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It may be that the famous Higgs boson, co-responsible for the existence of masses of elementary particles, also interacts with the world of the new physics that has been sought for decades. If this were indeed to be the case, the Higgs should decay in a characteristic way, involving exotic particles. At the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow, it has been shown that if such decays do indeed occur, they will be observable in successors to the LHC currently being designed.
When talking about the 'hidden valley', our first thoughts are of dragons rather than sound science. However, in high-energy physics, this picturesque name is given to certain models that extend the set of currently known elementary particles. In these so-called Hidden Valley models, the particles of our world as described by the Standard Model belong to the low-energy group, while exotic particles are hidden in the high-energy region. Theoretical considerations suggest then the exotic decay of the famous Higgs boson, something that has not been observed at the LHC accelerator despite many years of searching. However, scientists at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) in Cracow argue that Higgs decays into exotic particles should already be perfectly observable in accelerators that are successors to the Large Hadron Collider – if the Hidden Valley models turn out to be consistent with reality.
“"In Hidden Valley models we have two groups of particles separated by an energy barrier. The theory is that there could then be exotic massive particles which could cross this barrier under specific circumstances. The particles like Higgs boson or hypothetic Z’ boson would act as communicators between the particles of both worlds. The Higgs boson, one of the most massive particle of the Standard Model, is a very good candidate for such a communicator"”, explains Prof. Marcin Kucharczyk (IFJ PAN), lead author of an article in the Journal of High Energy Physics, which presents the latest analyses and simulations concerning the possibility of detecting Higgs boson decays in the future lepton accelerators.
The communicator, after passing into the low energy region, would decay into two rather massive exotic particles. Each of these would, in picoseconds – that is, trillionths of a second – decay into another two particles, with even smaller masses, which would then be within the Standard Model. So what signs would be expected in the detectors of future accelerators? The Higgs itself would remain unnoticed, as would the two Hidden Valley particles. However, the exotic particles would gradually diverge and eventually decay, generally into quark-antiquark beauty pairs visible in modern detectors as jets of particles shifted from the axis of the lepton beam.
[...] The existence of particle-communicators is not only possible in Hidden Valley models, but also in other extensions of the Standard Model. So if the detectors of future accelerators register a signature corresponding to the Higgs decays analysed by the Cracow researchers, this will only be the first step on the road to understanding new physics. The next will be to collect a sufficiently large number of events and determine the main decay parameters that can be compared with the predictions of theoretical models of the new physics.
“"The main conclusion of our work is therefore purely practical. We are not sure whether the new physics particles involved in Higgs boson decays will belong to the Hidden Valley model we used. However, we have treated this model as representative of many other proposals for new physics and have shown that if, as predicted by the model, the Higgs bosons decay into exotic particles, this phenomenon should be perfectly visible in those electron and positron colliders which are planned to be launched in the near future"”, concludes Prof. Kucharczyk.
Journal Reference:
"Search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson into long-lived particles with jet pairs in the final state at CLIC”, M. Kucharczyk, M. Goncerz;, Journal of High Energy Physics, 131, 2023; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2023)131
5 biggest risks of sharing your DNA with consumer genetic-testing companies:
The business of personal genetic-testing kits is booming, with consumers able to learn about their ancestry and health risks at the cost of just $99 to a few hundred dollars. Should you be afraid?
Some individuals worry they will discover things about their DNA that will be frightening — namely, the risks they run of contracting various diseases — and not know how to move forward with the information. Professional scientific skeptics contend the information may not even be as accurate as claimed, and lead people to make questionable health decisions. But there’s another type of risk that consumers aren’t focusing on as much, and it’s a big one: privacy. There is nothing more private than your personal genetic information, and sending away for a personal genome kit means sharing your DNA with the testing companies. What do they do with it, beyond providing consumers with genetic and health assessments?
[...] Here are five of the biggest privacy risks for consumers sharing their DNA with testing companies.
1. Hacking
Obviously, this is not a risk that the genetic-testing industry alone faces, but it is an industry that has a unique set of information on its consumers. And there was a recent hack in the space. More than 92 million accounts from the genealogy and DNA testing service MyHeritage were found on a private server, the company announced earlier this month. DNA data, specifically, was not breached, the company said. But a hack in this space is a concern, regardless.
2. Who may profit on your DNA? The answer: Not you
One of the most compelling signs that consumers have a positive view of these companies is that a majority agree to let them share DNA with researcher partners. All of these companies make clear that they will not share your DNA with any third-party unless you explicitly consent to it, but as 23andMe data shows, the vast majority of consumers opt in — at 23andMe, more than 80 percent. Ancestry and Veritas do not provide data on the opt-in percentage.
