Now I’m really scared

Micro black holes and strangelets don’t bother me, but particle physicists doing improv comedy?  That could really destroy the Universe.
(Heather wants to know if they’re taking the accelerated course.)

Next stop, M-theory

On the way home tonight conversation got onto the subject of atoms and protons and neutrons and quarks, and Kenny asked if there were quarks inside an electron. No, I told him, like quarks, electrons seem to be elementary.
To which he responded, “Then maybe electrons and quarks are cousins of each other.”
My God! Nine years [...]

Colony at the far end of the galaxy, check…

One of the odd things about physics is that once in a while the tools created to attack one problem turn out to be useful in studying what might seem very different problems. Elementary particle theory, for instance, owes a fair amount to techniques developed in condensed matter physics.
It gets odder than that, though, because [...]

PREX

PREX, the Lead Radius Experiment, will use parity violating electron scattering from a Pb-208 target to determine the radius of that nucleus’s neutron distribution to 1% accuracy. In heavy nuclei, the neutrons are expected to be distributed over a slightly larger radius than the protons, but experimental evidence for this neutron “skin” is not very [...]

On universes

It’s become rather fashionable lately to talk about the existence of multiple universes.
Of course the talk can get fairly contentious, especially if you don’t first agree on terms. If, for example, by “universe” you mean “everything that exists”, then your definition automatically forbids the existence of other universes. Everything that exists is in the universe, [...]