Gizmorama - April 21, 2014

Good Morning,



Learn about this interesting story and more from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

P.S. Did you miss an issue? You can read every issue from the Gophercentral library of newsletters on our exhaustive archives page. Thousands of issues, all of your favorite publications in chronological order. You can read AND comment. Just click GopherArchives

***
*-- Physicists discover new type of particle using Large Hadron Collider --*
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (UPI) - A new and exotic atomic particle -- one that doesn't mesh with traditional particle physics models -- has been discovered by researchers at Syracuse University. The discovery was made as part of the Large Hadron Collider beauty Collaboration, a multinational research project aimed at finding and studying new quantum forces and particles. Led by researchers from Syracuse, the project is headquartered at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, the biggest particle physics laboratory in the world. In a new paper, scientists working on the LHCb team claim to have discovered a brand new type of particle. "We've confirmed the unambiguous observation of a very exotic state -- something that looks like a particle composed of two quarks and two anti-quarks," explained Tomasz Skwarnicki, one of the paper's lead authors and a specialist in experimental high-energy physics. "The discovery certainly doesn't fit the traditional quark model. It may give us a new way of looking at strong-interaction physics." Quarks are hard, point-like building blocks of an atom's nucleus. Never observed in isolation, quarks combine to form compound particles. They most frequently combine three-at-a-time to form a baryon. Protons are best-known known examples of baryons. When quarks interact with corresponding anti-particles, or anti-quarks -- a particle with the same mass but opposite charges -- they form mesons. Meson compounds are most commonly observed as a byproduct of radioactive decay. Together mesons and baryons form a classification of observed particle interactions. Ordinary baryons are made up of three quarks, and ordinary mesons feature one quark bound to one anti-quark. But the new evidence found by LHCb proves the legitimacy of previous experiments showing the likelihood of a different type of hadron, a tetraquark -- featuring two quarks and two anti-quarks. "This experiment is the clincher, showing that particles made up of two quarks and two anti-quarks actually exist," Skwarnicki said. "There used to be less-clear evidence for the existence of such a particle, with one experiment being questioned by another. Now we know this is an observed structure, instead of some reflection or special feature of the data."


*-- Astronauts to grow lettuce on International Space Station --*
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (UPI) - NASA's Vegetable Production System, called VEGGIE for short, is among the 500 pounds of supplies to be delivered to the International Space Station by SpaceX's Dragon capsule. The small greenhouse-like contraption -- which features LED lighting and seedlings packed in small pillows of soil -- will be used by astronauts to sprout lettuce as they orbit Earth. If successful, cultivation of other vegetables may be attempted. VEGGIE was set to be delivered early this week, as NASA and SpaceX -- the private space flight company started by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk -- had scheduled to launch their third Dragon resupply effort via its Falcon 9 rocket on Monday afternoon. But ISS astronauts will have to wait a little longer to add roughage to their diets, as Falcon 9's launch was postponed yesterday after a helium leak was discovered prior to liftoff. "Our hope is that even though VEGGIE is not a highly complex plant growth apparatus, it will allow the crew to rapidly grow vegetables using a fairly simple nutrient and water delivery approach," said Howard Levine, chief scientist at NASA's Kennedy Space Center International Space Station Research Office. For the past two years, Gioia Massa, a postdoctoral fellow in the Surface Systems Group of Kennedy's Engineering Directorate, has been working with the ISS Research Office to test the VEGGIE system here on Earth before it's delivered to the astronauts in space. ISS already hosts other plant growing devices, but once delivered VEGGIE -- in terms of surface growing area -- will be the largest on board. "VEGGIE could be used to produce faster-growing species of plants, such as lettuce or radishes, bok choy or Chinese cabbage, or even bitter leafy greens," Massa said. "Crops like tomatoes, peas or beans in which you'd have to have a flower and set fruit would take a little longer than a 28-day cycle." VEGGIE is part of a larger effort to maximize the mental and physical health of astronauts in space. "Based upon anecdotal evidence, crews report that having plants around was very comforting and helped them feel less out of touch with Earth," Massa added. "You could also think of plants as pets. The crew just likes to nurture them."

Missed an Issue? Visit the Gizmorama Archives