23andMe provides consumers the choice of opting into research conducted on behalf of academic, nonprofit and industry organizations. They also offer an option to consent separately to specific disease studies in which their DNA is used in conjunction with for-profit drug companies, such as the Parkinson’s disease research conducted with Genentech and the lupus and IBD research conducted with Pfizer.
“If customers don’t consent, none of their data is shared,” a 23andMe spokeswoman said.
Consumers seem to have made the decision that altruism is the proper course of action: If their DNA can help find a cause of, or cure for, a disease, they want to be part of that process. But it also means that one day a drug company may be bringing a drug to market based, in part, on your DNA.
“People do think they are helping the world, helping society, even though they may not as an individual benefit,” King said. “But if your DNA helps develop a drug for a pharmaceutical company, there is nothing governing what they do. It could be a drug they sell at a high profit but doesn’t help the world become a better place.”
Veritas Genetics CEO Mirza Cifric said what it learns from research becomes immediately available to consumers through updates to their own genome or publication that moves science forward. “Our primary interest is unlocking secrets that exist in the genome, not engaging pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs, although we see potential value in that,” Cifric said.
Marcy Darnovsky, executive director at the Center for Genetics and Society, said this research process also means that data is shared with and passes through many partners, and in her opinion, no matter what the testing companies say, they can’t ensure what those partners are doing with your DNA.
An Ancestry spokeswoman noted that the decision to share DNA for research is not irrevocable, and consumers can request to revoke that permission at any time through their account settings. But King isn’t convinced: “Quitting one of these services isn’t as simple as just clicking Delete. How do you verify that they’ve actually deleted your genetic profile or destroyed a physical sample?”
3. Laws covering genetic privacy not broad enough, experts say.
Many privacy experts are concerned that the only law currently covering genetic privacy, the Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act (also known as GINA) is too narrow in its focus on banning employers or insurance companies from accessing this information. Other than GINA, there really is nothing, King said.
[...]
The genetic information space is in many respects still uncharted legislative territory, and consumers are taking these companies at their word, and they do state that protecting customers’ privacy is their highest priority. Ancestry reminds customers that “you own your data and you always maintain ownership of it,” and “you may request that we delete your data or account at any time.”
Why might a lack of strict legislation come back to haunt consumers? Keep reading.
4. Law enforcement knows these companies have your DNA, and they may want it. They’re already asking.
Requests from law enforcement and courts for your data are already happening and also can be done under subpoena.
[...] She also noted that while testing companies stress that DNA data is “de-identified” to protect privacy, data shared with researchers can be re-identified in many cases.
[...] All of these DNA testing companies explain this in their privacy statements, and 23andMe makes clear that it stands on the side of consumers. It says it will “resist” efforts of law enforcement.
[...] King said that law enforcement has barely begun to test the power of the subpoena in this area, if at all, and so it’s really uncharted territory in the legal realm. But she said there is every reason to believe the companies will defend consumers in a manner similar to how Apple has fought government requests to unlock and unencrypt iPhones.
[...]
5. The company’s situation — or privacy statement — can change.
Unintended consequences — not just acute incidents like hacking — are also inherent in this business model’s risks.
Companies change — they are bought, sold and go out of business — and what happens to your data then? Darnovsky asked.
In the current tech-sector regulatory landscape, privacy statements also change.
“There are no limits on what these companies can do; they just have to state it in their privacy policies, which they can change at any time (though you may have to consent to it again),” King said.
But here’s the good news: These companies do have an incentive to be on the consumer’s side. Without your faith in their motivations and actions, they won’t succeed for long.
“The people I interviewed were generally uninformed about the potential risks and took a very optimistic view on how these companies would treat them in the future. With any luck they will be right,” King said.
Bottom line argument? Trust in self regulation! They'd never behave in a manner to upset the general consumer.
Here's something about to roll off the submission queue. My interest in it is that I have an older Macbook where the battery doesn't hold charge well and Apple wants to charge an arm and a leg to work on it, so I figured I'd just install some linux distro on it and use it myself. I haven't played in the distro space in quite a while and I'm suffering paralysis by analysis, so recommendations/suggestions are welcome, particularly from anyone who has installed linux on a Macbook.
I find the deprecation of bash as default and which to be interesting, both things I've relied upon heavily in the past.
