Browsing Archive: July, 2015

Another Earth...

Posted by on Thursday, July 23, 2015, In : Astronomy 
The team behind NASA's Kepler space telescope has just announced the discovery of another very interesting new exoplanet. The newly named Kepler-452b would appear to be a planet slightly larger than our own Earth, that is orbiting a Sun-like star at just the right distance to be in the “habitable zone”. They are claiming that this new planet is the most Earth-like that has yet been discovered in the twenty years of exoplanet hunting.

In addition, the team also announced several other pla...
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Pentaquarks

Posted by on Tuesday, July 14, 2015, In : Particle Physics 
On the same day that the New Horizon probe makes history as the first man-made object to do a fly-by of the planet Pluto, the LHCb experiment is claiming a fascinating new discovery on the subatomic scales. According to results announced today, they seem to have produced and detected a pentaquark system.

Allow me to begin by (briefly) reviewing the theory of quarks. According to the Standard Model of particle physics, there are six flavours of quark as well as a matching set of six anti-quark ...
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New Horizon's Final Approach

Posted by on Monday, July 13, 2015, In : Astronomy 
This Tuesday will mark a historic event in planetary exploration, as after nine years and three billion miles of travel the New Horizon probe becomes the first man-made object to do a close fly-by of the planet Pluto. (And yes, I still consider it a planet!)

It should be exciting to see what images and data it returns to Earth on the day. However even now as it makes it approach it is sending back a lot of fascinating information. The first images of the surface have already been mapped in Goo...
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The Doomsday Argument

Posted by on Tuesday, July 7, 2015, In : Philosophy 
A few days ago I happened upon an online discussion of probability theory, and the issue of the doomsday argument came up. This is an odd bit of mathematics that seems to predict the end of the world is coming soon, and it has been bolstered in recent years by academic articles written by respected scientists and published in peer-reviewed journals. While I disagree with some of the arguments used in this calculation, it is still worth studying and understanding if for no other reason than to...
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Monopole Quest

Posted by on Wednesday, July 1, 2015, In : Particle Physics 
Over the past few years there have been many opportunities for average citizens to participate in scientific research, whether by classifying galaxies or hunting for supernovae, or watching the oceans and the grasslands for wildlife. However until recently there have been few opportunities to work with the particle physics community.

However a new project has just started through the zooniverse website, in which users can help the MoEDaL (Monopole and Exotics Detector at LHC) team to hunt for...
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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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