There are a number of theories why Cern’s Hardon Collider fails to work John Gribbin explains:

In a desperate attempt to explain why Cern’s Large Hadron Collider has suffered a series of mishaps preventing it from commencing its search for the elusive Higgs Boson particle, respectable physicists have suggested (apparently in all seriousness) that nature abhors the Higgs so much that ripples from the future are travelling back in time to stop the Switzerland-based particle accelerator working.

Reports of the emergence of these theories have prompted renewed contemplation of the “granny paradox”, which some think debunks the very idea of time travel. In this scenario, a time traveller goes into the past and inadvertently causes the death of his/her granny, before the traveller’s parents are born. So the traveller never goes back in time, so granny doesn’t die – and, well, so on. I have a much simpler explanation for the collider’s plight. Its failure is related to the existence of other universes, the “parallel worlds” beloved of science-fiction writers.

This theory suggests there are many – perhaps infinitely many – universes, some more or less like our own, some very different. This is not an idea confined to science fiction; it is respectable scientific speculation. Such universes are thought to exist in their own sets of space and time dimensions, and include worlds where key turning points in history, such as the Battle of Hastings, turned out differently from the way things happened in our world. The physicist Hugh Everett proved half a century ago that this “many worlds” idea is completely compatible with everything we know about the way the world works, and is a natural feature of quantum physics.

In the classic “thought experiment” to demonstrate this, a moggy, known as Schrödinger’s cat, is either killed or not killed by what the physicist Erwin Schrödinger called a “diabolical device” operating on quantum principles. After the “experiment” (I should stress that nobody has ever actually subjected a cat to this indignity), according to the quantum rules the universe divides so that there is one universe with a dead cat and one with a live cat. Extrapolating this to cover every event that has ever happened in the universe implies that there are many universes in which experiments equivalent to the one at Cern are being attempted. But there is a problem with such experiments. When the Large Hadron Collider was planned, some scientists speculated that it might destroy the universe we live in. This would happen if the empty space that surrounds us is in a state called the false vacuum.

The best analogy to the false vacuum is a large, placid lake of water, behind a dam, high in the mountains. Everything is calm and peaceful – but if the dam breaks, the lake disappears as water rushes to a lower level. Conceivably, if the universe is in a false vacuum state, a collider such as Cern’s could punch a hole in the fabric of space, like a hole in the dam, allowing the entire universe to fall out of the false vacuum and settle at a lower level.

We would never know if this happened, because the entire universe as we know it would disappear in a split second. But perhaps this has happened – not once, but many times, in the universes next door. If the universe – a universe – can be destroyed by the successful activation of a particle accelerator such as the Large Hadron Collider, the only universes that survive will be the ones in which a series of freak accidents prevent the collider from working. And that is why we are still here to puzzle over the repeated failure of the LHC. Our cousins next door have not been so lucky. John Gribbin, The Guardian.

Well they brought a smile to my face.

Can maths tell the future asks The Guardian:

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita The author of a new book called Predictioneer, makes big-picture forecasts employing maths, and a laptop that has been so heavily used its letters have worn away.

The economist JK Galbraith observed, forecasters typically come in two kinds: those who don’t know and those who don’t know they don’t know. What may make Bueno de Mesquita different is his hit rate. According to the CIA, his model is correct 90% of the time, even when experts are wrong. Nor does he go in for vague Mystic Meg-isms: last year, he forecast when Pakistani president Pervez Musharaf would be forced from power to within a month. Aditya Chakrabortty, The Guardian.

Unsurprisingly Bueno de Mesquita’s algorithms are secret and proprietary and thus aren’t subject to peer review – otherwise how could he make a profit and what profits he’s making.

Though controversial in the academic world, Bueno de Mesquita and his model have proven quite popular in the private sector. In addition to his teaching responsibilities and consulting for the government, he also runs a successful private business, Mesquita & Roundell, with offices in Rockefeller Center. Advising some of the top companies in the country, he earns a tidy sum: Mesquita & Roundell’s minimum fee is $50,000 for a project that includes two issues. Most projects involve multiple issues. “I’m not selling my wisdom,” he says. “I’m selling a tool that can help them get better results. That tool is the model.” Michael Lerner, Good.

