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We take a look at the latest on the Higgs Boson, dinosaurs,smart headlights, old minerals, Carl Sagan, spacecraft updates and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Show Notes

To Higgs-Boson or not to Higgs-Boson

_{YouTube Channel : linktv | YouTube Channel : minutephysics}

• Last time on SciByte
• Solar Storms & Higgs Boson | SciByte 37 – HiggsBoson [March 13, 2012]
• Higgs Bosons & Tough Materials | SciByte 25 – Higgs-Boson confirmation just around the corner? [December 13, 2011]
• Large Hadron Collider | SciByte 8 – So what is the Higgs-Boson Theory ? [July 20, 2011]
• The low down
• In 1964 physicists like Peter Higgs, François Englert and Robert Brout theorized about the existence of the Higgs boson and Higgs mechanism
• CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, will hold a seminar early in the morning on July 4 to announce the latest results from ATLAS and CMS, two major experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that are searching for the Higgs boson
• The Standard Model
• The theory about electromagnetic, weak, and strong nuclear interactions, and the actions of known subatomic particles
• It has more than 100 free parameters, making it impossible to obtain predictions without assigning fixed values to some
• Boson
• Sub-atomic particles are either fermions or bosons.
• Fermions (electrons, protons, neutrons, …) and can be made up of other sub-atomic particles like quarks combine to form protons
• There are different types of bosons, who can all occupy the same space
• Gluons : carry the strong force but operate only at close range
• W and Z bosons : W and Z bosons carry the weak force and operate at close range.
• Photons : Photons are massless wave-like particles that are the basic building blocks of light and carry the electromagnetic force
• ??graviton boson?? – not yet been proven
• Higgs Field
• A field that is integral role in the model of the Weak Nuclear Force (radioactive decay)
• Because it’s too tangled with the Weak Nuclear Force it has been very hard to detect
• Would be responsible for how particles come together to form matter, and without it, the universe would have remained a particles shooting around at the speed of light.
• Higgs-Boson
• An excitation from the Higgs Field
• The Standard Model hypothesizes only one Higgs-Boson, while the Supersymmetric Model says there could be up to five
• The Discovery
• Two different, independent, teams working at the CERN have announced that they have data about a new boson
• Both the CMS (top) and the ATLAS (bottom) detectors see evidence of the Higgs boson decaying into a pair of photons in the form of a peak in a so-called mass plot
• CMS researchers also see evidence of the Higgs decaying to a pair of particles called W bosons or a pair of particles called Z bosons
• ATLAS team sees a similar peak in the mass plot for Higgs decaying into photon pairs and also see the Higgs decaying into Z bosons and other combinations of particles
• All the data points to it being the heaviest boson ever found, with the energy that the theory says the Higgs-Boson should have, 126 GeV (gigaelecton volts) and weighing roughly 125 times the mass of the proton
• Neither team said it was the Higgs-Boson because they don’t yet have information about the properties of the new boson yet
• They were able to announce it because the statistics have now reached a level called 5 sigma, that there is only a one in 3.5 million chance the signal isn’t real.
• What’s Next
• Further information will be released later this year after more experimental data has been taken determining the nature of the new boson
• Should the decay properties be different that we expect from a Higgs-Boson it could indicate there are more than one type of Higgs-Boson
• There are still holes in the theories, in the standard model interactions between the Higgs and the other particles ought to force the mass of the Higgs to skyrocket to a value a trillion times larger
• Most physicists suspect there are new particles out there that somehow counteract ballooning of the Higgs mass.
• But will such particles have low enough masses to be discovered with any conceivable human-made atom smasher? “There’s absolutely no guarantee,”
• After the start of the year the LHC is being upgraded, and will then be able to run at higher energies
• Multimedia
• YouTube : The Moment: CERN Scientist Announces Higgs Boson ‘God Particle’ Discovery | linktv
• YouTube : Peter Higgs rection to the anoucement
• YouTube : “Peter Higgs’ reaction on the day itself” / Peter Higgs, François Englert | Paul0de0Haas
• YouTube : Higgs Boson Discovery announcement by Peter Higgs | MuonRay
• YouTube : The Higgs Boson, Part I | minutephysics
• YouTube : Higgs Boson ‘God Particle’ – What is it? BBC World News | mangstarrr
• Social Media
• CERN @CERN
• ATLAS Experiment @ATLASexperiment
• CMS Experiment CERN @CMSexperiment
• Further Reading / In the News
• Higgs-like Particle Discovered at CERN | UniverseToday.com
• At Long Last, Physicists Discover Famed Higgs Boson | news.sciencemag.org
• CERN physicists report strong evidence of Higgs boson | Phys.org
• New boson could pave the way towards new discoveries | QuantumDiaries
• New Particle at World’s Largest Atom Smasher is Likely Higgs Boson | space.com
• New baby boson is born, weighing in at about 126 GeV | QuantumDiaries.org
• Physicists bet they’re homing in on Higgs | ScienceNews.org
• More clues soon in hunt for Higgs particle | Phys.org
• Understanding what’s up with the Higgs boson | Phys.org
• Physicists on alert for Higgs announcement | ScienceNews.org
• Still Confused About the Higgs Boson? Read This | TheAtlantic.com

— NEWS BYTE —

Warm Blooded Dinosaurs?

