A Letter to Readers - Conferences

Fine Readers of PiPT, 


Sorry for the long delay in blog posts! It always stresses me out when I haven't written something in more than four days, and it's been a good 3 weeks since this site got any love, so you can imagine my state. But I think that it was worth it, because I was hard at work getting ready to attend...

The God Particle

The Higgs boson.
...I don't even know.

You may have heard of the “Higgs boson particle” in the news lately. It’s the thing that CERN is working so hard on this year, sending out news reports daily, it seems. In reality, the Higgs boson is one of the only theoretical fundamental particles that hasn’t been observed yet, and even more important, it’s the key to a grand unification of Physics theory.

But... what is it?

The Fundamentals, Part 4: The Weak (but still really strong) Force

Our final interaction, and it’s a tough one. The weak force is probably the most subtle of the fundamental interactions; it’s responsible for beta decay, or the breaking down of particles like the neutron and proton through radiation. This kind of decay is the main force that powers our Sun, as well as making heavier elements possible. However, there’s a lot more to the weak interaction than meets the eye...