It's spring maintenance time over at the Large Hadron Collider, and the folks at CERN have seen fit to crack open the Compact Muon Solenoid to get at some of its loose connectors. You see, after three years, 99-percent of the the lead tungstate-based electromagnetic calorimeter's channels are currently operational -- but its keepers think it can do better, working on a less than reliable connection that has the preshower down to a paltry 97-percent. Naturally, they've cracked the thing open and thankfully given us a peek inside the beast.

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Source: CERN

The last time CERN and an angry bird met, it didn't end so well: the Large Hadron Collider overheated after a feathered creature reportedly dropped its breakfast on outdoor machinery. Things should go much more smoothly this time around, with CERN and Rovio partnering on an educational initiative that will be unveiled in full at the Frankfurt Book Fair on October 12th. Although the two are shy on just what's entailed beyond the presence of some Angry Birds material at the event, the union will mark the start of Rovio's learning brand and likely represent more in the long run than another Angry Birds Space tie-in. We're mostly wondering if subatomic physics research will explain why we still can't three-star some levels in a physics-based game.

Update: Rovio and CERN announced "Angry Birds Playground" this morning, which the company describes as, "a learning program for 3- to 8-year-olds based on the Finnish National Curriculum for kindergarten." In so many words, CERN and Rovio are partnering on an educational initiative aimed at young children which employs the iconic Angry Birds characters. It's unclear whether the initiative will spawn games or books or ... what exactly, but there you have it.

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Remember when we told you last week that we live in a strange world? Well, we had no idea what we were talking about. Seriously, things are about to get a whole lot weirder. High school is certainly a head-scratcher, no matter how old you are, but the mathematics of social hierarchies can't hold a candle to the mysteries of the buckyball. And, if the strange behavior of the familiar carbon molecule isn't enough for you, we've got an entirely new molecule to contend with, while the once-elusive Higgs Boson is getting us closer to unlocking the secrets of the universe. It's all pretty heady stuff, which is why we're also gonna take a quick detour to the world of human waste. This is alt-week.

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Physics' big announcement had more in common with a leaky product launch than the serious business of re-writing the science books. But slack asset management aside, it's official: a new boson has been observed with a standard deviation of 5 (confidence of 99.9%). The highly anticipated announcement came this morning direct from CERN's press conference (via ICHEP in Melbourne,) and is the result of an intense, ongoing search for the elusive particle. The observation is of a boson particle with a mass of 125.3 ± 0.6 GeV, at a significance of 4.9 sigma. Joe Incandela -- giving the presentation -- said that this is "In agreement with the standard model at 95% confidence range." The boson is the heaviest ever found, and although this is still a preliminary result, it's by far the strongest case yet for the existence of the elusive Higgs.

The sought-after particle is essential for supporting the current understanding of sub-atomic world, and its bearing on nuclear, and electromagnetic interactions. The next stage will be to determine the exact characteristics of the new particle and whether it matches the expectations of the Higgs, or is it in fact something more "exotic." This part will take much more time, but for now, a (very) small, but important piece of the puzzle has been found.

Update: We're sure you've got many questions, and CERN apparently anticipated this. Check out the more coverage link for a helpful FAQ about everything Higgs.

[Image credit: CERN]

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The cat would appear to be out of the bag, but if you must find out about the status of the Higgs boson search ASAP, check the video stream (embedded after the break) as CERN scientists reveal whatever it is they've found. The webcast is scheduled to kick off at 2:55AM ET, as a prelude to this year's ICHEP particle physics conference in Melbourne. Whenever the announcement comes we'll be sure to let you know, check the links below for more information.

Update: So yeah, they've found a new particle "consistent with Higgs boson," check out all the details here.

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We had a false alarm over the possible discovery of the theory-unifying Higgs boson last year, but a bit of poking and prodding in subsequent months may well have given us much more definitive evidence of the elusive particle. According to some rare rumors emerging from Nature, both CERN's ATLAS and CMS detectors have seen particle decay signals suggesting the existence of Higgs to within a 4.5 to 5 sigma level of proof -- in other words, very nearly concrete evidence. That's not quite the 5-plus needed to settle the matter, but it's to a much higher level of certainty than before. As if to add fuel to the fire, ScienceNews even located a briefly posted, CERN-made video (sadly, since pulled) saying bluntly that the CMS team had "observed a new particle."

Whether or not there's any substance is another matter. Nature hears that scientists are supposedly still working out what to say at an event on Wednesday, while CERN has made the slightly odd claim to ScienceNews that the yanked video is just one of several pre-recorded segments made to cover possible outcomes -- you know, in that "Dewey defeats Truman" sort of way. Unless the scientists have to go back to the drawing board, though, the focus from now on may be more on learning how Higgs behaves than its very existence. Any significant truth could see researchers proving the validity of the standard model of physics just as we're firing up our Independence Day barbecues.

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Large Hadron Collider not running properly? If you've read the docs and restarted it, check for a full moon. After noticing fewer particle collisions while on her shift, Pauline Gagnon reached out to a control room operator who casually explained that they adjust beam alignment during full moons. Yes, the tide-producing orbit of Earth's satellite tugs the LHC's inner workings ever so slightly askew. Though minute, the changes add up over the collider's 27km circumference and are picked up by monitoring equipment sensitive enough to measure elementary particles. However, Luna isn't the only thing that affects the accelerator -- the water level in Lake Geneva and passing high-speed rail trains also do the trick. Will your hand react differently to the LHC's beam under a Harvest Moon? Probably not. In any case, hit the source for the scientific details.

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Sure, concerns about the Large Hadron Collider creating a world-destroying black hole may have been more or less put to rest, but there's still plenty of pressing questions that remain unanswered. Like, what would happen if you put your hand in the beam? The folks from Sixty Symbols recently asked some physicists that very question and got some rather puzzled responses, so they went straight to CERN itself to get a definitive answer. You can see that in full after the break, but the short version is that it's something like the force of a moving aircraft carrier concentrated down to a laser-like one-millimeter-wide beam (accompanied by a wider beam of particles that would irradiate your entire body). Bad news. As they're quick to point out, though, actually getting anywhere near the beam is virtually impossible.

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