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MATT STRASSLER
Of Particular Significance

Under Pressure

The scourge of “terrorism” — for today’s purposes, let’s take the word to mean attacks on civilians perpetrated by individuals or by small, stateless groups — is a part of human existence going back as far as you want to look. If a person has what he or she views as a grievance, then attacking people who are loosely connected to that grievance, in order to kill and maim some of them and frighten the rest, is obviously one of the options, immoral and hideous as it may be. There’s nothing modern about the strategy of terror.

What’s new about terrorism in the modern world is science. Science, via the technology that it makes possible, is a great multiplier. It allows an individual, or a small group, to exploit power inherent in nature, turning a task that no human could perform, or that would take a cast of thousands, into something that can be done with ease by a few people, or even just one. Of course this multiplied power has many benefits for us as individuals and for society as a whole; think of trains, tunnel-boring machines, skyscraper cranes, snow-blowers, pneumatic drills, aircraft engines, power plants, and on and on. But it also poses many risks and challenges that we have to face, as individuals and as a global civilization. (more…)

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POSTED BY Matt Strassler

ON April 24, 2013

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The Bedlam Within Protons and Neutrons

My Structure of Matter series has been on hold for a bit, as I have been debating how to describe protons and neutrons.  These constituents of atomic nuclei, which, when combined with electrons, form atoms, are drawn in most cartoons of atoms as simple spheres.  But not only are they much, much smaller than they are drawn in those cartoons, they hide within them a surprising commotion, one that cannot be anticipated from the relatively simple structures of atoms and of nuclei.

As I’ve described in my new article, along the lines of this short article and this more detailed one that I wrote some time ago in the context of the Large Hadron Collider, the story that scientists tell the public most often, that “a proton is made from two up quarks and a down quark”, is not in fact the full story — and in some ways it is deeply misleading.  The structure of protons and neutrons is so entirely unfamiliar, and so complicated, that scientists neither have a simple way of calculating it, nor an entirely agreed-upon way to describe it to the public, or even to physics students.  But I believe my way of describing it will be satisfactory to most particle physicists.

The new article is not entirely complete; it is perhaps only half its final length.  I’ll be adding some further sections that cover some subtle issues.  But since I suspect many people won’t feel the need to read those later sections, the completed part is written to stand on its own.  If you like, take a look and let me know if you have questions, suggestions or corrections.

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POSTED BY Matt Strassler

ON April 15, 2013

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Northern Lights Tonight?

[UPDATE, midnight New York time: the cloud of particles from the solar flare arrived a few hours ago, but it didn’t impact the earth’s magnetic field quite as hard as the best-guess forecast. (Remember the probability of a geomagnetic storm was only 60%; i.e. the probability of no storm was 40%.) Right now, the auroras are likely visible in Canada but probably not in the US. This could change, but don’t get your hopes up too high; we may have to wait for the next solar flare.]

I’ve been sidelined with computer troubles and non-science activities, so first, a belated thanks to everyone who left a thoughtful comment after Monday’s post and question about communicating science to the public.  I appreciate hearing your views, especially from readers with a diversity of backgrounds!

Now, many of you may have heard that there is a forecast of northern (and southern) lights, also known as auroras, tonight.  What you’ve heard is correct: today’s NOAA space-weather forecast, from  http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/forecast.html,  says

VI.  Geomagnetic Activity Probabilities 13 Apr-15 Apr
A.  Middle Latitudes
Active                30/30/15
Minor Storm           35/45/05
Major-severe storm    10/15/01
B.  High Latitudes
Active                10/15/15
Minor Storm           20/25/20
Major-severe storm    60/35/20

i.e. it shows that even in mid-latitudes (meaning northern US and southern Canada, and northern Europe, along perhaps with parts of Australia and New Zealand [?]) they are estimating a 35%-45% probability of a minor `geomagnetic storm’ tonight, with a 10-15% probability of a major storm… and a geomagnetic storm, which literally means a lot of activity in the earth’s magnetic field, generally leads to auroras further away from the north and south pole than usual. (more…)

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POSTED BY Matt Strassler

ON April 13, 2013

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Science and the Common Good: A College Visit

Yesterday I gave a public talk at Ursinus College, a liberal arts college in aptly named Collegeville, Pennsylvania. [For those outside the U.S.; a `college’ in the U.S. is a university whose students are all undergraduates, mainly 18-22 years old; and a “liberal arts college”  aims to give students a broad education in the arts and sciences, along with more focused training in their chosen discipline.] My visit was sponsored by the college’s Center for Science and the Common Good, an impressive little program funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (kudos to them!).  Its goal is to assure that the Center’s `fellows’ — the students in the program — are not only trained in their scientific fields but also become versed in thinking broadly about the role of science in our culture and society, and about how science is communicated to the public.

