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(11/17/15 5:10am)
China recently announced its plans to build a particle collider roughly twice the size of the Large Hadron Collider, also known as the LHC. At 27 kilometers in circumference, the LHC is currently the largest particle collider in the world. It is now capable of producing collision energies of 13 TeV, a record in the field of high energy physics. In 2012, the LHC made worldwide headlines after announcing its discovery of the Higgs Boson. Ultimately, particle colliders help to reinforce our understanding of particles and their interactions, as well as to discover new particle physics. In some sense, bigger is better in particle physics — after all, bigger particle colliders can probe higher energy scales by producing more energetic collisions. And as China looks forward to 2020, when it will begin constructing its behemoth collider, the United States is uncertain about the future of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, its “last major particle collider.” Instead of wavering on the future of particle physics in the country, the United States should invest in the future of high energy physics and build its own LHC-scale particle collider.
(11/03/15 5:55am)
For years, U.C. Berkeley Astronomer Geoffrey Marcy made headlines with his extraordinary ability to hunt exoplanets. This month, though, he’s making headlines for a different reason: violating U.C. Berkeley’s sexual harassment policies. As news of his misconduct began to catch the public eye, Marcy decided to resign from his position as a professor, expressing regret in a letter apologizing for his actions. What’s more disturbing, though, is that Marcy’s case isn’t unfamiliar to the scientific community. In fact, sexual harassment has long deterred women from pursuing careers in the sciences, furthering a male-dominated power dynamic within the field. Though scientists like Marcy produce groundbreaking data, they are certainly not immune to setting back the field’s progress.
(10/20/15 4:05am)
When NASA announced “Mars Mystery Solved” last month, it created ripples of speculation across the country. Rumors of flowing water, alien life and other increasingly esoteric discoveries circulated throughout social and news media. Similarly, rumors of alien life on Pluto went viral after New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern used the word “alive” to describe Pluto in a talk at the University of Alberta. As it turns out, NASA did find evidence of liquid water flowing on Mars, but the Pluto rumors were wholly unfounded. And while evidence of flowing water on Mars is a scientifically exciting discovery, the announcement was, to some extent, met with disappointment. Both the circulating rumors and disappointment following the Mars Mystery announcement indicate a growing divide between the scientific community and public expectation, and one that can only be remedied by the effective communication of science.
(09/04/15 4:05am)
The University’s Engineering School is practically synonymous with technology, design and, increasingly, entrepreneurship. After all, its students are pushing the boundaries in both the lab and tech industries. An atmosphere of innovation permeates the Engineering School grounds, flourishing in laboratories and conversation alike. Buildings such as Rice Hall exemplify a sleek, modern look which contributes to that atmosphere. However, this modernization is not consistent across the Engineering School grounds. For example, Thornton Hall, the "central home" of the school, suffers from a severe lack of aesthetic appeal and intuitive layout. As the Engineering School builds innovative momentum, it must address the widening gap between the appearances of its facilities.
(04/24/15 4:05am)
It’s the end of the semester, and our first year meal plans are soon to expire. The incoming first year class, though, is already locked into one of two mandatory, full-access dining plans. This succession isn’t new — each year, all first-year students are required to pay top dollar for either the $2,360 (per semester) All Access 7 dining plan or the $2,470 (again, per semester) Ultimate Access plan. Factoring out holidays, as well as the cost of guest meal swipes and plus dollars, this amounts to around $20 per day. After paying these steep prices, it’s safe to say that my meal plan, in addition to those of my peers, has not been worth it. With such a disparity between price and value, first-years should not be required to buy the most expensive meal plans.
(04/14/15 4:05am)
Science, technology, mathematics and engineering fields are in high demand. Of course, this isn’t likely to change any time soon: technology is rapidly evolving within the very fabric of social, political and economic interaction. With some of the highest starting and mid-career salaries, STEM fields are both relevant and useful. Though similarly interwoven in human affairs, liberal arts fields stand in contrast. Facing a lack of active recruitment and high unemployment rates, liberal arts graduates often find themselves without a marketable niche to fill. These growing trends in the job market prompted Florida Gov. Rick Scott to propose in 2012 that tuition for Florida state universities vary for different majors. In his proposal, Scott saw a responsible investment of taxpayer dollars in a decreased STEM tuition. However, it is impossible to quantify the wealth of factors surrounding college graduate job placement within tuition differences.
(03/27/15 4:15am)
Over 50 years ago, mankind left Earth. Soon after, we walked freely in the black of outer space and even set foot on the Moon. However, humanity itself stopped there. Today, of course, we’ve sent innumerable spacecrafts on various missions around and even outside the Solar System, yet no human has traveled significantly past the Moon. After all, Mars — the next-closest celestial body to Earth — is around 225,300,000 kilometers away, or around 1,000 times farther than the Moon. To say the least, reaching its red surface would require decades of planning, development and testing. Furthermore, it is not fully understood how human beings might subsist within Mars’ surface conditions.
(03/03/15 5:46am)
Why is it that people feel comfortable playing some genres aloud more than others? At first glance, the answer seems obvious. Popular music is popular, “other” music is not. However, such a hasty answer ignores a few important factors, each of which can be attributed to context. After all, music has a venue, an audience and a message. To play music aloud requires a confidence in its appropriateness in a setting. Most genres have exactly such a niche. Standing in stark contrast, though, is metal.
(02/13/15 8:24am)
After many prolific years as an astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson has it all: an acclaimed scientific podcast, a late night talk show, and a leading spot on the widely successful “Cosmos” reboot. He’s rocketed to the top, reaching star status through his infectious love of science. Though uncommon, his story isn’t new. For example, Stephen Hawking and Bill Nye the Science Guy also achieved celebrity status, each by making science accessible to the masses. This accessibility is the essence of popular science — which is essentially science rendered for a more general audience.