Dear Long Live Yorke

[LongLiveYorke 38]

Did you not make a single friend in the 6 months that you lived there that could give you some insider details?

I absolutely have all the inside details and know exactly what will be said on Tuesday (at least from the ATLAS side). I'm of coures not at liberty to share or I'd be in big trouble.

[speedz99 145]

I also know what announcement they'll be making, but I can't tell either.

[LongLiveYorke 38]

So, who else was up early this morning?Here is a nice summary of the results:http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicva...-it-marches-on/Cliffs: Atlas sees a pretty compelling hint of the Higgs, but not enough to claim discovery. CMS sees a similar but less compelling hint, but putting the two together paints a pretty interesting picture.

[Dawson Leery 12]

So, who else was up early this morning?Here is a nice summary of the results:http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicva...-it-marches-on/Cliffs: Atlas sees a pretty compelling hint of the Higgs, but not enough to claim discovery. CMS sees a similar but less compelling hint, but putting the two together paints a pretty interesting picture.

I concur

[Roll the Bones 74]

So, who else was up early this morning?Here is a nice summary of the results:http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicva...-it-marches-on/Cliffs: Atlas sees a pretty compelling hint of the Higgs, but not enough to claim discovery. CMS sees a similar but less compelling hint, but putting the two together paints a pretty interesting picture.

Of all people, I actually follow this stuff pretty regularly anymore and was indeed flush with anticipation this morning and couldn't wait to see the reports and have been scouring them today. In a way it was kind of a let down since I thought they would go further, but alas, still pretty cool. I was actually eager to see your thoughts on the matter.

[ShakeZuma 585]

I concur

mmm yes, compelling indeed, mmm

[brvheart 1,752]

I absolutely have all the inside details and know exactly what will be said on Tuesday (at least from the ATLAS side). I'm of coures not at liberty to share or I'd be in big trouble.

You would have gotten in trouble by telling us that they've narrowed it down further, and that we'll know more by the end of next year? Who do you work for? The mafia?

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

So dark energy.. what's up with that?

[Balloon guy 158]

[LongLiveYorke 38]

Of all people, I actually follow this stuff pretty regularly anymore and was indeed flush with anticipation this morning and couldn't wait to see the reports and have been scouring them today. In a way it was kind of a let down since I thought they would go further, but alas, still pretty cool. I was actually eager to see your thoughts on the matter.

I'm pretty excited about the news. The key plot is this one:as well as this one:both of which can be found here:https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYS...-CONF-2011-163/In the first one, look at the bump in the black line around 125 Gev. The black line essentially represents how much higgs-like data we saw. The dashed line represents what we'd expect if there was no higgs. The fact that the black line goes above the green and yellow at around 125 GeV means that we saw a > 2 sigma increase in higgs-like events.The second plot shows the probability of the data we saw, as a function of mass, to have been made if there were no higgs. You can see that probability goes really far down at around 125 GeV, indicating that it would be really hard for a world with no Higgs to produce the data we saw.It think this is all very promising. It's particularly interesting because the Higgs signal is seen in several types of events that look for different types of particles. This means that it's unlikely to be some kind of bug that only appears in one place. The fact that both experiments see similar things also tells a very compelling story.

You would have gotten in trouble by telling us that they've narrowed it down further, and that we'll know more by the end of next year? Who do you work for? The mafia?

I think the media has, in general, understated the significance of what we found (in terms of whether it's really the Higgs or not). We know a lot now, and we'll know a lot more well before the end of next year.

[speedz99 145]

I think the media has, in general, understated the significance of what we found (in terms of whether it's really the Higgs or not).

That's because it's not big news until the general public actually understands why it would be a big deal* to find it.*In terms of practical applications.

[LongLiveYorke 38]

So dark energy.. what's up with that?

Pssssh, no one really knows."Dark Energy" really means, "For some reason, the universe is expanding. And not only is it expanding, it's getting faster and faster as it expands. And we don't know why! Let's call that 'Dark Energy.'"It would be like throwing a ball into the air, and instead of it falling back to you, it continues to fly away, and then gets faster and faster as it flies away. Clearly, in that case, you'd be 100% convinced that something is going on. But you'd probably have no idea why. And, when it comes to the expansion of the universe, we don't really know why.We have some possibilities. Einstein's theories of how space and the universe work allowed for a "constant" term that can cause such an expansion. But Einstein came to believe that such a term was a mistake (he originally thought it necessary to create a static universe, a theory that he believed in before observational evidence proved him wrong). But saying, "it's just a cosmological constant" is really sort of sweeping the whole thing under a rug; it's putting a name on the thing that we don't understand, but not really adding much to our understanding.The whole matter could involve a greater quantum-mechanical space-time landscape that we're a part of (this is what some people refer to when they describe the multiverse). But that quickly gets into a philosophical territory, and a lot of it is over my head, to be honest.

[speedz99 145]

I feel like at some point someone tried to explain to me that by "expanding", the universe isn't getting "bigger" as much as things in the universe are getting further apart...whatever that means. Like if a ruler is growing, not the distance between the things the ruler is measuring...I don't know.