Debian 12 "Bookworm" Officially Released, Here's What's New - 9to5Linux:
The Debian Project released today the final version of the Debian 12 "Bookworm" operating system, a major release that brings several new features, updated components, and many improvements.
After almost two years of hard work, Debian 12 "Bookworm" is finally here and it's powered by the long-term supported Linux 6.1 LTS kernel series. This kernel brings new and updated drivers to support modern hardware and it will be officially supported until December 2026.
New features in Debian 12 "Bookworm" include a new non-free-firmware repository consisting of non-free firmware packages split from Debian's non-free repository. Those upgrading from Debian 11 to Debian 12 will have to add the new non-free-firmware repository to their sources.list files.
Debian 12 also brings read/write support for APFS (Apple File System) with the apfsprogs and apfs-dkms utilities, a new tool called ntfs2btrfs that lets you convert NTFS drives to Btrfs, a new malloc implementation called mimalloc, a new kernel SMB server called ksmbd-tools, and support for the merged-usr root file system layout.
Other new features include Secure Boot support on UEFI-capable AArch64 (ARM64) systems, a new shiny-server package for Debian Med Blend that simplifies scientific web apps using the R language, as well as GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) 12.2 as default system compiler.
[...] Other noteworthy changes include the deprecation of os-prober by default in the GRUB bootloader to check for existing OS installations. This mainly affects dual-boot users, who will need to rely on dpkg-reconfigure now.
Debian Bookworm also deprecates the use of bash as /bin/sh, removes the libpam-ldap and libnss-ldap packages as they're no longer maintained upstream and replaces them with libpam-ldapd and libnss-ldapd, removes the tempfile and rename.ul programs (mktemp and file-rename can be used as a replacement), and replaces rsyslog with the systemd journalctl utility for viewing logs.
Also deprecated is the which tool. The Debian Project recommends using command -v for writing shell scripts), as well as type or type -a for interactive Bash shell users. ZSH, CSH, and TCSH users are not affected by this change.
[...] Debian 12 "Bookworm" will be supported for five years, until June 2028. Here are a few screenshots of the boot menu, lock screen, and a live session featuring the KDE Plasma 5.27 LTS desktop environment.
Also at www.debian.org
If you wanted to see what it would be like if the world truly did revolve around you, here is a really cool image sequence where the camera view is held fixed to the background stars: https://artuniverse.eu/gallery/190705-rotation24h
An FYI to those of you who will be in the United States in October 2023 and April 2024. Here is an American Institute of Physics press release regarding a story in the journal The Physics Teacher on prepping for the two upcoming North American eclipses:
WASHINGTON, May 3, 2023 – This year and next, Americans will have the extraordinary opportunity to witness two solar eclipses as both will be visible throughout the continental U.S. On Oct. 14, 2023, the moon will obscure all but a small annulus of the sun, producing a “ring of fire” eclipse. On April 8, 2024, the eclipse will be total in a band stretching from Texas to Maine.
Both occurrences promise to be remarkable events and teachable moments. But preparation is essential.
In The Physics Teacher, co-published by AIP Publishing and the American Association of Physics Teachers, astronomer Douglas Duncan of the University of Colorado provides a practical playbook to help teachers, students, and the general public prepare for the eclipse events. He also shares ways to fundraise for schools and organizations and guidance for safe eclipse-viewing. The Fiske Planetarium, which Duncan used to direct, is also producing short videos about the upcoming eclipses.
“According to NASA surveys, over 100 million Americans watched the 2017 eclipse in person or via media,” said Duncan. “That was when a total eclipse crossed the U.S., with totality viewable in Wyoming, where Motel 6 rooms in the state were going for $800 a night if you didn’t book far in advance. A total eclipse is worth traveling to. It is incredible, and people remember it their whole life.”
A self-described eclipse-chaser who has himself witnessed 12 eclipses beginning in 1970, Duncan emphasizes the importance of eye protection. He cites two companies that produce inexpensive glasses for viewing the sun and advises event organizers to order them well in advance: Solar Eclipse Glasses and Rainbow Symphony.
Additionally, after observing spectators at previous eclipses using their phones to snap pictures, Duncan developed Solar Snap, a filter and app to enable safe and effective smart phone photography for such events.
With small groups, Duncan suggests using binoculars to project an image of the sun so that viewers can safely observe the spectacle transposed onto a sheet of paper.
Duncan’s paper is, above all, a rallying cry.
