Science Weekly podcast 2012 the year of discoveries and exploration Science guardian.co.uk
Updated: 2012-12-31 07:12:03
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A new partnership between scientists from US institutions and CERN could improve results from neutrino experiments around the world. The scientists hope to use equipment at CERN to gain a more precise understanding of the process of creating a neutrino beam.
In September 2010, about 100 theoretical particle physicists gathered at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory for a workshop unique in purpose and unprecedented in scope: This group of theorists was determined to rewrite the way Large Hadron Collider data is interpreted—in effect, the way scientific discoveries are made in the realm of high-energy physics.
Space telescopes have greatly advanced our understanding of the universe, but they have also surfaced some new and puzzling problems. Recently scientists gained insight into a mismatch between theory and observation uncovered by space telescope research by using a ground-based X-ray technology that grew out of particle physics.
The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment achieved a significant milestone this week.
The US Department of Energy on Monday granted Critical Decision 1 approval to the first phase of LBNE, which includes construction of a beamline at Fermilab and a near-surface far detector at the Sanford Lab in Lead, South Dakota. One of the largest proposed neutrino experiments in the world, LBNE will send neutrinos generated at Fermilab through 800 miles of earth to the South Dakota detector.
Many have speculated about which theorists the Nobel Committee might honor for the prediction of the Higgs boson, but it was the experimentalists involved in the search for the particle who received recognition today. 
Decay channels are the possible transformations a particle can undergo as it decays.
When a particle decays, it does not break into smaller bits; its energy does. Even fundamental particles—so named because they are the basic building blocks of matter that cannot be broken into smaller parts—can decay. Many particles in the Standard Model exist for only a limited time before decaying.
When a particle decays, it transforms into collections of less massive particles whose combined energy adds up to the energy of the original particle.
Many movies use pseudoscience to explain the origins of their villains. A film released this weekend follows the same model, but its producers and stars all know better than to buy the nonsense: They’re PhD students and postdocs in particle physics.
An audience member yelled: “35, 27, 42, 41.” Wim Klein chalked the numbers on a blackboard and then muttered to himself for a few seconds as he multiplied them. He wrote the answer, “1627290.” The crowd applauded.
Klein, a Dutch mathematician, was capable of much more fantastic feats of enormous calculation. In 1976, he took two minutes and 43 seconds to calculate the 73rd root of a 500-digit number, earning him a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.
In its infancy, the universe was made of nearly equal parts matter and antimatter. Yet matter overwhelmingly dominates today. Scientists design experiments that examine the conditions of the early universe to investigate why.
An international collaboration of scientists proposed to build one such project, a particle collider that would specialize in creating B mesons, in Italy over the next several years. However, last week the Italian government withdrew funding for the project, citing the country's weakened economic state.
About 5 billion years ago the universe underwent a crucial transition. The gravitational tug that pulled together the matter in the universe was overwhelmed by a different, repulsive phenomenon. As a result, the universe began to expand at an accelerating rate.
Scientists have given that phenomenon a name: dark energy. However, they can say with confidence only what it does, not what it is, where it comes from, or why it’s pushing galaxies apart at an ever more rapid speed.