These wider issues are ones I think about a lot — I myself was educated at a liberal arts college — and are what motivated me to start this website and blog.  So I was honored that the Center invited me to visit. And they kept me (pleasantly) busy! In addition to the public talk, I spoke at length with the fellows of the Center about the role of science and scientists in society, as well as about the Center’s program and their career plans, and I also gave the undergraduate physics majors a slightly more technical tour of modern particle physics.

Since the Center was my host, my public talk was somewhat different from ones I’ve given previously.  Rather than focus entirely on the science behind the Higgs particle and field, I included some comments concerning the role of scientists in communicating science to the public. Among the meta-scientific questions I touched on were these:

  • What role should and can be played by blogs and websites run by scientists?
  • Can (or should) anything be done about the wildly inaccurate science reporting that one so often sees in the media?
  • Is it really that important that the public be informed about scientific research — given that public knowledge of the details of law, medicine, construction, accounting, plumbing, and other technical fields is also very limited?

I’ve got my own (tentative) answers to these questions, but if you’d like to weigh in, I’d be interested in your opinions. (If you do decide to make a comment, please feel free to include a parenthetic remark describing how much science you yourself know, and whether you learned it, say, in college, from magazines or popular books, etc.  This will give us all some perspective on what might shape your views.)

Thanks again to Ursinus College for the invitation and a very interesting visit!

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POSTED BY Matt Strassler

ON April 9, 2013

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AMS Presents Some First Results on Cosmic Rays and Dark Matter

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer [AMS] finally reported its first scientific results today. AMS, a rather large particle physics detector attached to the International Space Station, is designed to study the very high-energy particles found flying around in outer space. These “cosmic rays” (as they are called, for historical reasons) have been under continuous study since their discovery a century ago, but they are still rather mysterious, and we continue to learn new things about them. They are known to be of various different types — commonly found objects such as photons, electrons, neutrinos, protons, and atomic nuclei, and less common ones like positrons (antiparticles of electrons) and anti-protons.  They are known to be produced by a variety of different processes. It is quite possible that some of these high-energy particles come from physical or astronomical processes, perhaps very exciting ones, that we have yet to discover. And AMS is one of a number of experiments designed to help us seek signs of these new phenomena.

The plan to build AMS was hatched in 1995, and the detector was finally launched, after various delays, in 2011, on a specially-ordered Space Shuttle mission. Today, Sam Ting, winner of the Nobel Prize for a co-discovery of the charm quark back in 1974, presented AMS’s first results — a first opportunity to justify all the time, effort and money that went into this project. And? The results look very nice, indicating the AMS experiment is working very well.  Yet the conclusions from the results so far are not very dramatic, and, in my opinion, have been significantly over-sold in the press. Despite what you may read, we are no closer to finding dark matter than we were last week. Any claims to the contrary are due to scientists spinning their results (and to reporters who are being spun).
(more…)

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POSTED BY Matt Strassler

ON April 3, 2013

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He’s Not Wrong: The US and Science Research

In a letter entitled “Am I Wrong?”, Bruce Alberts, Editor-in-Chief of the major journal Science, asks how the United States has gone so far off course.  The leading nation in a technological age has lost sight of its scientific foundation; what will be the consequences?

A mere twenty years ago, this nation was clearly the best place in the world to do scientific research.  Since 2000 the decline has been precipitous, and though the U.S. still surely ranks in the top ten, few would say it clearly is the best anymore.  In general, the country remains a relatively great place to live and work.  But any excellent young scientist from abroad has to think carefully about coming to or staying in the U.S. for a career, because there might not be enough money to support even first-rate research.  Similarly, any young U.S. scientist, no matter how devoted to this country and no matter how skilled, may face the tough choice of either going abroad or abandoning his or her career. (It’s not just young people either, as I can personally attest.)

Whereas before the year 2000 it was easy for U.S. universities to attract the best in the world to teach and do research at their institutions, and to train the next generation of American scientists, the brain drain since that time has been awful.  (I see this up close, as more and more often I fail to hire talented individuals specifically because they see a better scientific and personal future outside the United States.)  And it is getting worse.  All of this affects our economy’s future, our society’s health, and even our ability to defend ourselves, especially since some of the most active spending on science is being done by countries that are hostile or potentially hostile to the free world.

It’s easy to blame this on the recession.  “Oh, these are bad times and we all have to share the pain.”  That’s true, but this problem started long before 2008.  The system became threadbare during the Bush administration, and now, in the ensuing recession and political chaos, it’s at risk of falling apart.

Please forward this letter by Mr. Alberts to your friends.  This is serious business with long-term consequences.

Picture of POSTED BY Matt Strassler

POSTED BY Matt Strassler

ON March 28, 2013

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