Dear Higgs Boson

~ J.S. Pailly ~ 3 Comments

Dear Higgs Boson,

We know you’re there.  We’re very close to finding you.  The standard model of particle physics has predicted your existence for decades, and in every other experiment the standard model’s predictions have been correct.  It’s only a matter of time—less than a year, they say—before your existence is proven as well.

Just recently, some scientists at CERN detected tantalizing new evidence of your existence.  They didn’t observe you, but they did notice the high-energy particles you turned into when you decayed.  They’ll have to repeat the experiment, because those particles might have decayed from something else, but their fancy mathematics is telling them they’ve almost got you.

For scientists, this is all very exciting, but I’m not a scientist.  I’m a science fiction writer, and as a science fiction writer I’m asking you, Higgs Boson, as a personal favor to stay hidden just a little bit longer.  Science fiction depends on the things we don’t know about the universe.  The gaps in our scientific knowledge allow us writers to make stuff up.  Once you’re discovered, analyzed, and understood, we won’t be able to make stuff up about you any more.

It would be even more helpful if it turned out you don’t exist at all.  That would mean the whole standard model is wrong, and we Sci-Fi writers could make up all kinds of crazy, new things.

So come on, Higgs Boson.  Keep being a mystery.

P.S.: Could you please stop calling yourself the “God Particle”?  It’s really pretentious.

Special Announcement – The Tomorrow News Network

~ J.S. Pailly ~ 2 Comments

Ladies and gentlemen, friends and loyal readers, I am pleased to announce the beginning of my new writing project.

The Tomorrow News Network is a series of short stories featuring time traveler and journalist Talie Tappler.  She arrives at her stories before they begin, knowing in advance exactly what will happen, who will live, and who will die.  As a journalist, she can only observe and, because of her journalist’s code of ethics, cannot interfere.

I have spent most of my career working in TV News, and this series is partially based on my experiences.  At its heart, The Tomorrow News Network is about the real role of journalists.  Should they simply inform the public without commentary and let the people decide (as Fox News and MSNBC do not), or do they have a responsibility to fight against injustice?  To act as the voice of the people challenging those in power?

I hope you will come visit my new website, tomorrownewsnetwork.com, to read these stories.  The first will be posted January 9th, 2012, and a new story will appear each month after that until October.

Moving to Planet KOI-70.04

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Last week, NASA scientists announced the discovery of a new planet capable of supporting life (click here to read more about the so-called Christmas Planet).  The planet was found using the Kepler Space Telescope, a telescope specifically built to find planets orbiting other stars.  But this planet was not NASA’s only Christmas gift to astronomers.

The Kepler Space Telescope is also monitoring a planet candidate that could be slightly smaller than Earth.  Up until now, every new planet discovered outside our Solar System has been larger—usually much larger—than Earth.  Even the Christmas Planet is over twice Earth’s size.

While planet KOI-70.04 is unconfirmed, it still shows that we are getting better at finding new planets, even the small ones.  In the very near future, NASA should be able to confirm the existence of truly Earth equivalent planets, with the right size, the right temperature, and the right chemical composition to make life comfortable for us.

For more information on KOI-70.04, click here.  You can also visit the Kepler Space Telescope’s webpage by clicking here.

P.S. In case you were wondering, KOI stands for Kepler Object of Interest, and the numbers presumably represent the 70th star Kepler is watching and the 4th planet candidate discovered in orbit of that star.  Three other planets have already been confirmed in this star system, and the Kepler team is monitoring a fifth planet candidate by the name of KOI-70.05.

P.P.S. If you decide to move to Planet KOI-70.04, bring an air conditioner or lots of fans.  Experts estimate the surface temperature is 600 °C.

Are Plants Smarter Than You?

~ J.S. Pailly ~ 2 Comments

Everybody’s heard of photosynthesis.  We all learned about it in middle school science, and most of us promptly forgot about it during summer break.  It’s the process where plants use sunlight as an energy source.  Now scientists have discovered photosynthesis is even more complicated than originally thought.

Image courtesy of WP Clipart.

According to an article from Wired News (click here), researchers have discovered that plants use quantum mechanics to maximize the amount of energy they collect from the sun.  Quantum mechanics is the really weird part of physics.  It tells us, among other things, that subatomic particles can exist in more than one place at the same time so long as no one observes them.

When sunlight enters the leaf of a plant, the individual photons exist in more than one place at the same time, traveling in multiple directions through the leaf, letting the plant choose the pathway that suits it best.  Once the plant chooses, it has made an observation in the quantum mechanical sense and the other versions of that photon cease to exist.  The plant consumes the photon, and the process begins again.