_{Credit: Walter Myers /Stocktrek Images/Corbis | Credit:Meike Köhler}

• A quick note
• A newly discovered, in southern Germany, nearly complete fossilized skeleton hints that all dinosaurs may have sported feathers, which would make it the oldest known meat-eating dinosaur with feathers
• The hatchling had a large skull, short hindlimbs, and long, hairlike plumage on its midsection, back, and tail.
• Sciurumimus is from a completely different branch of the dinosaur family tree then other feathered dinosaur fossils found, suggesting feathered dinosaurs were the norm, not the exception
• The low down
• Yearly cycles of growth and nutrition are stamped in the bones of dinosaurs and reptiles like the rings of a tree
• In lean times only thin sheets of new bone are laid down, and in ‘fat’ months larger sheets are laid down as animals pack on blood vessel-rich bone tissue
• Under a microscope, the slender sheets of bone look like dark lines
• These strips in the bones are seen in reptiles and dinosaurs, leading scientists to assume that dinosaurs were cold-blooded like reptiles
• Significance
• A new study analyzed bone slices, some as thin as a strand of hair, from 115 species of mammals all of which showed cyclical growth
• The banding in the study looks just like those seen in dinosaur fossils.
• The dinosaur fossils also provided evidence that dinosaurs probably had a high metabolic rate to allow fast growth, another indicator of warm-bloodedness
• Of Note
• Although this does not mean that dinosaurs were warm-blooded, but we can no longer assume they are cold-blooded either
• Further Reading / In the News
• Dinosaur debate gets cooking | ScienceNews.org
• Dinosaurs may have been warm-blooded: study | Phys.org
• Dinosaurs Might Have Had Warm-Blooded Animals’ Fast Metabolism | ScientificAmerican.com
• ScienceShot: Dino Bones Heat Up | news.ScienceMag.org
• All dinosaurs may have had feathers | ScienceNews.org
• “Beautiful” Squirrel-Tail Dinosaur Fossil Upends Feather Theory | news.NationalGeographic.com

Smart Headlight

_{YouTube Channel : LabEquipment}

• The low down
• In rain and snow conditions headlights reflect off of the precipitation back to driver
• Carnegie Mellon professor and his team are working on ‘smart’ headlights that can streamlight in between the drops
• Significance
• The system consists of a co-located imaging and illumination system– camera, projector, and beamsplitter
• The camera uses a 5 ms exposure time and the system has a total latency of 13 ms when the system runs at 120Hz. with an operating range about 13 feet in front of the headlights
• The camera images the precipitation at the top of the field of view, the processor can tell where the drops are headed and sends a signal to the headlights, headlights then make their adjustments and react to dis-illuminate the particles all in about about 13 ms.
• Simulations
• Computer simulations predict system effectiveness for different systems set ups during a heavy rainstorm [25 mm/hr] on a vehicle traveling 30 km/hr
• Simulations show that a system operating near 1,000 Hz, with a total system latency of 1.5 ms, and exposure time of 1 ms can achieve 96.8% accuracy, with 90% light throughput expected
• The system would still have a significant [>= 70%] visibility improvement at 400 Hz
• A prototype system has already validated simulations on laboratory-generated rain operating at 120 Hz
• Simulations show that it is possible to maintain light throughput well above 90 percent for various precipitation types
• Of Note
• The prototype consists of a camera with gigabit ethernet interface (Point Grey, Flea3), DLP projector (Viewsonic, PJD62531), and desktop computer with Intel architecture (Intel i7 quad core processor).
• The team says that it may take three to four more years of development and “commercializing it as a product will take additional years.”
• Multimedia
• YouTube : Smart Headlights Improve Visibility in Rain | LabEquipment
• Further Reading / In the News
• Smart headlights let drivers see between the raindrops | Phys.org

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

New mineral in old rock

• The low down
• A meteorite that fell in 1969 as an exploding fireball in the skies over Mexico, scattered thousands of pieces of meteorites across the state of Chihuahua
• It is largest carbonaceous chondrite ever found on our planet and is considered by many the best-studied meteorite in history
• Scientists have now discovered a new mineral embedded in that meteorite
• Panguite is an especially exciting discovery since it is not only a new mineral, but also a material previously unknown to science
• The mineral could be among the first solid objects formed in our solar system, dating back to over 4 billion years ago, before the formation of Earth and the other planets.
• Further Reading / In the News
• New Mineral Found in Meteorite is From Solar System’s Beginnings | UniverseToday.com

