Attraction between pairs of weights caused the wire to twist slightly, which allowed the first calculation of the value of the gravitational constant G. The experiment was popularly known as weighing the Earth because determination of G permitted calculation of the Earth's mass. The simple equation of gravity created back at the end of 17 century by Newton was confirmed once again.

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Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku Review

About the Author:

Michio Kaku is a professor of theoretical physics in the City College of New York and a co-founder of the famous string theory. Besides that he is one of the most famous science populizers appearing in TV shows, radio and numerous scientific documentaries.

Michio Kaku has written a number of popular science books, mostly focusing on the future of physics and modern theories. The list includes:

• Physics of the Future (2011)
• Physics of the Impossible (2008)
• Parallel Worlds (2005)
• Einstein's Cosmos (2004)
• Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21 Century (1998)
• Beyond Einstein (with Jennifer Thompson) (1995)
• Hyperspace (1994)

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Short Review:

The book is written based on interviews with over three hundred of the world's top scientists, who are already inventing the future in their labs. Kaku in this brand new book presents the revolutionary developments in medicine, computers, quantum physics, and space travel that will forever change our way of life and alter the course of civilization itself.

According to Michio Kaku the future will be extraordinary. The ultra fast internet will be in your contact lens. It will recognize people's faces, display their biographies, and even translate their words into subtitles.

What is even more amazing that you will be able to control computers with microscopic sensors implanted in your brains.

So in conclusion this book is another great addition to other Michio Kaku's books. If you have already read his other books you already know what to expect from this one. So if you're a fan of Kaku's books be sure to check this one out as it really gives you a glimpse to the future. 

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So Was Einstein Really an Atheist?

I've seen both theists and atheists using Einstein's believe or disbelief in god in their arguments. So was Einstein an atheist or a theist himself?


The answer to this question could be found in Einstein's books and interviews. In the book "Albert Einstein, The Human Side" by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, he denied believing in personal god: "It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly."

However, Einstein wasn't an atheist either, as he also said: "I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings."

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So it seems that Einstein was somewhere in between atheism and theism. Perhaps his views are best describe as pantheism. This is confirmed by another great quote from a book by G. S. Viereck called “Glimpses of the Great”: "I'm not an atheist and I don't think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangements of the books, but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God."

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String Theory Explained...In Human Language

So here we have another another great documentary from the BBC Horizon team. It's about none other but the mysterious string theory. String theory, like quantum mechanics, is one of those fields of physics that are surrounded by mystery. Who are these strings? Are they real? What are branes? Are there more than 4 dimensions in our universe? These questions are usually asked by those interested in string theory. However, it can sometimes be hard to find a reliable answer.

This great documentary will try to tackle these questions and will answer them for you in a human language. Enjoy!

Thanks fro SevenSevenSevenaka for uploading this

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