Nanotechnology

See the other blog for an item on nanotechnology. This a bit advanced but is important as an area of applied Physics which is drawing increasing attention.

Faster-than-light neutrinos - latest news

I did not expect to report on this again so quickly but the people at CERN have been able to repeat their experiment with greater accuracy and certainty. And the result confirms the previous findings! From a BBC report (the BBC is usually quick to report science stories and does so with commendable clarity):

"When the Opera team ran the improved experiment 20 times, they found almost exactly the same result."

"This additional test we made is confirming our original finding, but still we have to be very prudent, still we have to look forward to independent confirmation. But this is a positive result."

As mentioned above, independent confirmation is needed. That is to say confirmation of the results by other physicists elsewhere using different equipment. Until this happens there will be a lot of skepticism about the result.

Faster-than-light neutrinos - follow-up

Many possible explanations have been offered for the strange and unexpected results reported in the last post. A new experiment is underway to test these theories - the results will be known next month. Patience is another quality required for good science!

According to a BBC report:

"Scientists who announced that sub-atomic particles might be able to travel faster than light are to rerun their experiment in a different way.

This will address criticisms and allow the physicists to shore up their analysis as much as possible before submitting it for publication.

Dr Sergio Bertolucci said it was vital not to "fool around" given the staggering implications of the result.

So they are doing all they can to rule out more pedestrian explanations."

Faster than light?

Recent results from an experiment measuring the speed of neutrinos implies that they travel very very slightly above the speed of light. This has caused considerable excitement and some consternation in the scientific world. The physicists responsible are asking others to examine their results. See this BBC report and this Physics World report.

There are many aspects of this worth looking at:
- why is the speed of light considered a universal speed limit?
- what are neutrinos? See these articles.
- what experiment were they doing? They did not set out to test this principle.
- this episode shows how science should be conducted

Nanotechnology

I have been following this technology for some time so I was interested when I came across this introduction by Brian Wang - worth viewing.
For an overview try the Wikipedia article which defines it as "the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale".
We will soon be using this technology, probably without knowing, in more efficient laptop batteries, solar cells or some other enhanced item. Anyone interested in persuing Physics should know about this.

Technologies for reducing carbon emissions

An article at NextBigFuture lists "Ten Technologies that should have a big impact on Green house gas Emissions". This provides much material for a discussion with Physics students - though the teacher would likely have some research to do! Most teachers would not have heard of many of these. Some are very relevant to us in Guyana. The 10 technologies are:

1. factory mass produced high rises and skyscrapers
2. black carbon free cookers
3. diesel particulate filters for cars and trucks
4. electrification of vehicles
5. retrofitting existing buildings for efficiency
6. reducing carbon dioxide emissions from concrete
7. scaling up of regular nuclear power and hydro power
8. nuclear fission technology advances
9. slash-and-char agriculture
10. biochar

UNESCO Microscience in Guyana?

UNESCO's Teaching and Learning Packages produced by the Global Microscience Project are currently being looked at with a view to their use in schools here in Guyana. These consist of a lunchbox-sized container of equipment which allows certain basic practical activities to be done - preferably by students. Different packages exist for primary science and for secondary chemistry, biology and physics (electricity).