Carl Sagan’s personal archive

• Last time on SciByte
• SpaceX & Easter Island | SciByte 47 – The return of COSMOS? [May 22, 2012]
• The low down
• Carl Sagan’s personal archive – a comprehensive collection of papers contained within 798 boxes – was delivered to the Library of Congress recently for sorting
• “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane provided an “undisclosed sum of money” to the Library to purchase the collection from Sagan’s widow Ann Druyan, who had kept the papers preserved in storage
• The collection “ranges from childhood report cards to college term papers to eloquent letters”
• Multimedia
• Image : [Carl Sagan](

  http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/CarlSagan_20080903-browse–580×317.jpg)

• Social Media
• Library of Congress @librarycongress
• Further Reading / In the News
• Library of Congress Acquires Sagan’s Personal Collection, Thanks to Seth MacFarlane | UniverseToday.com

– SPACECRAFT UPDATE –

ISS Crew Returns to Earth

_{Credit: | Credit:}

• The low down
• On July 1, 2012, the Expedition 31 crew landed safely on the steppe of Kazakhstan near the town of Dzhezkazgan using a Soyuz TMA–03M spacecraft
• Expedition 31 Commander Oleg Kononenko, NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers landed
• Multimedia
• YouTube Soyuz Undocks; Crew Heads Home – Undocking | NASAtelevision
• YouTube Space Travelers Make Safe Return to Earth – landing | NASAtelevision
• IMAGE GALLERY: Soyuz Landing Photos: 31st Space Station Crew Returns to Earth | Space.com
• IMAGE : Landing Location | Credit: NASA TV
• IMAGE : Flight Engineer Don Pettit Lifted Out | Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Full Fuselage Trainer finds new home

• Last time on SciByte
• Mining Asteroids & Shuttle Discovery | SciByte 44 – The Shuttle Shuffle Continues [May 1, 2012]
• The low down
• The Full Fuselage Trainer (FFT), is a life-size space shuttle mockup that was used by every person who flew on the shuttle while training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston
• The FFT is a 28-foot (8.5 meters) long compartment – comprising the shuttle’s iconic nose with its dual level flight- and mid-decks
• NASA’s Super Guppy cargo aircraft delivered it to Seattle’s The Museum of Flight on Saturday, June 30
• The Super Guppy is a wide-bodied turboprop aircraft previously used to deliver the room-size modules of the International Space Station to their Florida launch site.
• Multimedia
• YouTube : NASA Suppy Guppy fly by at Paine Field, Everett, WA June 30, 2012 | suds777
• YouTube : NASA Super Guppy – Arrival Museum of Flight Seattle | SABredhawkn
• YouTube : Paine Field Everett, Washington~ NASA Super Guppy Flyby 6–30–2012 | ClearBlueSea100
• IMAGE : NASA Super Guppy Cargo Plane unloading the front part of the FFT
• IMAGE : Space Vehicle Mockup Facility
• Social Media
• Museum of Flight @MuseumofFlight
• Further Reading / In the News
• NASA Space Shuttle Trainer Lands at Seattle’s Museum of Flight | Space.com
• Space Shuttle Trainer Lifts Off for Seattle on NASA Aircraft

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

• July 16, 1994 : 18 years ago : Shoemaker-Levy Comet : The first of 21 asteroids, major fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broken-up 2 years earlier, hit Jupiter, creating a 1200-mile wide fireball 600 miles high to the joy of astronomers awaiting the celestial fireworks, giving scientists their first chance to observe such a collision as it happened, and others through July 22. Jupiter is a gas giant, made up mostly of hydrogen and helium in gas and liquid form.When we observe Jupiter, we are looking not at a solid surface, but a banded atmosphere with swirling clouds and huge storms.

Looking up this week

• Keep an eye out for … ~1 hour before Sunrise

• Venus and Jupiter remain the brightest ‘stars’ in the early morning sky in the East. With Venus being the brighter of the two, while Jupiter ‘on top’ the higher of the two.

• The red star above and to the right of Venus is actually a real star called Aldebaran

• The Pleiades star cluster can be seen above Venus and Jupiter, in nearly a straight line with the two planets and about the same distance.

• Sun, July 15 | ~1 hour before Sunrise | Most of Europe and parts of Asia will get to see the Moon pass in front of Jupiter, called an occultation, Time and location tables

• More on what’s in the sky this week

• Sky&Telescope

• SpaceWeather.com

• StarDate.org

• For the Southern hemisphere: SpaceInfo.com.au

• Constellations of the Southern Hemisphere : astronomyonline.org

• Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand : rasnz.org.nz

• AstronomyNow

• HeavensAbove