MooPig Share the Science Department :: "Familiarize Yourself with the Present Moment"

If only I had an Exotic Brain
Mashed article from mashed NYTimes articles by Pat Darnell, and the Herd  |  Dec 7, 2013 |  Bryan TX

[Slide LINK]

On my desk sits a Rubric's Cube with dust on it, and unsolved. If I had an exotic brain I would be more like the wise bovine with its special cultural symbiosis. One cow alone does not a Summer make... eh? It takes many diverging carbon based entities to make up a theory about life, the universe, and everything. It also takes a compendium of particles and winking beams, and dark energies to make up everything in the universe. It takes a herd to get through life.

Lately, for the past 50 years, Nobel Prizes in Physics have centered around finding "new particles" in the make up of matter and all things. In 2002:

" ... It was there, in the 1970s, that Raymond Davis Jr. attempted to catch neutrinos, spooky subatomic particles emitted by the sun, in a vat of cleaning fluid a mile underground and for a long time came up empty. For revolutionizing the study of those particles, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2002. ( DENNIS OVERBYE. Published: October 30, 2013. LINK) ... "

It sort of has become a melee of particle farming. "If it is out there, we will find it," say the many hopeful, yet frustrated, physicists. Each experiment, to find the elusive dark matter that supposedly makes up 25% of the universe, takes at least a year to complete. And for those who devote themselves to the task, there is seldom joy at the end of the procedure. Lately, experimenters have this to say:

" ... As has become de rigueur for such occasions, the scientists took pride and hope in how clearly they did not see anything. “In 25 years of searching, this is the cleanest signal I've ever seen,” Dr. Gaitskell said in an interview.

That meant, the scientists said, that their detector was working so well that they would easily see a dark matter particle if and when it decided to drop by. (ibid. DENNIS OVERBYE. Published: October 30, 2013.) ... "

What can all this fantaz-morphic research bring to the table of common knowledge? That's a good question, and not easily answered. Safe to say knowledge of our primordial physics does not help us in any knowable way today.
[Picture LINK]

The math of Higgs-boson is impossible for the layman to understand. High energy physics, H.E.P, is what is called "basis-independent." However, unlocking pre-Big-Bang physics could offer knowledge of particles and their energies that could be used in medicine to heal, or to help read all the band waves that are invisible to humans. It turns out that high energy physics research is open ended research, although fundamental, that will take many generations to find that which it seeks. And, some "basis's are misleading, or too convenient." Nonetheless, it will be the "correlations between deviations in Higgs-boson couplings that will reveal the underlying physics."

Each discovery is tagged by the issuance of a Nobel Prize, as in "... finally, in 2012 — after 48 years, billions of dollars and the work of thousands of talented experimental physicists — we finally saw a tiny bump in data plots obtained at the Large Hadron Collider outside Geneva. That bump, evidence that the collider was producing Higgs boson (SEAN CARROLL. Published: October 8, 2013. LINK ) ... vindicated the work of Mr. Englert and Mr. Higgs years before ... "

Finding the Higgs Leads to More Puzzles - NYTimes.com: EXCERPT  |   " ... As Joseph Lykken, a theorist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and Maria Spiropulu, of the California Institute of Technology, put it in a new paper reviewing the history and future of the Higgs boson: “Taken at face value, the result implies that eventually (in 10^100 years or so) an unlucky quantum fluctuation will produce a bubble of a different vacuum, which will then expand at the speed of light, destroying everything.” The idea is that the Higgs field could someday twitch and drop to a lower energy state, like water freezing into ice, thereby obliterating the workings of reality as we know it. Naturally, we would have no warning. Just blink and it’s over."

"But cheer up. ... You might think that finding the Higgs boson, after 50 years and $10 billion or so, would bring clarity to physics and to the cosmos. But just the opposite is true: they may have found the Higgs boson, but they don’t understand it. (DENNIS OVERBYE. Published: November 4, 2013.) ... "

'via Blog this'

In reference below you will find a slew of NYTimes articles mostly by Dennis Overbye, about multiple universes, dark energy, massive protons, Higgs-Boson, super-symmetry; how does it all go together? Because, "accepting multiple universes means giving up the Einsteinian dream of a single explanation for the cosmos, a painful concession."

