Category: Technology (Page 5 of 6)

The Large Hadron Collider Hasn’t Destroyed All of Humanity (Yet!)

November 15, 2010 / Katie L. Carroll

It’s about time for an update on my favorite science project, the Large Hadron Collider. Seeing as we’re all still here, I don’t think I need to tell you that it hasn’t opened up a black hole. Phew!

Actually, the LHC has been working so well that scientists have started smashing lead ions together instead of just plain-old protons. What does this mean? Basically, smashing lead ions at super speeds creates tiny Big Bangs that will shed some light on what happened immediately after the Universe was created by the big Big Bang. (Something you’ve all been dying to know about!)

Aside from the fact the the LHC studies very, very, very, very, very small particles, everything else about this project is big: the price tag ($10 billion), the number of countries involved (34), the temperatures created by the collisions (a million times hotter than the sun), the speed the particles move (just slightly below the speed of light), etc…

Scientists have not found the elusive Higgs boson (a.k.a. the God Particle) yet, but once they start smashing protons again in February, they hope that by the end of 2011 they will have proof that this particle exists.

Aside from unlocking the great mysteries of the Universe, the LHC could find additional dimensions beyond the four known ones. (What happened to the good old days when there were only three dimensions?)

Celebrating Crashing Tiny Particles Together with the Large Hadron Collider

March 30, 2010 / Katie L. Carroll

Today we celebrate! Scientists at the underground site of the Large Hadron Collider on the Swiss-French border cheered earlier today when the largest atom collider set a record by colliding particles three times faster than ever before. (This occasion was also worthy of celebrating because a. the collider didn’t break and b. it didn’t create a world-destroying black hole!)

For those of you who follow my blog (all three of you!), you may remember that I’ve been keeping my eye on this experiment. Crashing together subatomic particles is risky business and the project has been plagued with controversy since it started, including an accidental death, mechanical problems, and even a theory that scientists from the future are sabotaging the collider. But with today’s success we can look to the future.

An energy level of 7 trillion electron volts (TeV) was observed during the event. This seems like a big number, but when you consider that an ant can easily produce as much kinetic energy as 1 TeV, it’s actually a small amount of energy. So what’s the big deal, right? The big deal is that the particles in the collider are infinitesimally smaller than an ant, so when 7 TeV is applied to colliding particles (3.5 TeV per particle), they move almost as fast as the speed of light (note: not the speed of sound as the lyric in the title states!).

Scientists hope to eventually discover more about dark matter and the Higgs boson (or God Particle). If experiments go as planned (which they haven’t so far…and they almost never do), this collider could smash open (literally) new discoveries in the world of physics. Ah, what great material for science-fiction writers everywhere!

Is the Future Sabotaging the Discovery of Higgs boson?

November 16, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

Stephen Colbert reminded me about a very important scientific project that has once again been making headlines. You may remember my post about the Higgs boson or God Particle, which is what supposedly gives all objects mass.

In a recent clip from Mr. Colbert’s show, he discussed how the future may be sabotaging the discovery of the Higgs boson. (Here’s a blog post from Stephen Soldz that I also found interesting.)

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My hats off to Bech Nielsen and Masao Ninomiya for daring to think of an idea so worthy of fiction. That would be so awesome if something was sent from the future to keep scientists from discovering this particle. I think we all should write a short story about someone or something visiting us from the future to prevent some catastrophic (or maybe a not-so-catastophic) event. Please share if you do write something.

Wandering Around NYC Eating Cannoli

April 2, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

While I was in New York City, I had some time to wander around (okay, hobble around…curse my stupid medial meniscus!). I was in the mood for a cannoli, so I hopped on the subway (thank you hopstop.com) and headed to Veneiro’s Bakery. There seems to be a lot of debate about where to get a good cannoli in Manhattan, but I’m not really that picky. Honestly, can a cannoli really be bad?

