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Stanford's new lab could make particle accelerators 1,000 times smaller
Particle accelerators have proven vital to understanding subatomic physics, but current technology tends to make them... rather large. And Stanford is determined to address that. SLAC has started assembling a new location, FACET-II (Facility for Advanced Accelerator Experimental Tests), that could lead to accelerators 100 to 1,000 times smaller than you see today. The facility will produce ultra-high quality electron beams that should help develop new, more size- and cost-effective plasma acceleration techniques.
Quantum 'hashtags' may prove the existence of a strange particle
Hashtags could soon be useful for a lot more than fostering discussion on your favorite social network. Researchers have developed a hashtag-shaped quantum chip (shown below) that could confirm the existence of the oddball Majorana particle, which exists as both matter and antimatter at the same time. The team has learned that laying indium phosphide nanowires in the familiar '#' shape creates a closed circuit that lets the particles pass by each other and braid, rather that annihilating each other like they would on a single wire. Think of it like creating streets with intersections instead of a one-lane road -- the 'traffic' can actually get around without collisions.
Work starts on a massive underground neutrino experiment
Neutrinos are notoriously difficult to understand, but work is underway to know them a little better. Researchers have officially broken ground on the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility, the home to the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. When it's finished 10 years from now, the South Dakota project will be the largest-ever US experiment built to study the subatomic particle -- teams will remove 870,000 tons of rock to create the caverns needed for the facility's centerpiece liquid argon detector. All that excavation should pay off, though, as it promises to shed light on some of the mysteries of the universe.
Large Hadron Collider's new 'particle' was just a fluke
Sorry, folks: CERN didn't mean to get your hopes up. Researchers have determined that Large Hadron Collider data suggesting a possible new particle was really just a "statistical fluctuation." Additional data collected over the course of the past several months reduced the unusual diphoton "bump" to a significance of 2 sigma, or well below the 5 sigma needed for a discovery to be considered authentic. It's just unusual that scientists saw a blip like this at both the ATLAS and CMS experiments, ATLAS' Dave Charlton explains to Scientific American.
Particle's Electron board lets anyone make 3G internet devices
As sweet as it might be to dream of making your own Internet of Things device, there's one big problem: keeping it online at all times. How do you connect that smart sensor in your backyard when it's nowhere near WiFi? Particle (aka Spark) thinks it can help. It just started shipping the Electron, its cellular-equipped tinkerer's board, to its Kickstarter backers. The tiny device not only has the basic components you need to make IoT gadgets, but a modem (a 2G Electron is $39, 3G is $59) and a simplified, if slightly costly, data plan. If you're willing to spend $3 per month for 1MB and 99 cents for every megabyte afterwards, your project gets online in 100 countries around the world -- not trivial, but just fine if you're building a meter or anything else that transmits only a tiny amount of data.
Large Hadron Collider may have detected a new particle
The rejuvenated Large Hadron Collider might have achieved another breakthrough... provided everything lines up, that is. Two teams of CERN scientists have detected an excess of gamma ray pairs that they suspect might represent the radioactive decay of a previously unknown particle. The data is far from conclusive (there's a 1 in 93 chance that it's nothing), and the researchers don't expect to have enough data until they present at a convention next summer. However, it's rare that two groups notice the same anomaly -- that's frequently a sign that something's up.
Portable particle accelerators may soon become reality
Modern particle accelerators are big, to put it mildly -- even the smallest ones tend to occupy large rooms. Researchers at the University of Maryland, however, have found a way to shrink them down to where they're genuinely portable. By shooting plasma with a laser pulse in such a way that they intensify the pulse and create a wake, the scientists can accelerate electrons to near the speed of light without using nearly as much energy as current machines (just millijoules for every blast). With this technology, you'd need so much less equipment and power that you could fit an accelerator on a cart.