In other words, plants use quantum mechanics like an eating utensil.  What a knife and fork are to us, the strangest, most complicated branch of physics is to a plant.  Keeping this in mind, the killer plant from Little Shop of Horrors seems a lot more dangerous.

They say that anyone who claims to understand quantum mechanics is lying.  Humans have been struggling with it for almost a century, and it still doesn’t make any sense.  But plants get it, and they use it.  They probably worked it out millions of years ago.  So what else do they know that we don’t?

Sci Friday

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Why is it that some people like Sci-Fi movies but won’t read science fiction books?  And how much does NASA really cost US taxpayers?  The first two links this week focus on these two questions.

The Christmas Planet

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Yesterday (December 6, 2011), NASA announced the discovery of yet another planet outside our Solar System that might be able to support life.  Its name is Kepler 22 b.  Along with Gliese 581 d and HD 85512 b, this brings the total to three.

Infographic courtesy of NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

We do not know for sure that this new planet has life.  We don’t even know if it has liquid water or an oxygen nitrogen atmosphere.  We only know that it’s in the Goldilocks Zone of its parent star, the region where it’s not too hot and not too cold but just right for organic life to develop.

William Borucki, chief scientist for the team that discovered this planet, has been quoted saying, “It’s a great gift.  We consider this sort of our Christmas planet.”  The bigger news, at least in my opinion, is that his team has a list of over 2,000 more possible planets.  Even if only half are confirmed, that’s still a lot of new worlds to study.

As for what life might exist on the Christmas Planet, even if its biochemistry is similar to ours it may not look human.  It may look more like this octopus that recently crawled out of the water and went for a brief stroll on land.

For more information on Kepler 22 b, the “Christmas Planet,” click here.  For artist representations of various planets discovered by the Kepler Mission, click here.  For more on octopi walking on land, click here.

Vacation on Mercury

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If you’re looking for someplace warm for your next vacation, it doesn’t get much warmer than Mercury.  The problem is getting there.  Mercury is so close to the Sun that it’s easy for your spaceship to get lost in the Sun’s gravity.  The MESSENGER Probe, currently in orbit of Mercury, took years to get there not because of the distance but because it had to approach at just the right angle with just the right velocity, or else it would’ve crashed into the Sun.

When you finally reach Mercury, you might experience some serious jet lag.  According to NASA, one Mercury day is equal to 58.6 days on Earth, and a Mercury year is about 88 Earth days long.  Also, because of Mercury’s proximity to the Sun, the planet is in a slight space-time warp, due to Relativity.  In fact, the space-time distortions of Mercury’s orbit were one of the first clues supporting Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.

Remember to bring sunscreen.  The daytime temperature is roughly 800 °F, and there’s no ozone layer to protect you from those UV rays.  In fact, there’s not much atmosphere at all, so you may want to pack some oxygen too.

For more information before you plan your trip, check out NASA’s website and be sure to visit Mercury Today for the latest news on the First Planet.  You can also read Ben Bova’s science fiction novel Mercury, which I’m sure is 100% accurate.

About the cartoon: Get it?  The planet Mercury is really hot, so it’s taking its temperature with a mercury thermometer.

100 Years from Now

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One hundred years from now, robots won’t only work in factories.  They’ll also make art.  Already, artists in France are using flying robots known as quadcopters to construct some kind of modern art sculpture.  As robots develop emotions, and we all know they will, maybe they’ll find ways to express those emotions through art rather than through the destruction of humanity.  I for one am glad the French are thinking ahead.  Click here for more on robot artists.

One hundred years from now, when you go see the latest art exhibit by Art-bot 9000, you’ll probably drive in a futuristic car that’s more like a modern smart phone. It will have touch screen controls, the exterior will change colors or display text, and it’ll have plenty of other apps.  Toyota recently unveiled a new concept design which could be the first in a long line of smart cars.  Click here for more on that.

And when you drive your smart car off the road because you were too busy playing that classic video game Angry Birds, cybernetic insects will be the first responders to the scene.  Special microchips will control the insects’ brains, and the motion of their wings will generate power for tiny cameras and sensors that will determine if you are alive and how much medical attention you need before the smart ambulance shows up.  Click here for more on cyborg insects.

We have a wonderful, strange future to look forward to, and if you don’t think you’ll still be alive one hundred years from now to enjoy it, click here.

Double Check Your Soylent Green

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Does your seafood seem fishy?  Well, the FDA has approved a new technique to double check that your seafood is what the label says it is.  Restaurants will soon begin using a DNA bar code test to verify the species of any fish on their menus.

Maybe some day we can use a similar technique to verify that our Soylent Green is made of real people, not imitation people.

Click here for more on DNA bar coding for fish.