“Organizing, spreading the word, and planning ahead will be key to making the most of these events,” said Duncan. “If you’re a student, talk to your teachers or principal. If you’re organizing a large viewing event, think about the various logistics. Much of the onus is on us – teachers, students, communities.”
Anyone have any good eclipse chasing stories to share? We drove over 600 miles (about 1 Mm for those of you who prefer those other kind of units) to get into the path of totality for the 2017 eclipse and it was well worth it, and we're planning on where we want to be for 2024. Order your eclipse glasses now because I remember they were very hard to get in the run up to the 2017 eclipse and there were some questionable ones being sold on Amazon.
Posted over on Knuth's webpage is an email he recently wrote to Stephen Wolfram in which he describes some prodding of ChatGPT. He posed 20 questions and gives the verbatim answers as well as commentary on the answers.
Preface: Since one of today's popular recreations is to play with
chatGPT, I decided on 07 April 2023 to try my own little experiment,
as part of a correspondence with Stephen Wolfram.The results were sufficiently interesting that I passed them on
to a few friends the next day, and I've also been mentioning them in
conversation when the topic comes up.So I was asked to post the story online, and here it is (lightly edited)!
-- Don Knuth
PS: I did not edit my questions or the computer's answers, only my
own commentary at the end.
It is an interesting read that I highly recommend. And he ends his letter:
Well this has been interesting indeed. Studying the task of
how to fake it certainly leads to insightful subproblems galore.
As well as fun conversations during meals.On the other hand, Gary Marcus's column in the April CACM
brilliantly describes the terrifying consequences of these
developments.I find it fascinating that novelists galore have written for decades
about scenarios that might occur after a "singularity" in which
superintelligent machines exist. But as far as I know, not a single
novelist has realized that such a singularity would almost surely
be preceded by a world in which machines are 0.01% intelligent
(say), and in which millions of real people would be able to interact
with them freely at essentially no cost.
The Gary Marcus CACM piece he refers to is Hoping for the Best as AI Evolves.
From an American Chemical Society press release:
Craft brewers are continuously upping the ante and coming up with innovative ways to make or flavor their newest beers. Now, researchers are adding a new twist of their own, speeding up the brewing process with beer-making mini-robots or “BeerBots.” Reporting in ACS Nano, the team shows that these self-propelled, magnetic packages of yeast can make the fermentation phase go faster and cut out the need to filter the beverage.
Beer, one of the world’s most-consumed drinks, can take a while to brew. In the first step, sugars are extracted from grains, such as malted barley, to create a watery solution called wort. Next, yeasts ferment those sugars, converting them into alcohol, carbon dioxide gas and new flavor compounds. This step can take as long as four weeks, and during that time, unwanted microorganisms can get in and spoil the final product with sour flavors. Previous researchers have suggested that encapsulating the yeast in polymer capsules could lessen the chance of spoilage by speeding up the process. So, Martin Pumera and colleagues wanted to develop a self-propelled bot to both make fermentation proceed more quickly and simplify the separation of yeast from the final beer.
The researchers made 2-mm-wide BeerBot capsules by combining active yeast, magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and sodium alginate from algae and dripping the mixture into a ferric chloride solution. Then they made one side of the spheres porous by exposing that half to an alkaline solution in an electrochemical cell.
Initial experiments showed that the yeast-containing beads could ferment sugar and produce carbon dioxide bubbles that propelled them upward. When they got to the surface, they released carbon dioxide into the air, and then sank again, resulting in a bobbing motion. When used to ferment malted barley wort, the team found that the self-propelled BeerBots transformed sugars faster than free yeast cells. As the sugar was used up and fermentation ceased, the yeast-containing capsules sank to the bottom of the flask. This made it easy to separate the yeast from the final product with a magnet, rather than with a filtration step that’s currently required to remove free yeast cells. Additionally, the collected BeerBots were active for up to three more wort fermentation cycles. Based on these results, the researchers say that BeerBots could produce tasty brews faster.
Journal Reference:
Nanostructured Hybrid BioBots for Beer Brewing [open], Roberto Maria-Hormigos, Carmen C. Mayorga-Martinez, Tomáš Kinčl, and Martin Pumera, ACS Nano 2023, 17, 8, 7595–7603
Publication Date:April 12, 2023 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.2c12677
Known as the Fyllingsdalstunnelen, the tunnel cuts through the Løvstakken mountain in the southwest Norwegian city, linking the residential areas of Fyllingsdalen and Mindemyren. Cyclists can continue on to the centre of Bergen using existing routes.
