Dec. 04, 2011
Reported News for this Week:
1. CERN plans Dec. 13 news conference on Higgs result 2. Physicists propose search for fourth neutrino
3. NASA’s Pluto Probe Marks a New Milestone 4. Newfound alien planet is hot enough to melt iron 5. Searching for dark matter in exoplanet data 6. 'Phonitons' predicted in crystal lattices
7. Biocompatible graphene transistor array reads cellular signals 8. Astronomers Discover Ancient ‘Ultra-Red’ Galaxies
9. 2012 Update: Magnetic Pole Reversal Happens All The Geologic Time
10. Could Natural Nuclear Reactors Have Boosted Life on This and Other Planets
CERN plans Dec. 13 news conference on Higgs result
BBC News
The ATLAS and CMS collaborations will present independent analyses of data collected by the LHC's experiments up to this October at a seminar in Geneva on Dec. 13. The respective teams have not had the time to combine their results, and will not be comparing their results
beforehand to avoid biasing their interpretation of their own data. While the definitive finding of the Higgs boson has not been achieved yet, the search for it has converged upon a small window of masses. MORE
Physicists propose search for fourth neutrino
Physorg.com
Physicists know that neutrinos (and antineutrinos) come in three flavors: electron, muon and tau; and have watched them oscillate back and forth between flavors. A proposed fourth neutrino, the so-called "sterile neutrino", would explain some anomalous results, but would be particularly difficult to detect. In their study published in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters, Michel Cribier, et al., have proposed an experiment that would, according to them, unambiguously test whether or not a fourth flavor of neutrino really exists. If it does, then it would have huge implications not only for neutrino science and possibly dark matter, but also for understanding building blocks of matter overall. MORE
NASA’s Pluto Probe Marks a New Milestone
Artist's impression of New Horizons' close encounter with Pluto and Charon. Credit:
NASA/Thierry Lombry
It may not have noticed anything different as it continued its high-speed trek through
interplanetary space, but today New Horizons passed a new milestone: it is now (and will be for quite some time) the closest spacecraft ever to Pluto!
This breaks the previous record held by Voyager 1, which came within 983 million miles (1.58 billion km) of the dwarf planet on January 29, 1986.
(...)
Read the rest of NASA’s Pluto Probe Marks a New Milestone (345 words)
Newfound alien planet is hot enough to melt iron
National Optical Astronomy Observatory
Astronomers have found an alien planet not much bigger than Earth, but so blisteringly hot that life has no shot of gaining a foothold there. The exoplanet is 1.6 times bigger than Earth, but orbits so close to its parent star that astronomers estimate that its surface temperature to be about 2960 degrees Fahrenheit. The planet was found using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, and was further studied using telescopes at Arizona's Kitt Peak National Observatory. MORE
Searching for dark matter in exoplanet data
American Physical Society
Our galaxy could be filled with asteroid-size black holes that presumably formed shortly after the big bang. If they exist in large numbers, these so-called primordial black holes would serve as the dark matter that keeps stars gravitationally glued inside galaxies. None of these
primordial black holes have been detected so far, but a new theoretical analysis described in Physical Review Letters demonstrates that a current planet-hunting mission is well placed to search for them. MORE
'Phonitons' predicted in crystal lattices
American Physical SocietyVibrations in a crystal can combine with an electron in a new way to form a hybrid quantum entity, according to a team of theorists publishing in Physical Review Letters. They call it a
"phoniton", a particle that combines a phonon — the quantum form of vibrations — with a matter excitation, such as an electron that transits between two levels. The team also proposes a nanostructure that would support this quantum state and allow it to be observed. Because the new quantum particle represents a coupling of an electron with a localized vibration, the researchers say it could serve in sensors or as a link to quantum computing devices. MORE
Biocompatible graphene transistor array reads cellular signals
EurekAlertReported in Advanced Materials, researchers have demonstrated, for the first time, a graphene-based transistor array that is compatible with living biological cells and capable of recording the electrical signals they generate. The transistor could record signals with high spatial and temporal resolution, and even followed hormone-induced changes in cellular electrical activity. The analysis of the recorded cell signals and the electronic noise of the transistors confirm that graphene transistors surpass state-of-the-art devices for bioelectronic applications. MORE
Astronomers Discover Ancient ‘Ultra-Red’ Galaxies
This artist's conception portrays four extremely red galaxies that lie almost 13 billion light-years from Earth. Discovered using the Spitzer Space Telescope, these galaxies appear to be physically associated and may be interacting. One galaxy shows signs of an active galactic nucleus, shown here as twin jets streaming out from a central black hole. Image Credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA) A team of astronomers, led by Jiasheng Huang (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) using the Spitzer Space Telescope, have discovered four ‘Ultra-Red’ galaxies that formed when our Universe was about a billion years old. Huang and his team used several computer models in an attempt to understand why these galaxies appear so red, stating, “We’ve had to go to extremes to get the models to match our observations.”
The results of Huang’s research were recently published in The Astrophysical Journal
Using the Spitzer Space Telescope helped make the discovery possible, as it is more sensitive to infrared light than other space telescopes such as the Hubble. The newly discovered galaxies
What processes are at work to create these extremely red objects, and why are they of interest to astronomers?
(...)
Read the rest of Astronomers Discover Ancient ‘Ultra-Red’ Galaxies (280 words)
2012 Update: Magnetic Pole Reversal Happens All The Geologic Time
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Dec 02, 2011 - Scientists understand that Earth's magnetic field has flipped its polarity many times over the millennia. In other words, if you were alive about 800,000 years ago, and facing what we call north with a magnetic compass in your hand, the needle would point to 'south.' This is because a magnetic compass is calibrated based on Earth's poles. The N- S markings of a compass would be 180 degrees ... more
Could Natural Nuclear Reactors Have Boosted Life on This and Other Planets
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Dec 02, 2011 - While modern-day humans use the most advanced engineering to build nuclear reactors, Nature sometimes makes them by accident. Evidence for a cluster of natural nuclear reactors has been found on Earth, and some scientists say our planet may have had many more in its ancient past. There's also reason to think other planets might have had their own naturally occurring nuclear reactors, thoug ... more