Dark Matter and liver-based treats

Bertie Boffin here!

Of course, all my readers will be familiar with one of the great conundrums of modern physics, namely that 85% of the mass of the universe is made up of something the scientists call Dark Matter, but despite lots of very sophisticated and sensitive experiments, no-one has yet managed to detect a single particle of this elusive substance.

Well, on Sunday morning, while Gail was showering, I read a very interesting article on the topic in her New Scientist magazine.

 

It seems all sorts of weird and wonderful explanations for mystery of the missing Dark Matter have been proposed. Maybe the Dark Matter particles interact with the stuff we can see, but more weakly than hitherto thought? (An example of a 'strong interaction' would be when I meet the woman in the park with liver-based treats in her pocket.) Maybe there is a whole 'hidden sector" of material never yet detected? (Like there is a hidden sector of our house where Gail keeps my personal supply of liver-based treats.) Maybe gravity as experienced here on Earth behaves differently in other parts of the galaxy? (In the way that I behave differently in places where liver-based treats are plentiful.) Maybe the physicists' model of what happened in the first fraction of a second in the history of the universe is somehow faulty? (Surely not!)

Well I am delighted to reveal that later that same day while walking near the summit of Scolty Hill, quite by chance I came across an abundance of Dark Matter...

...I even collected some of it in my furs as evidence...

So where is my Nobel Prize for Physics?

Or at least my liver-based treat?

Celebrating Professor Higgs and his Boson

A whole week has gone by since the announcement and I haven't yet told you how thrilled I am that our very own Scottish boffin, Peter Higgs of Edinburgh University, has won the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physics.

Yes, you deserve better from Blogville's Special Science Advisor.

Now I have blogged before about Professor Higgs and his boson, and I am pleased to report that, of all my 404 published posts to date, The Higgs Boson Diet Plan has been the most popular by far, with over 1350 page views, more than double the number recorded for the nearest contender. Yes really! Who knew my readers had such a passion for particle physics?

So I hope you won't all be too disappointed today when I steer clear of explaining the significance of the Nobel Prize winning research - after all, it was published nearly half a century ago - and instead say something about Peter Higgs the person.

What a nice chap he sounds. Shy, modest, retiring, brilliant, this eighty-four year old still does not own a mobile phone. When journalists were unable to contact him after the prize was announced, it was suspected in some quarters that he had disappeared off into the Scottish Highlands for a walking holiday, to avoid the predictable press brouhaha. (This turned out not to be true, but the fact that it was thought likely tells you a lot.) Also admirable is the fact that Professor Higgs apparently dislikes his boson being referred to as 'the God particle', in part because, although he is an atheist, he does not want to offend religious folk.

My in-depth research (i.e. googling Peter Higgs + dog) has, I'm afraid, failed to yield any indication that Scotland's most famous living physicist is a dog lover, but one can live in hope.

Below are some pictures of my weekend walk in Glen Tanar. Yes I admit that these are not strictly relevant to the rest of this post, other than that this is surely a place which would appeal to a distinguished Nobel laureate who prefers to lead a quiet life.