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You are browsing the archive for Particle Physics Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.

14 March 2011

Yes, Another Explosion at Fukushima, but read this before you get too concerned.

The below is from Dr. Josef Oehmen of MIT. It was reproduced on Barry Brooks excellent blog Brave New Climate. Brooks is a climate science expert at the Univ. of Adelaide, and I read his posts frequently. Just click the image below to go to Brave New World. It will take you awhile to read, but you will then have a very good understanding of what is happening in Japan. You …

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12 March 2011

Massive Explosion Rocks Japan Nuclear Plant- Radiation Facts

  With the news this morning of an explosion at the Fukushima reactor in Japan, I thought I would repost something I wrote over a year ago on radiation. You are likely to hear about milli-rems and Sieverts on the news, and this should help you make sense of it. A physicist on the BBC has been quoted as saying that the explosion was probably a result of a core …

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12 January 2011

How Nuclear Weapon Treaties Led To The Discovery That Thunderstorms Produce Antimatter!

NASA released a really cool piece of science this week. The story starts with the nuclear arms reduction treaties signed in the 1960’s between the U.S. and Russia. This was back in the middle of the cold war, and neither side trusted the other. Probably for good reason. So how could we be sure the Russians were not testing nuclear weapons without us knowing about it? Easy. Nuclear fission produces …

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2 January 2011

Let’s Hope 2011 is a Brighter Year for Science than 2010 Turned Out To Be

I write this blog because the natural world is  amazing and I want to share what I find out with others. My background is in atmospheric science but I try to post frequently on any aspect of science that meets my definition of wild. It’s sad that so many people get caught up in these end of world myths like 2012. Even more are seduced by such laughable myths like …

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22 December 2010

The Strangest Telescope On Earth is Complete!

It’s called ICE CUBE and it’s at the bottom of the World. Actually it’s IN the bottom of the World, and without doubt it’s the strangest telescope on Earth. Ice Cube is a neutrino observatory. It’s made up of hundreds of detectors embedded in the ice 1 km beneath the South Pole. My name is on one of those detectors, and it something I am very proud of! The NSF …

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17 December 2010

The Scale of The Universe

Consider the dot at the end of this sentence. Imagine it is on a printed page instead of your computer. If it were, it would contain around 100 billion atoms of carbon. If you wanted to see those jiggling atoms with your own eye, you would have to enlarge that do to the size of 100 meters. About as big as a football (Euro or American) field. You would then …

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13 December 2010

Neil deGrasse Tyson: “50/50 Odds the LHC Will Discover the Higgs Boson”

Here is the last part of my interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson from earlier this month. I almost didn’t ask this question, but it elicited a fabulous answer about the nature of scientific discovery. What is the Higgs boson you ask? Here is my explanation, and keep in mind, I’m a meteorologist not a particle physicist! I don’t even know enough about it to be dangerous. Few people other than …

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15 November 2010

How the Large Hadron Collider Works and Why It’s Important

You have likely heard about the Large Hadron Collider. You probably even now they are searching for an elusive atomic particle called the Higgs Boson. Want to know why it’s so important and just how incredible the LHC machine is? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JMpDLWdiTQ Watch this video and then watch an explanation by Brian Cox that I posted last week.

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