physics

Researchers at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva, did something gutsy but smart Tuesday: they revved the Large Hadron Collider up to a new energy level in full public view.

Happily for the dozens of scientists and engineers in attendance, the LHC successfully reached its goal of a 7 TeV energy level--two beams of protons each at 3.5 trillion electron-volt energies whizzed in opposite directions and eventually collided at several points in the gigantic underground ring-shaped particle accelerator.

Scientific projects by and large are hardly cloaked in secrecy. But the LHC's run Tuesday was … Read more

After overcoming some hurdles, researchers operated the Large Hadron Collider at its highest energy level yet on Tuesday, gathering data after smashing protons into each other.

The huge underground particle accelerator at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva, is designed to probe the nature of dark matter, antimatter, and an elusive particle called the Higgs boson, as well as any number of physics issues about how those things relate to the history of the universe.

"We have observed the first collisions [and] lots of beautiful tracks. It's really fantastic," said a representative of one … Read more

The Large Hadron Collider has reached its highest power so far, taking CERN closer to its goal of using the particle accelerator to conduct experiments that will discover new physics.

Proton beams at 3.5 tera-electron-volts (TeV) were first circulated in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) early Friday, CERN's director of communications, James Gillies, told ZDNet UK. Reaching that level of intensity in circulating beams is an important landmark, as it will enable physicists to start working toward the target energy of 7 TeV, he added.

"It's great--there's really nothing in our way now to starting … Read more

Sooner or later, it will all end. Hopefully, this will be before the "Singularity" folks fulfill their metallic dreams.

A woman in Germany, however, fears the end really is very nigh indeed. So, according to the Telegraph, she went to her country's most exalted court to get its judges to understand just how nigh our final breaths are.

The court didn't disclose her name, nor is there any evidence that she was wearing a sandwich board during her appeal. Her fears, though, surround the Large Hadron Collider, situated beneath the border of France and Switzerland. This … Read more

A unit of Samsung has licensed technology from U.K.-based Peratech that could help it build smartphone handsets with the ability to navigate via the amount of pressure applied to a touch screen. So if you're scrolling through a list or playing a game, your input could change depending on how much pressure you apply.

Read more of "With quantum physics, Samsung aims to make smartphones smarter" at ZDNet's The ToyBox.

The Large Hadron Collider is about to enter its longest continuous operational period, in preparation for full-strength particle-smashing.

On Wednesday, Steve Myers, the LHC's director for accelerators and technology, blogged that CERN had decided last week to run the giant particle collider for 18 to 24 months at a collision energy of seven tera-electron-volts (TeV)--or 3.5 TeV per beam--with the powering-up phase starting later this month.

After that, the LHC will "go into a long shutdown in which we'll do all the necessary work to allow us to reach the LHC's design collision energy … Read more

Blimp: The Flying Adventures is a blimp-piloting arcade game that has polished production values and gameplay similarities to both taxi and classic thrust-and-land games. Its interface makes great use of the iPhone and iPod Touch: you tilt your device left and right to control your blimp's pitch, and you tap a touch-screen button (again and again) with your right thumb for thrust. After the first few levels, you can also drop a limited supply of bombs with a left-thumb button.

In the game's sci-fi story, you play Captain Zed Pelin working for a merchant company on the planet … Read more

The world's largest particle accelerator has performed its first collisions, and its first beam acceleration.

Progress on the giant experiment has been rapid in the four days since the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was restarted, CERN director of communications James Gillies told ZDNet UK on Tuesday.

"These collisions are the first in the LHC at all," said Gillies. "We've been going into new territory. It's been going quite remarkably fast."

Gillies told ZDNet UK that not only had scientists recorded the first collisions of protons on Monday, but that overnight one of the … Read more

Crayon Physics Deluxe Demo has a lot of surprises for a simple art game. We were impressed by its addictive play, and we think kids will fall in love with it, too.

The program's interface was stunningly beautiful and easy to navigate. It's primarily set up for a child or a child and parent, so the onscreen directions were appropriate. There's no Help file, but the program's intuitive design was easy to understand. The crayon-on-paper game centers on rolling a ball so that it meets up with a star. Each "island" contains several levels … Read more