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Discover the Higgs boson particle -- on your wrist

Much like the epic quests of yore, the hunt for the Higgs boson particle has inspired stirring music, Stephen Hawking wagers, and now a timepiece for your wrist.

The Higgs Boson Watch is the God Particle taken the form of a personal accessory. The face of the watch depicts the Higgs decaying into other bosons during a collision. The hands move in a hypnotic spiral. If you stare at it long enough, you may gain an understanding of the very fabric of our universe.… Read more

Did Higgs yield the most authors in a science study?

Scientists who announced two months ago observations of the elusive Higgs boson, the so-called "God particle," have had their research published in the peer-reviewed Physics Letters B, along with an astounding list of thousands of authors.

More than 5,000 researchers around the world are said to have contributed to the landmark studies by the CMS and ATLAS teams working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). They said on July 4 the new boson they had observed was consistent with the Higgs, believed to be responsible for imparting all elementary particles in the universe with mass.

Two articles by the teams are each about 30 pages long. The combined author list takes up 19 pages of single-spaced text and appears to have roughly 6,000 names. Wouldn't that be fun to cite as a footnote in full? … Read more

Smartphones with ginormous screens (roundup)

For some of you, there's no such thing as too huge when it comes to smartphone screens. The larger the display, the more space you have for reading e-books and news stories, playing games, and immersing yourself in photos and video graphics. Whether you have enormous mitts, the desire for a smartphone that performs tablet functions, or just a penchant for big, beautiful screens, these are for you.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Verizon), October 24, 2012 The screen-size granddaddy of them all, Samsung's Galaxy Note 2 with its 5.5-inch … Read more

Extremely Large Telescope gets rather strong vote of confidence

No, it's not something out of a Monty Python sketch. The "European Extremely Large Telescope" is, in fact, a real project. And it is, in fact, extremely large.

Or it will be, once it's built -- it'll be the world's largest optical/infrared telescope, actually. And with the recent vote to move the project beyond planning stages, the E-ELT may well be operational by sometime early in the next decade.… Read more

What iOS 6 tells us about the next iPhone

Apple's WWDC may not have resulted in an iPhone announcement, but it provided the next best thing: a detailed look at iOS 6.

It doesn't come out until the fall, and will only work on the iPhone 3GS and models after that, but a lot of iOS 6 features will be welcomed by any iPhone owner.

New versions of mobile software (be it iOS or Android) can often be as feature-packed and exciting as new phone models, and frequently kick a lot of new value down to older hardware.

The question is, can we look into the new features of iOS 6 to peer upstream at what Apple's next iPhone might be like? I'll try. Here are my best guesses.… Read more

CERN kicks off LHC's 2012 Higgs hunt

The European nuclear research agency CERN collided two high-power proton beams in the early hours of Thursday morning, marking the beginning of this year's Large Hadron Collider physics data collection.

The colliding beams were each of an intensity of 4 teraelectronvolts (TeV), and the resulting 8 TeV collision energy is the most powerful the particle accelerator has managed yet. In 2011's experiments, collisions went up to 7 TeV and, following the 20-month shut-down that will take place from November, CERN hopes to achieve LHC collision energy of 13 then 14 TeV.

"The experience of two good years … Read more

Big-screen ultrabooks: The first wave

What's an ultrabook, exactly? Is it a slim, portable 13-incher, or any laptop that's thinnish and cool-looking? The latest confounding trend in Intel's "ultrabook" brand creep has been the rise of 14- and 15-inch laptops boasting thinner designs and those same low-voltage CPUs that smaller ultrabooks have. Call them the return of the thin-and-light laptop, if you will, but ultrabooks have finally gotten supersized.… Read more

Higgs boson, you can run but you can't hide

Physicists based in the U.S. today presented evidence of the Higgs boson particle that correlates closely with European researchers' work at the Large Hadron Collider.

Researchers released an analysis of 10 years worth of data from the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, which provide more hints of the Higgs boson, but not a conclusive finding.

The data, presented at a physics conference in Italy, indicate that the particle could exist at a mass of between 115 gigaelectronvolts and 135 gigaelectronvolts. This result is consistent with the last December's finding from CERN's Large Hadron Collider in … Read more

My PS Vita case is a sock

I have a PS Vita, and here's what I'm using to protect it. Yes, it's a clean white sock. Turned inside-out, of course, to keep away lint. Low-cut, I might add, to eliminate unneeded tube-sock. I'm a size 11. … Read more