Great Physics Article

I found this really great article on Physics.org titled


THE TOP 4 BONKERS THINGS ABOUT THE UNIVERSE

It is a really fun read and raises an interesting question about our universe and the possible histories.

Basically, using some of the ideas of the inflationary model of the Big Bang and certain interpretations of Quantum Mechanics the article posits what I think could be called a "many worlds" approach to the understanding of our universe and history.

Great find for today!

Some follow-up reading about the multi-verse

Elvis is alive and kicking... in a parallel universe 

Parallel worlds

 

Radiolab...Science you can listen too

So in my attempts to finish a PhD, become an expert rock climber, have a wedding, and conduct life I rarely get as much time to follow all the interesting aspects of science and modern research that I would like to.

However thanks to my local National Public Radio (NPR) station I was exposed to this wonderful show out of New York called RadioLab

There smart and interesting shows often discuss ongoing and current science issues into many of the fascinating questions I think we all ask.

Now certainly this doesn't count as any of the hard, or maybe not even as the important science. But if you are looking for a science show that broadcasts many of its clips online for FREE and is really entertaining, this is it!

They recently did a show on death and laughter that I thought were really great and encourage everyone to listen to.

Indoor Floods

As is discussed further at the CMS Times there was another unfortunate event at one of the control centers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

This time, right before the start of the winter shutdown, a water pipe froze and burst at the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) center.

While most of the repairs should be completed before the restart of major collisions in late February, this is just another example of how such a complex and multi-faceted experiment can encounter many problems related to operations.

The LHC, Fermilab and CDF have had similar problems in their day as well...I will link to some of these funny events below.

Bird stops the LHC
Some problems seen at Tevatron

Come back to Texas

This will be just a short post...having just arrived back from a whirlwind trip all over Texas with my fiancee I am grateful to be home and have some sanity.

It was an amazing trip and the weather was sooo much more pleasent then it tends to be around Fermilab this time of year. However, for now this is home and it is always good to be home.

My overwhelming thought after this trip was a desire to one day move back to Texas and become facility at one of the Texas Universities. Ideally I'd like to shoot for UT Austin because I really love that city. One small hang up, they don't really do Hadron Physics (the type I'm into anyways). Now that doesn't mean I can't ramp up my work and become a major player in the field such that I would try to found a group there...(here is to hoping). More over though, I think it makes me consider what type of physics I want to move towards if Austin is my goal.

They are big players in neutrino physics and Fermilab is heading that direction with their move to the intensity frontier (Project X, NuMI, etc). Now is the time to start looking into this and considering it...guess it is one more thing to think about while working on that PhD