Large Hadron Collider finds a new 'pentaquark' particle (updated)
It didn't take long for the Large Hadron Collider to push the boundaries of science once more. The LHCb experiment team has discovered the existence of "pentaquarks," or subatomic particles where there are four quarks and one antiquark in specific states. Scientists have known for decades that these kinds of particles should exist under our current model for quarks, but they've never had solid evidence until now. As they explain, earlier tests were like "looking for silhouettes in the dark" -- the LHC test (which studied the decay of a baryon particle) had so much high-precision data that a pentaquark was the only possible explanation for the results. More tests will be necessary to see how this pentaquark behaves and what it can teach us about physics, but those will begin as soon as the collider starts its next run. [Image credit: CERN/LHCb experiment] Update: To be clear, the data used in this discovery is from the LHC's initial run, before the shutdown. It's during the second, ongoing stint that researchers will conduct follow-up tests.
The Large Hadron Collider is back and stronger than ever
Yes, it's back -- after a two-year upgrade program, CERN's Large Hadron Collider is once again operational. Scientists are only firing collision-free proton beams right now to test the new system, but they'll ramp up over the next few months to the point where they're smashing protons together at 13 teraelectronvolts -- about twice the energy the LHC managed in its first season. The machine will have a relatively short three years to operate before its next shutdown, but the higher output should help researchers explore antimatter, dark matter and other aspects of physics that are relatively untested. Given that the collider appears to have discovered the mysterious Higgs boson during its first run, we're hopeful that its second season has more breakthroughs in store. [Image credit: CERN]
Newly discovered particle is both matter and antimatter at the same time
You probably think of matter and antimatter as mortal enemies, since their equivalent particles (such as protons and antiprotons) normally destroy each other on contact. However, there are now hints that the two might get along just fine in the right circumstances. Researchers claim to have successfully imaged a Majorana particle, which exists as both matter and antimatter at the same time. The team created it by placing a string of iron atoms on top of a lead superconductor, forming pairs of electrons and antielectrons -- except for one lone electron at the end of the chain, which exhibited properties of both.
Daily Roundup: HTC kicks off $1 billion rebrand, Elon Musk's Hyperloop, Liquid E2 review, and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
NYU synthesizes crystals with lifelike behavior under light
Scientists have long surmised that inorganic life is possible. New York University hasn't created any at this stage, but it just produced an uncannily close imitation through a recent experiment. When exposing hematite particles (iron and oxygen in a polymer) to specific wavelengths of blue light, researchers got the particles to form crystals that metabolize and move together like a flock. If it weren't for the lack of reproduction, the crystals would technically qualify as life -- and one upcoming test will trade mobility for that self-replication. Accordingly, NYU sees the crystals not just as having possible uses for electronics, but also as illustrating that a finer line might exist between living creatures and synthetic objects. Whether or not the university ever meets all three conditions for life at once, we may have to reset our expectations for what chemicals can do when they get together.
Large Hadron Collider may have produced a previously undetected form of matter
Teams at the Large Hadron Collider must be developing a knack for producing tangible evidence of theoretical particles. After orchestrating 2 million collisions between lead nuclei and protons, like the sort you see above, the collider's Compact Muon Solenoid group and researchers at MIT suspect that stray, linked pairs of gluon particles in the mix were signs of color-glass condensate, a currently theory-only form of matter that sees gluons travel in liquid-like, quantum-entangled waves. The clues aren't definitive, but they were also caught unexpectedly as part of a more routine collision run; the team is curious enough that it's looking for more evidence during weeks of similar tests in January. Any conclusive proof of the condensate would have an impact both on how we understand particle production in collisions as well as the ways gluons and quarks are arranged inside protons. If so, the CMS and MIT teams may well answer a raft of questions about subatomic physics while further justifying CERN's giant underground rings.
Apple acquires HTML5 design shop Particle
According to a report in CNET, Apple has quietly acquired Particle, a consulting company that specializes in web and HTML 5-based marketing projects. The company has worked with high-profile companies like Google, Motorola, Amazon, Yahoo and even Apple. It's also known for its celebrity backer, Justin Timberlake, who invested in Particle and helped fund its digital calling card service, Robo.to. The acquisition went through last month and most of Particle's employees are now working for Apple as "creative technologists." The team is expected to work on Apple's product pages, iCloud.com and iAD, all of which rely heavily on HTML 5 to deliver content.
