Dear PhysicaPlus visitors and readers,
We are pleased to announce that the 11th issue of PhysicaPlus is now on air, after rather a long while. You will find in this issue a collection of nine feature articles and essays, covering a wide range of topics. Despite the setback with the operation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, our interest in this historical experiment remains unshakable. The article “ATLAS: where big wheels are really big” by Giora Mikenberg and Sandro Palestini gives us an insight into the huge and complex engineering of the ATLAS project designed to “catch” and analyze the “shower” of subatomic particles, which will result from the collision of protons moving at nearly the speed of light in opposite directions.
Some of these particles are well known, but the most expected ones are the Higgs Boson predicted by the Standard Model, and a variety of unexpected and unknown particles. A number of physicists have worn us that some of these new created particles, referred to as “exotic”, including the creation of mini-Black Holes, might pose a danger to our world. This rather intriguing “danger”, denied forcedly by the CERN physicists, is analyzed in depth by Michal E. Peskin in his article “The end of the world at the Large Hydron Collider?
The Black Hole, though in cosmic scale, is also the subject of the famous debate between Stephen Hawking and Leonard Susskind on the fate of information, whether lost, when “swallowed” by a Black Hole, or surviving this “adventure”. We bring you an excerpt from Leonard Susskind’s recent book entitled “The Black Hole War”
The ATLAS experiment at the LHC will address also many questions about extra dimensions, how many extra dimensions are there? What are their shapes and sizes? How are they hidden? What are the new particles associated with extra dimensions?
Such discoveries may shed light on the Multiverse theory, holding that our Universe is but one of a multitude of Universes. This fascinating idea is dealt with at the article by Aurelien Barrau entitled “Physics in the Multiverse”.
The article by David Hanna: “VERITAS Telescopes Celebrate First Light” describes the latest stage in the evolution of very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray astronomy, a field where many aspects are closer to particle physics than to traditional astronomy. The basic idea is to use the Earth’s atmosphere as the “front end” of the detector. At high energies, gamma rays initiate extensive air showers in the upper atmosphere, and relativistic particles in these showers radiate Cherenkov photons that penetrate to ground level. The VERITAS telescope array will monitor the Cherenkov photons, which will provide an insight into the sources of VHE gamma rays, Black Holes and presumably the dark matter.
The Quantum Physics theory is “blamed” often for lack of experimental evidence, which is obviously essential for any physical theory. “Quantum Levitation” by Ulf Leonhardt gives us an insight into the much exciting evidence, known, and shown in many experiments, as Quantum Levitation.
Levitating Mirror
Mario Livio seems to have solved the mystery surrounding the death of the French genius mathematician Evariste Galois, founder of the Group Theory in mathematics, who passed away at the age of 20.
The article “Studying the Real World Nano-Bots with Optical Tweezers” by Arthur LaPorta brings us to the real world of nano-robotics in biological systems, in operation probably from the dawn of the evolution.
The use of optical tweezers to study RNA polymerase
And last, not least, the comprehensive study told by Dana Ashkenazi and Noam Eliaz on the fascinating world of crystals in an article entitled “Minerals, lattices and Gemstones”.
In the column section we are pleased to renew the column by Judy Kupferman, with the article entitled “Science People/Theater People”. Judy shows that the “happy match” between science and stage art is a rather wide phenomenon, pointing to interesting commonalities in the personality characters and the working habits of scientists and theater people.
Stuart and Lenore. Lenore is a physicist and Stuart
works in theater, but she has worked in theater, and he
has studied science.
Abraham Tamir brings us, as usual, his very personal column on Science and Art. In this issue it is the “Creation of Art by Looking Deep into the Matter”. Obviously, nano-science seems to be the best match.
DNA “Repair Machine” (Artist’s concept)
In the Point of View section we give the stage to Johan Tino Frederiksen and Mads Norgaard Davidsen in an article entitled “How Learning Progresses in an Artificial Organism”. They hypothesize an artificial organism, which they refer to as “Colline”, “residing” in a computer, and capable of learning.
“Colline” learns to recognize a flower
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Alex Manes, Science Editor
Neora (neora.com), Online Editor