We, as a species, are limited by what we can explain.

“Physical science has historically progressed not only by finding precise explanations of natural phenomena, but also by discovering what sorts of things can be precisely explained. These may be fewer than we had thought. (Steven Weinberg,November 7, 2013. LINK) .. ”

CONCLUSION
This mad hatter idea of "Theory of Everything, T.O.E." is a lonesome, undiscovered thing. If it is even out there, it will escape many future explorations. It was a folly to get excited over a T.O.E in the first place; or was it?

" ... Dark matter has teased and tantalized physicists since the 1970s, when it was demonstrated that some invisible material must be providing the gravitational glue to hold galaxies together. Determining what it is would provide insight into particles and forces not described by the Standard Model that now rules physics, not to mention a slew of Nobel Prizes. (ibid. DENNIS OVERBYE. Oct 30, 2013.) ... "

For now, a quarter of the universe is still missing in action. The biggest surprise of discovering the Higgs boson? That there were no surprises; ... in theoretical physics: what if the Higgs field exists in an ultra-dense state that could mean the collapse of all atomic matter? If so, then it explains how fundamentally the universe lives and dies -- and regenerates.

Steve Braun EXCERPT | Comment:

" ... Nov 23 2013: I get a little frustrated when physicists use a cloaked version of the "fine-tuning argument" in their cosmology. You will find many physicists saying that the "how" questions should replace the "why" questions, because "why" begs the question of "purpose" and "who dunnit". We should not conclude that there is anything special about the Higgs mass, anymore than we should conclude there is anything special about the strength of gravity. If you think that the universe must be fine-tuned to support our life, you have started with a conclusion - life, or the length of time we expect to be observers of our universe - and then looked at empirical data and concluded that there is something special because the values for the Higgs field in either state allow us to continue to observer our universe for "a long time". (LINK) ..."

Therefore, in another universe parallel to ours, the alternate me understands the value of Higgs-boson? Now that the quantum vaccuum is "the medium" ... Probably so, but the alternate me might be Ferdinand the Bull.

_________________________Reference
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/science/finding-the-higgs-leads-to-more-puzzles.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fscience%2Fspace%2Findex.jsonp
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/science/space/dark-matter-experiment-has-found-nothing-scientists-say-proudly.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/science/finding-the-higgs-leads-to-more-puzzles.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fscience%2Fspace%2Findex.jsonp&_r=0
http://www.ted.com/talks/gian_giudice_why_our_universe_might_exist_on_a_knife_edge.html
http://online.kitp.ucsb.edu/online/lhc-c13/lykken/
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/nov/07/physics-what-we-do-and-dont-know/
http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~weintech/weinberg.html
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/10/08/science/the-higgs-boson.html#/?g=true
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/15/science/physicists-see-higgs-boson-in-new-particle-but-more-study-is-needed.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/09/science/englert-and-higgs-win-nobel-physics-prize.html
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/h/higgs_boson/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/dark_energy_astronomy/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/cern/index.html?inline=nyt-org
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/n/nobel_prizes/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier
http://www.nytimes.com/video/science/1247466052693/collider-reaches-its-power-goal.html?ref=largehadroncollider

MooPig Moment of Science Department :: "2012 Highlights"

Welcome to the Age of Trans-humanism
Retrieved by Pat Darnell  |  Dec 31, 2012  |   Bryan TX

Business Insider has made a beautiful slide show for this year's best moments in science. If we could just put it all together, shake out all the old gray matter, and apply these discoveries, we might survive the next hundred years.

Humanity is a blip on the radar screen, in the overall scope of earth's history. Yet, already we are stumbling into trans-humanism, augmented human action using technology, implants and thought capturing sensors.

And was that the God particle after all? The good thing about science is that most of the time you can be assured that people are telling the truth.