CERN confirms existence of new particle consistent with Higgs boson (video)
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]
CERN update on its search for Higgs boson starts at 3AM ET (video)
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.
Higgs boson just may, possibly, more or less be proven to exist by ATLAS and CMS teams
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.
Neutrinos can transmit messages through walls, mountains, planets
Neutrinos may not travel as fast as we first hoped, but then they have other special abilities to make up for it. Being almost massless, they can penetrate the thickest barriers, which ought to make them ideal message carriers. To illustrate the point, scientists sent the word "Neutrino" on a beam of particles through 240 meters (800 feet) of solid stone and received it loud and clear on the other side. The same approach could potentially be used to send a message right through the center of a planet, making it possible, according to one of the researchers, to "communicate between any two points on Earth without using satellites or cables." The experiment required the latest particle accelerators at Chicago's Fermilab, which flung the neutrinos over a 2.5 mile track before firing them off at an underground receiver, but it proved the principle: Shrink the accelerator down to the size of a smartphone and neutrino messaging could be huge. Or it could die in a format war with quantum teleportation.
Unity 3.5 available now, with new effects and performance updates
There are quite a few ways to make and build iPhone and iPad apps and games, but one of the most popular tools to create iOS games is the Unity engine, and that system has released version 3.5. The new version offers a number of improvements and upgrades, with lots of new particle and lighting and rendering effects to make games look better than ever, as well as improvements in the standard AI and pathfinding code for enemies, and lots of improvements to performance and memory. The new kit also now supports a preliminary version of export to Flash, and there's also an option to create a "native" client, which can be played in Google's Chrome browser without the use of the Unity web add-on. There are some iOS-specific updates, including support for cameras, microphone, compass, and gyroscope, as well as support for Apple's iAd program. There's Game Center support as well, though for leaderboards and achievements only -- matchmaking and voice will still require Apple's official SDK. It all sounds good, and it means the tools for developers to use to make games for iOS and other platforms are getting better and better, which of course will eventually lead to better games for players. Unity's SDK can be downloaded for free from the company's website, and of course there are pro subscription programs for bigger developers. Show full PR text Unity Technologies Releases Unity 3.5 SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Feb 14, 2012) - Unity Technologies, provider of the Unity multi-platform engine and development tools, is proud to announce that Unity 3.5 is now available for download. This latest update is one of the biggest additions to Unity since its inception and includes major new features and a multitude of improvements, tweaks, and optimizations. Unity 3.5 is a free update for all developers using version 3.0 or higher of the Unity development platform. "This is one of the most spectacular additions we've ever made to Unity," said David Helgason, CEO, Unity Technologies. "Recognizing that Unity was being pushed harder and harder, we launched our initiative to upgrade Unity with high-end capabilities that larger studios are accustomed to and smaller studios usually don't have access to. We want to make Unity the best choice for everyone and Unity 3.5 is a massive demonstration of our commitment to that goal." The Unity development platform, one of the most popular in the world with more than 800,000 registered developers globally, combines a powerful engine with an intuitive set of development tools in one complete package. "We are incredibly proud of this release and I think it's our strongest yet," said Nicholas Francis, Chief Creative Officer, Unity Technologies. "A year ago, we took a deep dive and began working on developing features for more complex projects and larger teams. It took hard work to do this while preserving the intuitive and usable design that makes Unity so popular, but we are sure that developers using Unity will be as happy with the improvements as we are." Throughout its history, Unity Technologies has continued to rapidly enhance Unity and the 3.5 update provides a long list of additions and improvements: Effects New in Unity 3.5, the highly optimized Shuriken particle system provides artists and programmers with complete control over particle-based visual effects. Shuriken is a curve and gradient-based modular editor, with hierarchies and sequencing capabilities that allow for many particle systems to stay synchronized. Pathfinding and Obstacle Avoidance Improvements to AI provide accurate pathfinding along complex pathways and natural movement through crowds. Game developers can bake navigation data in the editor and let Unity's high-performance path-finding and crowd simulation take over at