I remember back to September last year and the first beam at the LHC (shortly prior to the mishap which led to a liquid Helium leak).
The media was in full swing with scare stories about the LHC being a doomsday machine destined to destroy the universe.
Statistically speaking they weren’t wrong, but the probability of the LHC destroying the Earth by whatever means is astoundingly small. In fact, the cosmic rays which collide with protons in the atmosphere posess much higher energies than the LHC will achieve and we are all still here after countless numbers of these collisions.

Still, I thought it’d be fun to present a list of (bad) things that may happen at the LHC (despite the extremely low odds).

1. The heavy ion collisions used in the ALICE experiment produce a very high density plasma which collapses into a black hole, which then grows and grows and destroys the Earth and the Solar System.

2. High energy proton-proton collisions produce strangelets which convert all matter on Earth into more strangelets, leaving a big ball of strangelets.

3. The extreme conditions produced in the LHC opens up a wormhole, which allows an evil genius from the future to come back in time and enslave the world population.

4. Pink flying monkeys appear in the ATLAS control room and evaporate people with their eyes.

5. The LHC breaks again, but NOT TO WORRY, Chuck Norris is hired to smash protons together by hand.

6. Time stops. Like the ULTIMATE Bernard’s Watch.

Some of these are more likely than others (Personally I am leaning towards number 5), but all are quite frankly absurd.
Click here for more information.

What WILL happen at the LHC is that science will take a huge step forwards and yet more holes in our collective knowledge will be filled, perhaps the Higgs boson will make a special guest appearance, perhaps Supersymmetry will show up, perhaps it will be something completely unexpected. Either way it will be momentous.

Not many people realise this, but, technically speaking, there are thirteen signs of the zodiac.

Let me explain.

As mentioned in a previous post, as the Earth orbits the Sun, the Sun appears to move across the sky relative to the stars. The path that the Sun traces is called the ecliptic.
The concept of the ‘zodiac’ – the division of the ecliptic into 12 segments – may have been used as long ago as 7th century BC by the Mesopotamians (or Bablyonians). Each of these 12 segments is nicely represented by a constellation, the ram of Aries or the bull of Taurus, for example. Each of the 12 segments of the sky is associated with one of the months of the Mesopotamian calendar, the months then being recognised when the Sun moves into a different constellation. Thus, the constellation that the Sun occupies when a child is born is equivalent to the birth month of the child. This is the concept we know today as star signs.

(As an aside, the whole superstition behind star signs is related to the religious ceremonies and superstitions practiced by the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, a tradition that stubbornly refuses to die out)

Now, the Earth’s axis of rotation is tilted with respect to its orbital plane, and it is this tilt which gives rise to the seasons (or alternatively, the inclination of the ecliptic with respect to the celestial equator). This tilt is not fixed however, and, due to a phenomenon called precession (similar to the way a spinning top twists on a flat surface), traces out a conical shape every 40,000 years.
The effects of precession include the changing position of the North Celestial Pole, which is currently quite nicely marked by Polaris (the north star), and the changing inclination of the ecliptic.
Historically, when the 12 signs of the zodiac were originally drawn out, the ecliptic passed through 12 constellations. Quite handy really.
Presently, the ecliptic passes through 13 constellations. The extra constellation being Ophiuchus. A bit of a mouthful.

So, technically speaking, anyone born between November 30th and December 17th was born under the sign Ophiuchus, not Saggitarius. But alas, tradition is stubborn and people don’t like change. Not to mention it would mess with all astrologers and mystics everywhere if we suddenly had an unlucky 13 zodiacal constellations. The truth hurts.

Usually when someone hears the words ‘particle physics’ they usually think of reclusive scientists working in grey rooms surrounded by text books, computers and illegible scrawlings on the chalk board.
This stereotype need no longer apply, thanks to the Particle Zoo.

Particle Zoo is a website run by the Particle Zookeeper Julie Peasley, who hand crafts and sells plush toys based on the fundamental constituents of matter.
From electrons to W and Z bosons, all of the particles in the Standard Model (along with a few theoretical particles like Dark Matter and Tachyons, and all of the corresponding antiparticles) are represented by fluffy little balls with faces.
But it’s not THAT simple.
Each particle is weighted according to how strongly it interacts with the Higgs field. So the top quark weighs significantly more than the up quark, thanks to the different packing materials used.

I placed an order a few weeks ago for the ‘Everyday matter’ pack. A set of 6 particles which we all know and love (and are composed of): an electron, a proton, a neutron, an up quark, a down quark and an electron-neutrino.
My favourite particle is the neutrino, a notoriously difficult to detect particle, which comes in disguise wearing a mask, in the hopes of eluding detection further.

The website also includes several pictures of top Physicists and Nobel Laureates with their favourite particles, a feature which will surely banish any negative stereotype of Physicists!

Seriously though, go there and see if you can resist buying your own particle!

The only drawback is that the photon isn’t actually delivered at the speed of light, despite the note on the box!