Bueno de Mesquita has been described in a History Channel documentary as the next Nostradamus, which if you’ve ever read Nostradamus is no compliment his supposed predictions are the incomprehensible ramblings of a madman open to whatever interpretation you might envisage – which to be quite honest is might well be the output from Bueno de Mesquita programs: except we’ll never know.

My answer to can he predict the future? No of course he can’t what I can predict is he’ll make a lot of money from gullible businesses and individuals – most probably many of them involved in the banking sector – I’m with JK Galbraith on forecasters.

NASA is set to crash two unmanned spacecraft into the Moon in a bid to detect the presence of water-ice.

A 2,200kg rocket stage will be first to collide, hurling debris high above the lunar surface.

A second spacecraft packed with science instruments will analyse the contents of this dusty cloud before meeting a similar fate.

The identification of water-ice in the impact plume would be a major discovery, scientists say.

Not least because a supply of water on the Moon would be a vital resource for future human exploration. Paul Rincon, BBC.

Isn’t their a better way to discover the presence of water on the moon than smashing it up – it seems nothing more than a piece of gross vandalism – if you’ve ever played a computer game you’ll know that point when you get so frustrated that you just shoot-up everything in sight – it makes you feel better but other than that is futile – which to my mind is exactly what NASA is doing.

Charging and powering equipment through thin air seems pure fantasy. However:

A system that can deliver power to devices without the need for wires has been shown off at a hi-tech conference.

The technique exploits simple physics and can be used to charge a range of electronic devices.

Eric Giler, chief executive of US firm Witricity, showed mobile phones and televisions charging wirelessly at the TED Global conference in Oxford. Jonathan Fildes, BBC.

If you’ve an ancient house like mine the only question you’re going to have is when can I install it?

After last weeks apocalyptical headlines predicting the Large Hadron Collider would create a black hole and swallow the earth up things seem strangely quiet in the news considering the machine is expected too carry out its first proton collisions next week.

Source: The Times.

If you have neighbours like mine, then like me, you will be eagerly looking forward to being able to purchase this.

Being woken in the dead of night by noisy neighbours blasting out music could soon be a thing of the past.

Scientists have shown off the blueprint for an “acoustic cloak”, which could make objects impervious to sound waves.

…

“It’s not an unrealistic blueprint – it doesn’t demand that we do extraordinary things,” said Professor John Pendry of Imperial College London, UK, an expert in cloaking. “This is something that can easily be manufactured.”

If a material could be commercialised, both researchers believe it could have many applications.

Walls of the material could be built to soundproof houses or it could be used in concert halls to enhance acoustics or direct noise away from certain areas. Source: BBC News.

Of course, it will probably be cheaper to move house.

For all you X-file obsessive’s The National Archive has released its archive covering the period 1978 to 1987. There’s some pretty hefty PDF’s involved, but even so it seems rather threadbare, then again how many people are going to admit to meeting little green men, you’d get locked up wouldn’t you. Before the site appeared to collapse under the weight of curiosity, you couldn’t help thinking that some of the drawings involved a class of primary school children.

This drawing of a UFO was made from a description given by a 78-year-old man, who claims he was taken on board an alien craft at Basingstoke Canal in Aldershot during 1983. Source: The BBC.

Stop now – haven’t they read any science fiction? No seriously, the BBC carries a report on a major step taken in the quest to create artificial life.

Researchers have rebuilt an entire genome from scratch, they report online today in Science. Although the team has yet to demonstrate that this DNA can substitute for the real thing, the work paves the way for customized bacteria. Science Now.

Scientist hope that these customised bacteria will be able to produce clean fuels – for instance instead of filling up with petrol or diesel you’d just fill up with water and the bacteria in your car would breaks it down into hydrogen to power the car with the only by-product being oxygen. Other bacteria could combine dangerous greenhouse gasses into something less harmless. One wag round here suggested HCO3, which is blood plasma – raining blood, now that’s apocalyptical.

Talking of apocalyptical, whilst this technology undoubtedly has great benefits, one can’t help thinking of all together, more sinister applications, or even a plain and simple accident. However, it’s too late now, our curiosity knows no bounds and like the proverbial cat, it could well kill us. Still the same could have been said when we were busy splitting the atom, and somehow we’re still here.