[Dread Aidan 8]

Well, it's difficult to answer questions about the shape of the universe without discussing something known as a "metric." See, when we talk about the universe or anything on a very large scale, our normal ideas about space and geometry start to break down. Often scientists try to explain it using phrases such as "the universe is growing" or " the universe is shaped in a certain way," but when they do it, they're really talking about something called a metric.What, then, is a metric? The metric is the way that a person measures "distance." We are used to using what is called the euclidean metric, where the distance (in three dimensions) is given by the square root of x^2 + y^2 + z^2. This is the metric that applies to flat space-time. So, if we are working in a flat universe, then triangles have 180 degrees and we measure the distance between things using the standard Pythagorean theorem in 3-d.But the universe is not 100% flat. Gravity, according to general relativity, "curves" space and gives it a shape. Really what is happening is that gravity changes the "metric," meaning that it alters the way that distances between two places are measured. So, if the metric is altered in a way such that it is increased between two places, than effectively what we think of as "distance" between those places is increased. Just imagine that the metric is a ruler and gravity can alter the shape and length of that ruler. If the ruler gets smaller and smaller, then things measured by that ruler will be seemingly further and further apart.So, how does this apply to the universe? Well, scientists have observed that the universe is "expanding." But this really means that the metric, or the "ruler," is getting smaller and smaller. So, if we measure the distance between here and Andromeda today and it turns out to be 1,000 lengths of our ruler, and our ruler gets smaller, then tomorrow the distance we measure could be 2,000 rules, effectively making the distance longer. This is what we mean when we say the universe is expanding: the distances between every point in space is getting larger and larger.The metric can be bent as well, though. The "shape" of the universe is described by how much our ruler is "curved." Imagine that we have a ruler that is curved. Let's say that it is curved through 90 degrees (a right angle). If we measure the distance of something by putting this curved ruler end to end, then after 4 ruler lengths, the ruler will end up back where it started (in other words, the four rulers put together will form a circle). So, according to our measurement, after 4 ruler lengths in a given direction, we end up in the same spot (because the ruler, or the metric, is curved). Imagine all this on a very large scale.If the universe is curved in this certain way, then if we go out on a spaceship in a straight line for a very long distance, we eventually will return to where we are (if the straight line is defined by following along the ruler, which in this case happens to be curved).The shape of this ruler is determined by the mass density of the universe. There is a critical value for this density where if the universe is denser than this value, it will be curved one way (have negative curvature), if it is equal, it will be flat, and if it is less, it will be curved another way (have positive curvature).The universe can indeed be infinite but still be growing because the meaning of growing means only that our rulers are shrinking and thus the distance between things is getting larger.Nothing lies beyond the "edge of the universe" because this concept is ill defined. If the universe is flat, it will go on forever and you will never reach an edge. If the universe is curved in a way and is finite, you won't reach an edge. Rather, eventually after going in a straight line you will end up where you started (just imagine walking on the surface of the earth in a straight line around the equator. The Earth is finite but it doesn't have an edge; you will just walk back to where you started).The possible shapes of the universe are flat (just consider a giant flat grid that goes on forever), curved like a ball (picture the Earth or any large sphere) or curved in another way that one can imagine looks like a saddle (it's hard to find an analogy for it visually, but the description of the metric is well defined).I'm not sure if that answers your question.

[Mercury69 3]

The universe's shape is...universal, of course.

[speedz99 145]

Well, say what you want about that JJJ character, but clearly I paid some attention to the quack.

[Tiltinagain 973]

So....assuming the universe is doing whatever it is you say/think it is doing....Why should we care? What impact, negative or otherwise, will there be or is there now?Not that I imagine we could do anything about it one way or the other but that just brings me back to why should we care?Serious question.

[Tiltinagain 973]

So....assuming the universe is doing whatever it is you say/think it is doing....Why should we care? What impact, negative or otherwise, will there be or is there now?Not that I imagine we could do anything about it one way or the other but that just brings me back to why should we care?Serious question.

[speedz99 145]

So....assuming the universe is doing whatever it is you say/think it is doing....Why should we care? What impact, negative or otherwise, will there be or is there now?

Great achievement has no road map. The X-Ray is pretty good, and so is penicillin, and neither were discovered with a practical objective in mind. I mean, when the electron was discovered in 1897, it was useless. And now we have an entire world run by electronics. Hayden and Mozart never studied the classics. They couldn't. They invented them.

[iZuma 764]

oh my god speedz you are such an incredible faggot

[Mercury69 3]

oh my god speedz you are such an incredible faggot

Sounds like a compliment to me...

[LongLiveYorke 38]

oh my god speedz you are such an incredible faggot

Well, at least he's good at it.

[Dread Aidan 8]

Great achievement has no road map. The X-Ray is pretty good, and so is penicillin, and neither were discovered with a practical objective in mind. I mean, when the electron was discovered in 1897, it was useless. And now we have an entire world run by electronics. Hayden and Mozart never studied the classics. They couldn't. They invented them.

Discovery. That's the thing that you were... Discovery is what. That's what this is used for. It's for discovery.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

Great achievement has no road map. The X-Ray is pretty good, and so is penicillin, and neither were discovered with a practical objective in mind. I mean, when the electron was discovered in 1897, it was useless. And now we have an entire world run by electronics. Hayden and Mozart never studied the classics. They couldn't. They invented them.

[brvheart 1,752]

I mean, when the electron was discovered in 1897, it was useless. And now we have an entire world run by electronics.

hahahaI love you, Speedz.