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CMS detector of the LHC

Issue no. 36, 2010 Published: Nov 12, 2010
LHC sees its first ZZ event
Honeycomb windows that could harvest the Sun
Solar shield to protect power grids from sun storms
South Korea discovers rare earths deposit
Sterile mosquitoes success in dengue trial
Army-funded technology detects bacteria in water
EU wants tighter online privacy
Divers could breathe deep with liquid-filled lungs

LHC sees its first ZZ event
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva has produced its first pair of Z bosons, according to data released by the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) collaboration. Seeing this first pair is an important step in the hunt for the Higgs boson. The generation and analysis of many more such events could provide one of the key signatures of the elusive Higgs. Believed to provide all particles with mass, the Higgs boson is the last missing piece of the Standard Model of particle physics. The LHC, designed to collide protons into one another at energies of up to 14 TeV, is expected to find the elusive boson - assuming that the Higgs does indeed exist. Evidence for the Higgs will not come as a single observation. Instead, physicists must accumulate data related to the energy distribution of the particles that the Higgs decays into. One of the cleanest such decay signatures is the transformation of the Higgs into two Z bosons - particles that are one of the carriers of the weak nuclear force. The Z bosons then decay into pairs of heavy charged particles known as muons, which leave an unmistakable mark in a detector such as CMS. Now the first such event at the LHC has been seen by CMS. The CMS data clearly reveal the tracks of four muons. And the masses of these muons, grouped into two pairs, result in values for the mass of the Z of just over 92 GeV, which is very close to the known Z mass.
PhysicsWorld Nov 11, 2010	back to top

Honeycomb windows that could harvest the Sun
A materials science breakthrough could lead to a new type of window that can harness the power of the Sun. The newly created transparent material can efficiently capture photons to generate electricity thanks to its honeycomb structure, which blends the properties of a semiconductor polymer with those of a carbon-rich fullerene. The chosen polymer, P1, is efficient at absorbing photons, which causes electrons and holes within the material to combine into bound states known as excitons. The role of the fullerene is to then undo this process by dissociating the electrons and holes. Suitably placed electrodes can then extract the charges to produce photocurrents. According to the researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory, the biggest challenge was finding a way to merge the polymer and fullerene into a honeycomb lattice. The team achieved this by creating a flow of micron-sized water droplets across a thin layer of the polymer/fullerene solution. Water droplets then self-assemble into large arrays within the solution. Once the newly formed solution has evaporated it leaves behind a hexagonal honeycomb pattern over a large area of the polymer, which the researchers observed using scanning probe and electron microscopy. The team now intends to develop the work by implementing the honeycomb into devices and carrying out a number of tests. Among the applications that could spring from the work are optical displays and devices, including transparent solar cells. Another possibility is to incorporate the honeycomb films into windows.
PhysicsWorld / Chemistry of Materials Nov 11, 2010	back to top

Solar shield to protect power grids from sun storms
NASA has devised a new tool in the battle against massive eruptions from the sun: an early warning system to protect electrical grids on Earth from extremely powerful solar storms. The new project, called Solar Shield, is designed to predict the severity of powerful sun storms at specific locations on Earth to help power companies plan responses and limit the potential damage to their equipment. The chief target for NASA's Solar Shield are huge sun eruptions called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, which can shoot off billions of tons of plasma and charged particles. The sun is currently going through a more active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle. It has been emerging from a prolonged lull in activity and is expected to hit the peak of the current cycle in 2013. When the magnetic field associated with a CME encounters the Earths magnetic field, the two merge and an enormous amount of energy is transferred to the geomagnetosphere. This resulting current can affect astronauts or satellites in space, as well as commercial power grids. If the CME is strong enough, the grids can become overburdened or damaged. The predictions from NASA's Solar Shield could potentially help avoid the worst of the damage, researchers said. The project aims to minimize the effects by providing both short- and long-term predictions regarding impending CMEs.
MSNBC / Space.com Nov 09, 2010	back to top

South Korea discovers rare earths deposit
South Korea has found an undetermined amount of rare earth minerals in a deposit in the eastern Gangwon province, Korea Resources Corp (KORES) said. The discovery came amid lingering tension over China's controls of its rare earth supplies, which account for 97% of global output. The US and Japan have been calling for China to loosen its export constraints for the minerals that are used in high-tech products from electric cars to LCD televisions to new energy technologies. China has sought to reassure its trade partners and said it will maintain its exports of rare earths next year. China cut back its 2010 exports quota of rare earths by 40% from 2009 levels, which caused prices of the minerals to soar and made it more cost effective for other countries to start searching for their own supplies. State-run mining firm KORES discovered veins containing rare earths while re-developing an iron ore mine and will proceed with exploration to determine the quantity and make up of the mineral deposit.
Reuters Nov 07, 2010	back to top

