Detroit Police Uniforms March 12 1954, The Detroit News
Medieval illuminated manuscripts sometimes feature animals capering irreverently around the margins, such as the ones above and below. [According to] Peter Ackroyd’s fascinatingAlbion: The Origins of the English Imagination these doodles are quite excellently called ‘babooneries’ … according to Nikolaus Pevsner, they originated in England – a satirical streak and an interest in the potential of animals to amuse run deep.
After the history of rock’n’roll in 100 riffs, an abridged history of Western music sung in 16 styles.
“I want all these young people to be getting a higher education, and I don’t want them loaded up with tens of thousands of dollars of debt just to get an education. That’s how we make America great.
Of course, that means all of you all have got to hit the books. I’m just saying. Don’t cheer and then you didn’t do your homework.
Because that’s part of the bargain—America says we will give you opportunity, but you’ve got to earn your success.
You’re competing against young people in Beijing and Bangalore. They’re not hanging out. They’re not playing video games. They’re not watching “Real Housewives.” I’m just saying. It’s a two-way street. You’ve got to earn success.
That wasn’t in my prepared remarks. But I’m just saying.”
— President Obama today, keeping it real (via barackobama)
trce:
“Hadron Collider? I hardly know ‘er!”
Found on the corner of 18th St NW and Willard St NW in Washington, D.C.. I think this is a good way to introduce myself to the DNews Tumblr community!
Hey all! I hope I can keep up Rose’s awesomeness. Feel free to keep up the questions and make suggestions. I’m excited to be here, I hope you are too!
In which I explain the Higgs Boson to my girlfriend, who is a biologist not a physicist.
| Alex Wright: | ok, so, first I should explain what a Boson is |
| Krista: | ok |
| coles notes version please | |
| Alex Wright: | |
| alright, so, a boson is a field mediating particle, like a photon | |
| are you familiar with the electromagnetic field? | |
| Krista: | |
| yes | |
| Alex Wright: | |
| ok, so the photon is the boson that mediates the electromagnetic field. | |
| the field, and force, doesn't exist without and is made up of photons. If you excite the field to a certain energy, photons are released. | |
| and we can observe them | |
| Krista: | |
| yes I understand that | |
| Alex Wright: | |
| it's like when you slosh around a bucket of water and some of the water at the surface splashes up into a drop separate from the larger body of water | |
| ok, so that's the basics of bosons | |
| the Higgs boson is a very special type of boson | |
| You know that atoms are essentially 98% empty space, yes? | |
| Krista: | |
| ok | |
| Alex Wright: | |
| you've got your nucleus, and the electrons are floating around about as far away as jupiter from the sun, if we're talking scale here. | |
| Krista: | |
| yes | |
| I know that | |
| Alex Wright: | |
| so most of the universe is about 98% nothing | |
| but this doesn't really make sense, because if it was truly empty, everything would be zooming around at the speed of light | |
| einstein's general relativity tells us that the thing that keeps particles form zooming about at light speed is mass. | |
| some particles don't have mass, like photons and electrons, which obviously travel at light speed. | |
| Krista: | |
| ok | |
| Alex Wright: | |
| but what creates mass? | |
| 50 years ago, a smart guy named Peter Higgs suggested that that 98% of empty space wasn't empty at all, he hypothesized that this empty space was actually completely saturated with the Higgs Field | |
| the Higgs field acts like a quantum molasses which slows down these particles as they travel through space. | |
| Krista: | |
| ooo cool | |
| Alex Wright: | |
| so, he proposed this 50 years ago, and described the phenomenon with mathematics, and it made sense | |
| but the problem was, the Higgs field has such high energy, and because of Einstein's E=mc^2 equation, such high mass properties, it takes an immense amount of energy to excite the field enough to observe the particle | |
| and then they did | |
| Krista: | |
| ohhh | |
| Ok. wow I actually get it. | |
| a few seconds ago | |
| Alex Wright: | |
| Yay | |
| Krista: | |
| you should post that explanation. | |
| because every other one makes no sense. |
Ouch, xkcd. Ouch, ouch, ouch. What do you think, does NASA’s track record of space stations, telescopes and unmanned missions since the Apollo program measure up? Anything on the horizon that particularly excites you?
I’d argue that Voyager leaving the solar system is kind of a big deal.
(via xkcd)