Science's 2012 Breakthroughs Of The Year - Business Insider:

The discovery of the Higgs boson confirms mainstream physics theories.
On July 4, scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, in Geneva announced with near certainty that they had found a Higgs boson. The Higgs boson is a big deal because it provides proof of an invisible field that gives mass to matter. The theory "explains how particles interact via electromagnetic forces, weak nuclear forces and strong nuclear forces in order to make up matter in the universe," writes Science.

NASA's Mars Curiosity rover lands on Mars.
A special "sky crane" landing system placed NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars on Aug. 5. The complicated landing maneuver was famously dubbed the "seven minutes of terror" by NASA engineers because that's how long it took Curiosity to get from the top of the Martian atmosphere down to the surface of the Red Planet. The mission control team had no contact with the one-ton robot during those critical minutes.
Curiosity survived the landing with 100 percent working parts, and is going strong five months into her two-year mission on Mars, sending back new photos and crucial data for future space travel each day.

'via Blog this'

Scientists created eggs from mice stem cells for the first time.
Japanese researchers showed that embryonic stem cells from mice could be made into viable egg cells, that could be fertilized and result in healthy babies. The healthy mouse pups shown here were bred from the eggs they created. The experiment only involved mice, but may one day be used to treat infertility in humans.

Scientists discovered the structure of a protein involved in the transmission of African sleeping sickness.
Membrane proteins span the outer shell of each and every cell in our bodies, sending signals and shuttling stuff between the inside of the cell and the outside. These proteins play a role in almost everything the cells do, and their involvement is critical in the transmission of diseases and disease-fighting drugs, so understanding their structure is important for developing new drugs to target the disease.
Researchers used an X-ray laser a billion times brighter than traditional X-ray sources to provide a detailed structure of one of these membrane proteins, which plays an important role in the transmission of the parasite that causes African sleeping sickness, a disease that kills around 30,000 people each year. This finding
The enzyme is shown spiking out of the insect's cell membrane below.

Sub-atomic particles known as neutrinos are caught changing from one type to another.
Some nuclear reactions, including those that take place inside the sun, create neutrinos. Neutrinos and their corresponding antineutrinos come in three basic “flavors": electron, muon and tau.
Measurements from the Daya Bay Neutrino Experiment in China revealed how electron antineutrinos transform into different flavors — either muon or tau — as they travel at the near-speed of light.
The results could help explain why the universe contains so much more matter than antimatter.

Researchers sequenced the genome of the Denisovians, a group of ancient humans that lived 41,000 years ago in Siberia.
Along with the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome, researchers also sequenced the genome of the group of ancient humans named the Denisovians, who lived 41,000 years ago in Siberia.
They isolated DNA from a bone fragment, a finger bone that belonged to a girl with brown eyes, brown hair and brown skin who died in Siberia between 74,000 and 82,000 years ago.
By comparing the genetic sequences of these ancient hominins to modern humans and our primate relatives, researchers learn more about how these ancient species lived, acted, and evolved. The DNA even informed us that humans possibly interbred with both of these species, since we can find some of their DNA in the genome of some modern humans.

Physicists detect particles, known as Majorana fermions, that act as their own antiparticle.
An antiparticle is a subatomic particle that has the same mass as a given particle, but opposite electric or magnetic charge.
A group of physicists from the Netherlands provided the first evidence that the Majorana Fermion, a particle that has the unique property of being its own antiparticle, exists.
Scientists think "quantum bits" made of these mysterious particles could be more efficient at storing and processing data than the bits currently used in digital computers.

The ENCODE project revealed a ton of data to help us understand our genomes better.
The results of a gigantic biology project — called ENCODE — were released in early September. The project covered ten years of effort by over 400 scientists and has culminated in 30 scientific papers published today.
The data from the project is still being analyzed, but it will help us understand our own genomes, not just based on the sequence of letters in the DNA code, but how this DNA interacts with proteins and other strands of DNA and RNA. These interactions happen in the non-coding regions of the genome, which are kind of like the "dark matter" of our genome — they don't get turned into proteins (only about 1.5 percent of your DNA does), so researchers were unsure what roles they played.
They think they've found the functions of about 80 percent of these non-coding regions with the ENCODE survey.

