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The kilogram has officially been redefined
Today, scientists voted to change the definition of the kilogram as well as three other units of measurement -- the ampere, the kelvin and the mole. The vote took place at the General Conference on Weights and Measures in Versailles, France and the new definitions will be based on "what we call the fundamental constants of nature," as Estefanía de Mirandés of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) told Science News, instead of the less precise definitions these measurements are currently tied to. The kilogram, for example, is defined by a physical cylinder known as Le Grand K that's stored in a vault outside of Paris.
The way scientific units are calculated is changing
Scientific units are set to receive their biggest shake-up since the inception of the modern metric system in 1960. The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) -- one of three committees that oversees this type of stuff -- is presently looking into revising the ampere, the kilogram, the kelvin, and the mole. The higher-ups at the General Conference on Weights and Measures will then conduct a final vote on the recommendations next year, before ordering them into effect in May 2019. Although it may not impact everyday measurements, the redefinition is crucial for scientists, who require the utmost accuracy for their work.
Large Hadron Collider staying cool at just a hair above absolute zero temperatures
Ah, Large Hadron Collider, our old frienemy, how close is thy doomsday clock now? Closer than it was last week, naturally, especially now that the temperature in each of its eight sectors has been dropped to 1.9 Kelvin, or -271 degrees Celsius / -456 Fahrenheit, depending on your equivalent measurement of choice. While pretty much lethal for humans, that's still twice as warm as the Boomerang Nebula some 5,000 light years away from our fair planet, making it a veritable vacation spot for those carnivorous inhabitants of the Centaurus constellation (not that they'd really want to make that big of a trek without some sort of pre-planned hotel accommodations, but we digress). The chill is all a part of the massive science experiment's ramp up to its second half of November relaunch -- assuming the personification of Higgs boson doesn't pop in via its proverbial TARDIS equivalent wearing a cape and carrying an anti-LHC particle gun, that is.
