Rubberduck Tuesdays: My Physics Craziness

So, today I was going to do the same thing as I did last time and post some neat little links, some of them nerdy, some of them quirky, and then something happened. Then I went on a minor physics binge.

It all started yesterday, when two things happened.

1) I read this article, which, for those of you who don't want to click out of sheer laziness, states that we might not need dark matter for the universe to work the way it does. WHOA! For those of you uncertain about what dark matter is, I suggest reading the article - it explains it heaps better than I can. The gist of it, though, is that we may have to redesign our current theory of the universe.

2) My physics professor told our class that he wouldn't be here come December 13th because he'd be in Europe.

At CERN.

For an event that he wouldn't tell us about (this story just keeps getting more intriguing, no?).

He then urged us to read up on the CERN blogs that are kept. Being the person that I am, I did just that.

I currently attend a university which is very involved in the ATLAS experiment. for those curious, the ATLAS experiment is a part of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which, apart from also looking for the Higgs boson, also looks at antimatter, extra dimensions, and examines the origins of the universe by simulating the big bang in the LHC. A quick note here: this is from what I understand from reading about ATLAS and, once again, I am open to being corrected.

Here is a picture I found of the machinery behind ATLAS. Yes, that is a model made entirely out of lego. Isn't it awesome?

Another definition which you may or may not need is the Higgs boson particle - it is the particle which gives us mass. If my explanation isn't satisfactory (and I know that it isn't) I'd recommend that you go here, which is a very neat description of what our dear Higgs boson is. My writing here is the summary of their summary, so naturally, there is a fair amount missing.

So, while reading up on the blogs, I found this entry very interesting. According to this blog, we still haven't found the Higgs boson, even though we've done quite a fair amount of searching for it. However, there is only a small area left for it to hide in, which makes me excited. You see, one of two amazing things will happen.:

       One: we find the particle, and we start experimenting and re-writing physics as we go along.

       Two: we fail to find it, at which point we have to re-write a huge chunk of modern theories
            regarding physics and the way the universe works.

So, no matter which way you put it, physics is going to be re-written and science history will be made!

It was at this point in my search that I realized that I could type 'December 13 CERN' into Google and find out what my professor was talking about.

So I did exactly that.

And that's when I found this awesome article and several others like it. Yes, apparently there might be news regarding the Higgs boson soon!

My reaction:

Oh. My. God.

Side note: I love this picture of Bush. He looks more like an overgrown monkey than he usually does.

Anyway!

Think of the things that have been happening in physics lately!

Neutrinos might be faster than light (I covered the reason this might be big news in my last Tuesday entry)!

There might not be such thing as dark matter (though this one is new, so I'm not sure how much I should freak out about it)!

And soon there could be big news about the Higgs boson!

If things continue as they are, physics could be in for a bit of an information revolution soon. Our entire understanding of how the universe works might have to be rewritten!

Take a moment to consider the implications of this.

Several theories with which we've built our knowledge of the universe might have to be scrapped. we'll have to rebuild several models from scratch. Wow, right?

And now, for a note that is only vaguely linked to physics: a theory regarding the Lascaux Caves in France. The Lascaux Caves are a series of caves which have some of the oldest artwork in the world painted on to them. You'll probably recognize the art, it's referenced in pop culture quite a fair amount.

Someone noticed recently that some of the mysterious dots on the walls align with constellations that we know today.
The full article is here, if you're interested. It's fascinating! It gave me shivers. Can you imagine?
Before cities! Before the roman's built roads! Before empires, and astronomy and calculus, and even before agriculture, 17000 years ago, our ancestors stared at the stars.