A new tool helps researchers manipulate our genes.
In 2012 researchers created a remarkable protein that they can use to change a cell's genes on the fly. Known as TALENs, which stands for "transcription activator-like effector nucleases," gave researchers the ability to alter or inactivate specific genes in zebrafish, toads, livestock and other animals — even cells from patients with disease.
These TALENs can be customized to seek out and edit any DNA sequence, so it's very specific. It can be used to chop out a bad gene and replace it for a treatment, or can be used in research to understand what specific DNA stretches do in healthy and diseased individuals.

Paralyzed patients use their mind to move a robotic arm.
A sensor implanted in the brain's cortex and used to monitor brain signals was able to control a robotic arm. The prosthetic limb shown below responded when the user simply thought about moving his arm or hand.

Relive one of the greatest science stories of the year.
Red Bull Content Pool via National Geographic

Felix Baumgartner Breaks The Sound Barrier In A 24-Mile Plunge To Earth >


[Picture link HERE]

_______________________Reference
http://www.businessinsider.com/sciences-2012-breakthroughs-of-the-year-2012-12#the-discovery-of-the-higgs-boson-confirms-mainstream-physics-theories-10
http://www.businessinsider.com/astronauts-could-survive-radiation-on-mars-2012-12
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-latest-pictures-of-mars-look-exactly-like-something-from-earth-2012-8
http://www.businessinsider.com/encode-genome-data-and-human-genes-2012-9

http://www.businessinsider.com/felix-baumgartner-broke-records-with-his-skydive-2012-12
http://www.businessinsider.com/felix-baumgartner-broke-records-with-his-skydive-2012-12#preparations-for-the-big-launch-begin-before-sunrise-on-sunday-oct-14-the-weather-looks-good-for-an-early-launch-though-lift-off-is-eventually-delayed-two-hours-1

Life is about Capturing Particles and Tying them Up

Spreading the Wealth, PART II


Short Article Review, by Pat Darnell

Life is about Capturing Particles and tying them up for observation and consumption... Stetson Hat and Alligator shoes are material things that by any other name are still weave and skin... no? Similar to the examples in the article by Raphael Bouso, The Statistical Universe. "

Stuff of life is a product of disorder. "Amazingly, almost every one of the biggest entropy- producing processes turned out to be essential to the development of life: the formation of galaxies and the burning of stars; supernova explosions, which forged the elements we are made from; large molecules that scatter starlight."
PHOTO: Exercise Scientist Tom Pollard measured this author's girth and found his MooPig's substance is enough to make 10 Swedish Coeds.


The author says entropy is responsible for advanced life forms; "Iron and carbon are made from the same elementary particles but assembled differently. As a result local properties like density and conductivity differ widely." Between galaxies it is quite a different story:

"Intergalactic space lacks both the particles to form us, and the energy to sustain us. It is self-evident that we live in one of the regions that are life friendly. In the multiverse, too, many regions have properties that are incompatible with the existence of observers: They might be entirely empty, or their physical laws preclude any complex structures. (HERE)"

For us, Observers, to explore we need substance of life available for detection -- says the author: "Unlike the lifeless voids in the visible universe, distant multiverse regions without observers will not be observed by anyone, no matter how abundant they may be."

But if particles and forces are life; then life is a sum of those forces acting on particles we observe... no? No is correct. Bouso says: "...If we could open the knots and tie them differently, then supposedly 'fundamental' phenomena, like neutrons or the electric force, would disappear and be replaced by an utterly different set of particles and forces."

We Observers then have a larger system to inspect, if we are to find life elsewhere. The author says the number of possible systems is similar to trying to count every particle of a gas filling a room, "to determine how the particles are distributed." Entropy models proposed are still crude and can not calculate the possibilities in this example. However, even gross observations using entropy detection has produced good results.

Some of our universe remains "unobservable." We just cannot tie up the materials or forces enough to detect them all, much like gravity is a force that is dimensionally cloaked, but easily detected. Someday soon it will be part of our every-night look up into the star filled sky to seek out unobservable galactic wealth.

No one ever said it is going to be easy.