runtime. Lighting and Rendering Developers can create jaw-dropping visuals with linear space (gamma correct) lighting and HDR rendering, and render them faster than before with Unity 3.5's brand new multi-threaded renderer. Also new to Unity 3.5, light probes add life and realism to lightmapped scenes without the high cost of typical dynamic lights. The addition of light probes to Unity's lighting system allows for baked lighting on characters and other dynamic objects. New Platforms Unity 3.5 supports Native Client as a new deployment platform. Native Client allows for near native speeds within the Chrome browser, without the need for installing the Unity Web Player. Unity 3.5 also ships with the preview release of the Flash deployment add-on, which has already been used by 50,000 developers. Performance Improvements Unity 3.5 includes a completely re-written integration of Umbra's occlusion culling system. The result is incredibly fast and works with terrains and dynamic obstacles such as doors. When combined with Unity's new built-in level-of-detail support, it gives large-scale games the performance boost that they need. Better Collaboration Tools The Asset Server license, Unity's add-on for teams and collaboration, has been enhanced with new features that add greater performance and flexibility. The addition of Unity's cache server dramatically speeds up collaboration on projects of all sizes, and a new developer API for third-party version control solutions, such as Subversion and Perforce, allows larger teams to work more efficiently. To reflect these changes, the product has been renamed the "Team License," and made available as an add-on for all Unity users. Additional Improvements The update includes other improvements such as a new GPU profiler, a fully pluggable Social API to implement social gaming, and low-level audio buffer access to create music games, and directional lightmaps support to name but a few. For a complete list of additions and improvements, please visit http://unity3d.com/unity/whats-new. Pricing and Availability This is a free update for all Unity 3 users. Pricing otherwise remains the same. The entry-level product, Unity, is free for commercial use. The premier product, Unity Pro, remains $1500 per developer seat. For a complete list of products and pricing, please visit http://unity3d.com/shop. To download the free and feature-packed Unity for creating games and other interactive applications, visit http://unity3d.com/download. About Unity Technologies Unity Technologies is the creator of Unity, an intuitive and flexible development platform used to make wildly creative and intelligently interactive 3D and 2D content. The "author once, deploy everywhere" capability ensures developers can publish to all of the most popular platforms. Unity Technologies boasts a thriving community of 800,000 registered developers including large publishers, indie studios, students and hobbyists. Unity Technologies aggressively re-invests in its award-winning 3D development tools and democratization initiatives, such as the Asset Store digital content marketplace and Union game distribution service, in order to remain at the forefront of innovation. Unity Technologies is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Canada, Denmark, Lithuania, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Japan and Korea. For more information, visit: http://unity3d.com. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/unity3d Twitter: http://twitter.com/unity3d Unity and all other product names are trademarks of Unity Technologies or its subsidiaries or affiliates. All other product names and trademarks belong to their respective holders.
Researchers build world's smallest steam engine that could
Wanna create your very own microscopic steam engine? Just take a colloid particle, put it in water, and add a laser. That's a CliffsNotes version of what a group of German researchers recently did to create the world's smallest steam engine. To pull it off, engineers from the University of Stuttgart and Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems tweaked the traditional approach introduced by Robert Stirling nearly 200 years ago. In Stirling's model, gas within a cylindrical tube is alternately heated and cooled, allowing it to expand and push an attached piston. Professor Clemens Bechinger and his team, however, decided to downsize this system by replacing the piston with a laser beam, and the cylinder's working gas with a single colloid bead that floats in water and measures just three thousandths of a millimeter in size. The laser's optical field limits the bead's range of motion, which can be easily observed with a microscope, since the plastic particle is about 10,000 times larger than an atom. Because the beam varies in intensity, it effectively acts upon the particle in the same way that heat compresses and expands gas molecules in Stirling's model. The bead, in turn, does work on the optical field, with its effects balanced by an outside heat source. The system's architects admit that their engine tends to "sputter" at times, but insist that its mere development shows that "there are no thermodynamic obstacles" to production. Read more about the invention and its potential implications in the full press release, after the break.
