Browsing Archive: November, 2014

Two New Baryons

Posted by on Wednesday, November 19, 2014, In : Particle Physics 
More news from the particle physics community with the announcement by physicists at the Large Hadron Collider that they have produced and detected two new particles which have never been seen before. (It should be noted though that these particles have existed before in nature, produced by high energy cosmic rays in the atmosphere, but they decay too quickly to be observed and studied)

However before the news media starts writing headlines, it should also be made clear that this is a minor an...
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The Three Game Paradox

Posted by on Saturday, November 15, 2014, In : Mathematics 
In my continuing series on curious mathematical paradoxes, I have reviewed several interesting and counter-intuitive phenomena in both mathematics and statistics. Recently a couple of readers of my blog asked me about the Three Game Paradox. I must admit that I don't see this as a true paradox, but rather simple statistics, but it is still interesting and as such I present it here for your pleasure...

Suppose that you have just joined a chess club, and you are really a novice player. It seems ...
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Philae Updates

Posted by on Saturday, November 15, 2014, In : Astronomy 
The excitement and jubilation of the Rosetta team and the scientific community seems to have turned sour today. The Philae lander seems to be in serious trouble, and is not expected to live much longer.

Just a few days ago (aka Wednesday) there was celebration as the Philae lander left the Rosetta orbiter after a decade travelling together, and started its descent toward the surface of comet Chury 67P. It landed where it should have, and started preparing to collect data. The technicians said ...
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A Comment on the Higgs

Posted by on Thursday, November 13, 2014, In : Particle Physics 
In the last few days, there have been several news articles in the popular media suggesting that the LHC did not discover the Higgs boson and that what they saw might be something else. This is unlikely to be true, but it has lead to several people asking me for my opinions on the issue. And so for those who have been asking, here is a very brief summary of these claims.

The simplest model of the Higgs boson involves a single particle, relatively heavy compared to other fundamental particles, ...
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The Philae Has Landed

Posted by on Wednesday, November 12, 2014, In : Astronomy 
After more than a decade of travel, and many tense moments for the scientists, the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission has made history this morning by successfully landing the Philae lander on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It is the first time a man made object has been placed on a comet surface, and now it will begin to transmit data to Earth that could help to understand how comets helped to create our own world.

It was a difficult maneuver, as the Philae cannot really...
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About Me


Dr. Chris Bird I am a theoretical physicist & mathematician, with training in electronics, programming, robotics, and a number of other related fields.

   

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