Sterile mosquitoes success in dengue trial
British scientists from a firm called Oxitec have created genetically sterile mosquitoes to compete with normal mosquitoes in their species, and researchers say early field trials suggest the idea could help to halt the rapid spread of dengue fever. The scientists ran a small trial with the Mosquito Research and Control Unit (MRCU) in the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. This found that releasing 3 million of the genetically altered insects into a small area managed to cut the species population by 80% in six months. Dengue fever, a disease which causes severe flu-like symptoms and can kill, is spread through the bite of infected female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Larvae are produced but most die before they hatch and the rest survive only a short time as mosquitoes. The World Health Organization estimates there are 50 million cases of dengue fever a year, of which 25,000 are fatal, and about 2.5 billion people are at risk, mostly in Africa and southeast Asia. Angela Harris of the Cayman MRCU, said she was very encouraged by the results of the trial, which was conducted and monitored during April to October this year. Oxitec says it is in talks with officials in various countries, including Malaysia, Brazil and Panama about conducting further and larger trials.
Reuters Nov 11, 2010	back to top

Army-funded technology detects bacteria in water
To keep soldiers in the battlefield healthy, the US Army is exploring new ways to detect harmful bacteria in water. Current techniques for analysing water in the field can take as long as 24 hours to complete. But now researchers are working on an alternative technology that uses sound waves to accelerate the process. The researchers have created a device that quickly gathers bacterial spores from running water using acoustical radiation force. It broadcasts waves of ultrasound into the liquid, exerting a pressure on the bacteria that pushes it into a collection pocket. In previous work, the researchers used this technique to successfully separate polystyrene beads from water. The device can draw in 15% of the bacterial cells from the water in a single pass. When the flow is shut off, the bacteria settle and can then be transferred to another apparatus for identification. Compared to existing methods, this procedure is quick. Bacillus cereus, the species of bacteria used in this experiment, is about a micron in diameter and harmless. But its properties are very similar to many types of bacteria that would be harmful in drinking water.
PhysOrg / American Institute of Physics Nov 10, 2010	back to top

EU wants tighter online privacy
The EU wants companies such as Google or Facebook to give people more control over how their online habits are tracked, requirements that could crimp internet firms' ability to target advertising. Companies, privacy activists and the European Commission are likely to wrestle over the specifics of the rules, which cut to the heart of funding models for many firms, online news sites and blogs. It also wants users to be able to modify and delete any information that has been collected, giving them 'a right to be forgotten'. The strategy paper will form the basis for an overhaul of the EU's 15-year-old laws on data protection scheduled for next year. It is open for public consultation until January, and the commission aims to propose legislation by mid-2011. Any new laws would have to be approved by the European Parliament and national governments. Tracking an individual's search history to target online advertising is a key revenue source for companies such as Yahoo and Google. Other firms use cookies - small files placed on a user's computer - or pop-up windows to track the websites a user has visited in the past or the books and clothing he has bought online. The more closely ads can be linked to a user's interests, the more likely they are to be successful. But privacy watchdogs have raised concerns over whether this information can be linked to an individual's name or address, what it could be used for, and how long it can be stored.
PhysOrg / AP Nov 05, 2010	back to top

Divers could breathe deep with liquid-filled lungs
While some researchers work on ways to keep divers under for longer, inventor Arnold Lande, a retired heart and lung surgeon formerly based at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, has designed a liquid breathing system that he claims will allow people to dive to great depths without the risk of decompression sickness, or the bends. If a diver resurfaces too quickly, inert gases like Nitrogen and Helium can bubble into body tissues, causing terrible joint pain, seizures and paralysis. Breathing an oxygen-carrying liquid would dispense with the need for inert gases, says Lande, and so eliminate the threat of the bends. The idea to use liquid breathing for deep diving was first investigated in the 1960s, however, the human body isn't up to the task of heaving a liquid in and out fast enough to inhale sufficient oxygen and exhale enough CO2, so the idea was dropped. Lande has designed a system in which the diver breathes in an oxygen- carrying liquid called perfluorocarbon, contained in a diving helmet. To help their lungs push the liquid in and out, the diver would wear a cuirass ventilation device fitted around their chest. These devices wrap around the upper body and are attached to a pump that exerts or removes pressure on the chest to help the lungs inhale and exhale. Gaseous oxygen would be bubbled into the liquid in the helmet to keep it topped up. The system gets rid of CO2 directly from the blood through an artificial gill fitted to the suit, in the form of a gas-permeable membrane. A catheter inserted into the femoral vein in the groin takes the blood out of the body to be filtered through the membrane. For divers, the CO2 would be absorbed by a material such as soda lime, and the treated blood would re-enter the body.
New Scientist Nov 10, 2010	back to top