[...] Both the Fyllingsdal tunnel and the rest of the cycle route to Bergen city centre are financed through the municipality’s state-supported Miljøløftet (Environmental Promise).
Its goal is to make it easier for more people to choose cycling and walking over driving. Not only could this help reduce traffic in the city, it could also help cut planet-heating emissions and unhealthy pollution.
The route’s total distance - from Fyllingsdalen to Festplassen in the city centre - is 7.8 kilometres, which takes around 25 minutes by bike. Currently, cycling between these areas takes around 40 minutes.
Is it really the longest in the world?
Bergen’s cycle tunnel has been touted as the world’s longest - but it comes with some caveats.
The Snoqualmie Tunnel near Seattle, USA, is 3.6km long. However, it takes over an abandoned railway tunnel, so was not built for purpose.
The Fyllingsdal cycle tunnel is therefore the world’s second longest overall, and the longest that was built for purpose.
Running parallel to the new light rail line that opened in November, the tunnel doubles as an escape route for train passengers.
"Basically, it is an escape tunnel for the tram. But then there were wise minds who said that it is possible to cycle through this tunnel as well," explains project manager Arild Tveit. "By creating a walkway here, it is also possible to exercise... So it is public health in every metre of this tunnel."
I can't say I'm impressed with their logic, but regardless of how you feel about superlatives, it is pretty neat. The article has a nice video that rides through it and you can see all the artwork they've added.
The tunnel will be open from 5.30am to 11.30pm daily. It features well-lit rest stops and security cameras throughout. Emergency phones are available every 250 metres.
Colourful dynamic lighting will create a wave of light when a cyclist or pedestrian enters the tunnel at either end, alerting cyclists to oncoming traffic. It is also lined with artwork and installations to make the journey more interesting.
It will be kept at a constant temperature of 7 degrees Celsius, making it an attractive training route for runners on colder days.
My top two reasons for reading Mad Magazine were the fold-in and Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions, and both were done by Al Jaffee. He died at the ripe old age of 102. RIP.
Ages ago I would idly try to see what the fold-in was while waiting by a magazine rack, trying to do it without creasing (much) the cover so that I didn't have to purchase it. :)
Specialty coffees are gaining traction in coffeehouses around the world — and now a fermented version could bring a fruity taste to your morning cup of joe. This new kind of beverage has a raspberry-like taste and aroma, but what causes these sensations has been a mystery. Today, scientists report six compounds that contribute to the fermented coffee experience. The work could help increase production of the drink and make it more readily available for everyone to enjoy.
“There are now flavors that people are creating that no one would have ever associated with coffee in the past,” says Chahan Yeretzian, Ph.D., the project’s principal investigator. “The flavors in fermented coffee, for example, are often more akin to fruit juices.”
This unusual type of beverage provides a unique flavor experience for consumers, and the growing demand for it means that fermented coffee beans can fetch a high price, potentially benefiting farmers. And the process by which the beans are prepared requires much less water than traditional methods, making it a more environmentally friendly alternative to a standard cup of coffee.
But despite this drink’s growing popularity, the compounds that cause its distinctive flavor were unknown. And with fermented coffee becoming more popular in competitive events, some people have been concerned that the lack of knowledge about fermented coffee may make it difficult to distinguish between the genuine product and regular joe that has been illicitly adulterated. So, Yeretzian and colleagues from the Coffee Excellence Center at Zurich University of Applied Sciences sought to identify the compounds that are responsible for these new and exciting flavors. And because flavor and smell are intimately linked, studying the beverages’ scents could help the team gain a better understanding of how fermented coffee’s complex flavor is created.
To single out the compounds unique to fermented coffee’s aromas, researchers took arabica beans and divided them into three groups. One was prepared using a wash process, which is likely how your average afternoon pick-me-up brew is made. Here, a gelatinous substance known as mucilage is stripped from the coffee bean, which is washed with water before being dried. The researchers prepared the second group using the pulped natural process — another common approach — in which the skin is removed from the bean, but the mucilage is left intact. Finally, the team fermented beans in the third group using carbonic maceration, a process often used in winemaking. This method was first introduced to the specialty coffee world in 2015, when the winning contestant in the World Barista Championship used it to prepare their entry. With this process, whole coffee fruits are fermented in stainless steel tanks and infused with carbon dioxide to lower the pH of the fermentation. Unlike the other brews, the coffee made with fermented beans was described as smelling intense, like raspberries with a hint of rose.
Anyone tried fermented bean coffee? I'm intrigued.
