The Particle Zoo blog

LHC rap goes viral, hooray!

particlezoo — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 07:08:31 +0000

I can’t get enough of the now famous LHC rap video. My favorite line, about antimatter:

Antimatter is sort of like matter’s evil twin
Because except for charge and handedness of spin
They’re the same for a particle and its anti-self

That’s some good rhymin’ and rhythm. I’m so glad the YouTube masses are hearing about handedness of spin! It’s about time!

What would Feynman do?

particlezoo — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:27:06 +0000

I am thoroughly enjoying the books Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman and No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman. He was a wonderful mix of right and left brain thinking. I find myself thinking, throughout the day, “what would Feynman think of this?” So I rented Infinity starring Matthew Broderick as a young Feynman working on the bomb in Los Alamos. While Broderick is a great actor and played a great Feynman, there was a little too much love and too little science. We enjoyed the story but were hoping for more. I guess that’s what you get from an American film. Anyway, I still recommend it as a tiny intro into the life of Feynman. After writing this, I found this funny post.

Richard Feynman

a random walk

particlezoo — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 23:58:52 +0000

a random walk in 2 dimensions

While I wouldn’t trade my new job as Particle Zookeeper for my previous positions in cubicleland, I do find that working from home has its pros and cons. And while sewing can be satisfying in a zen way, I find that it gets pretty tedious for the mind. So while I sit at home and sew, I play movies, lectures, podcasts –- anything to feed my mind.

Having nearly exhausted all the legitimate science edutainment on YouTube, I was in search of a quick and easy way to dial up something mind-expanding to listen to while I worked. By pressing Apple-J, you can have the computer read any highlighted text on a web page. So I found a fun and informative game where I listen to an entire Wikipedia page. After it’s done, I have to click on any one link on that page that I find interesting and would like to learn more about. Then listen to that page, etc., ad infinitum. The fun lies in that you’re never sure where it will take you, but you are learning every step of the way.

Today’s trajectory so far:
Richard Feynman
Murray Gell-Mann
Santa Fe Institute
complexity science
random walk
Mandelbrot
Dark sky riddle (Olbers’ paradox)
Second Law of Thermodynamics
Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics

It occurred to me that the game itself is a random walk, so it’s a beautiful coincidence to have learned of that phenomenon today. This game is a 2-D random walk, because there is a chance you will will end up where you started.

EPILOGUE: Later in the day after writing this, I needed to get out of the house so I went to pick up some things at the store across the street. On the way back, on a whim, I decided to walk up a different street I had not been on in quite some time, in the opposite direction from home (granted I need the exercise bad). I began to walk down various streets, turning randomly before realizing, well into the walk, that I was literally on a random walk. The intent had just been to get some exercise, but my previous dabblings in random walks must have seeped into my subconscious. Every once in awhile, it’s good to have a random, random day.

excuse me, only a 5.4?

particlezoo — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:35:56 +0000

Our earthquake got downgraded from 5.8 to 5.4. Well, I really think it felt like a 5.8 ;o) It was truly scary and I wasn’t even on the 19th floor of a downtown high-rise like my friend Carrie (though I was for the earthquake in 2004). It felt like the apartment building was bobbing on an ocean wave for a good long time. But the most damage was one confused, concerned and puffed-up cat. I’m happy to say the particles are earthquake-proof. I’m just not sure if I am.

behold, the tag gun

particlezoo — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:57:14 +0000

My tag gun arrived today. What a splendid object it is, the “TAG 2000,” allowing me to attach particle tags with the punch of a cheap plastic trigger. Gone are the days of frustrating string-tying, which would drive anyone to insanity.

some semblance of a social life

particlezoo — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:23:37 +0000

We returned from the Renegade Craft Fair last weekend in San Francisco with smiles as we sold almost all the particles I’d scrambled madly to make day and night for 2 weeks prior. It seems the world does need plush electrons and dark matters (the most popular item). Here is a photo of Sean and I taken by a cool fair-goer. Of course, leave it to a stranger to take one of the better pics of us. This was the most socializing I’d done in months (yes I’m a geek). We had fun telling people about particle physics and the different weights of the particles. I think many people walked out of there knowing just a smidge more about the standard model than they did walking in.

Particle zookeeper Julie and the zoo's top salesman Sean model a Z boson.