I bought six mini cannolis and a little kiwi tart-thingy. The tart reminded me of one of the desserts my husband and I had eaten at the beach barbecue buffet in Tahiti. Ahhh, Tahiti. Just thinking of it makes me so relaxed…

Oh, sorry, was I talking about something…oh, right, cannolis. So I took my pastries and headed back in the direction of the subway station. I passed a church that had a bunch of benches in front of it. Its gates were open and a sign said that the church didn’t close until 1:00 a.m., so I found a nice spot to sit and enjoy the weather.

I didn’t think to check what the name of the church was, but I managed to locate it later on google maps with their street view option. (It’s scary how easy it is to see real street views on that website. Is nothing private anymore?) I was at St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery.

I had a book, my kiwi tart, and a cannoli. I had brought my iPod with me, but I found I didn’t need it. Now, I’ve noticed that a lot of my peers–and sadly those from a younger generation–are permanently attached to their music players. Don’t get me wrong, I love my iPod. But it has a place and a time.

On this particular occasion, I didn’t need it. I had the music of the city to listen to. Someone was playing a harmonica. That I couldn’t see this person made it even better. It was music from nowhere, or maybe it was from everywhere. There was the constant chatter of the street: engines, horns, shouts. The shuffle of families, artists, wanderers coming and going. The soft coo of those rats-with-wings (also known as pigeons).

At some point the harmonica’s music stopped, but I didn’t even notice because a guitar picked up right in its place. Then a young woman came and sat a little ways in front of me. She was on her phone. Her tone was serious, angry, sad. “You’re just like lawyer. Always lying…I just can’t keep doing this with you.”

She soon left and a young couple took her place. They didn’t talk much because they were sharing a serving of what looked like fried clams. Still, the crunch of the Styrofoam container, their soft chewing and little murmurs reached my ears. The church bells tolled, reminding me I had a critique appointment and a bum knee that made travel in the city a slow process.

Alas, I had lingered long enough with my music. It was time to go find a new song.

The Scale of the Universe Makes Me Feel Small

February 28, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

My post on the Higgs boson or God particle discussed things that are really small, so here’s some thoughts that take you to somewhere really big. These big thoughts made me feel really small and certainly gave me a totally new perspective.

A couple of years ago, I was in NYC for a writing conference. My husband came with me and we went down a day early to check out the city. We decided to visit the American Museum of Natural History. Neither of us had been there since we were kids. Actually, it was a lot more fun to go as adults. We could look at whatever we wanted (and skip anything we didn’t feel like looking at), we didn’t have to fill out any kind of worksheets or anything, and no chaperones.

There was one particular exhibit that really blew my mind, one I still think about today. The Scales of the Universe looks pretty flashy with the giant model planets that hang from the ceiling and the enormous Hayden Sphere, but the meat-and-bones of the exhibit is based on a simple power of ten scale.

The exhibits walkway starts by showing you the very small (yup, I’m talking about those good old microparticles), and each step takes you to something a little larger, and in comparison you get a little smaller, and smaller, and smaller, and smaller…And as you meander around the walkway, you learn how insignificant your life really is.

The coolest things is how the exhibit uses reference points that are easy to understand. That’s where the models and the Hayden Sphere (which in relative size to the model planets represents the sun) come into play. One step might show you a tiny speck and explain that if the Hayden Sphere were (I’m totally making up this comparison; the museum website shows you real ones) say your head, this speck might be how big a single skin cell is.

That’s how the exhibit does just what it says: it uses the large spheres and smaller models to scale the universe and its parts into a size that is comprehendible. Well, sort of. By the end of the walkway our own universe is so small in comparison to the object to which it’s being compared that you’re not even a speck within a speck within a speck…Whoa! Totally mind (well you know!).

I try to remember this scale when nine months after sending out my baby, my heart and soul on paper (a.k.a. my manuscript), I receive a brief note from an editor saying that she like my manuscript but it wasn’t right for her list. It’s all about keeping things in perspective…at least that’s what I keep telling myself!