Misplaced Pages

#140859

58-544: Noting the declining enrollment in STEM subjects at UK universities, a team including author Simon Singh devised the idea with three aims: UAS was set up to provide a structure to get undergraduates into the classroom, based on a model pioneered at Imperial College London , but adding the incentive of academic credit for program participants. After receiving approval to pilot UAS from the University of Surrey , Singh backed

116-487: A Hilbert space , which is also treated in quantum field theory . Following the convention of particle physicists, the term elementary particles is applied to those particles that are, according to current understanding, presumed to be indivisible and not composed of other particles. Ordinary matter is made from first- generation quarks ( up , down ) and leptons ( electron , electron neutrino ). Collectively, quarks and leptons are called fermions , because they have

174-402: A microsecond . They occur after collisions between particles made of quarks, such as fast-moving protons and neutrons in cosmic rays . Mesons are also produced in cyclotrons or other particle accelerators . Particles have corresponding antiparticles with the same mass but with opposite electric charges . For example, the antiparticle of the electron is the positron . The electron has

232-502: A quantum spin of half-integers (−1/2, 1/2, 3/2, etc.). This causes the fermions to obey the Pauli exclusion principle , where no two particles may occupy the same quantum state . Quarks have fractional elementary electric charge (−1/3 or 2/3) and leptons have whole-numbered electric charge (0 or 1). Quarks also have color charge , which is labeled arbitrarily with no correlation to actual light color as red, green and blue. Because

290-1058: A " Theory of Everything ", or "TOE". There are also other areas of work in theoretical particle physics ranging from particle cosmology to loop quantum gravity . In principle, all physics (and practical applications developed therefrom) can be derived from the study of fundamental particles. In practice, even if "particle physics" is taken to mean only "high-energy atom smashers", many technologies have been developed during these pioneering investigations that later find wide uses in society. Particle accelerators are used to produce medical isotopes for research and treatment (for example, isotopes used in PET imaging ), or used directly in external beam radiotherapy . The development of superconductors has been pushed forward by their use in particle physics. The World Wide Web and touchscreen technology were initially developed at CERN . Additional applications are found in medicine, national security, industry, computing, science, and workforce development, illustrating

348-472: A catalyst. The outrage over the initial ruling brought together several groups to support Singh and acted as a focus for libel reform campaigners, resulting in all major parties in the 2010 general election making manifesto commitments to libel reform. On 25 April 2013 the Defamation Act 2013 received Royal Assent and became law. The purpose of the reformed law of defamation is to 'ensure that

406-415: A fair balance is struck between the right to freedom of expression and the protection of reputation'. Under the new law, claimants must show that they suffer serious harm before the court will accept the case. Additional protection for website operators, defence of 'responsible publication on matters of public interest' and new statutory defences of truth and honest opinion are also part of the key areas of

464-490: A footballer then a commentator. If I couldn't be a physicist, I'd write about it. In October 2004, Singh published a book entitled Big Bang , which tells the history of the universe. It is told in his trademark style, by following the remarkable stories of the people who put the pieces together. He made headlines in 2005 when he criticised the Katie Melua song " Nine Million Bicycles " for inaccurate lyrics referring to

522-452: A fourth generation of fermions does not exist. Bosons are the mediators or carriers of fundamental interactions, such as electromagnetism , the weak interaction , and the strong interaction . Electromagnetism is mediated by the photon , the quanta of light . The weak interaction is mediated by the W and Z bosons . The strong interaction is mediated by the gluon , which can link quarks together to form composite particles. Due to

580-576: A launch of the program with his own money, with the assistance of Ravi Kapur and others. Student interest in the program was high. Singh indicated that in the pilot year of the program 10 of 13 math undergraduates who participate at the University of Southampton subsequently entered teacher training. By the midpoint of its second year, in February 2004, the program was being described by the Times Educational Supplement (TES) as

638-430: A negative electric charge, the positron has a positive charge. These antiparticles can theoretically form a corresponding form of matter called antimatter . Some particles, such as the photon , are their own antiparticle. These elementary particles are excitations of the quantum fields that also govern their interactions. The dominant theory explaining these fundamental particles and fields, along with their dynamics,

SECTION 10

#1732800860141

696-446: A one-day program to give them basic information on instructing students in math and science. After this training, they observe a local classroom and then put together a project for the students in a class. The UAS website indicates that the program, available in the last two years of a student's undergraduate career, carries ten to 30 credits for ten weeks of work in the classroom alongside the classroom's regular teacher, who helps evaluate

754-524: A success, with nine universities onboard and an additional 30 expressing interest. In October 2005, Singh wrote in The Guardian that UAS was established in "over 50 university departments, mainly mathematics, science and engineering, with more coming on board each year." In the 2007–2008 academic year, involvement had risen to 107 university departments, with 750 undergraduate participants. According to TES , undergraduates involved first participate in

812-407: A way to deliver science to normal people in an entertaining manner. Richard Wiseman has influenced Singh in such a way that Singh states: My writing initially was about pure science but a lot of my research now has been inspired by his desire to debunk things such as the paranormal – we both hate psychics, mediums, pseudoscience in general. Singh directed his BAFTA award-winning documentary about

870-499: A wide range of exotic particles . All particles and their interactions observed to date can be described almost entirely by the Standard Model. Dynamics of particles are also governed by quantum mechanics ; they exhibit wave–particle duality , displaying particle-like behaviour under certain experimental conditions and wave -like behaviour in others. In more technical terms, they are described by quantum state vectors in

928-425: Is a particle physics theory suggesting that systems with higher energy have a smaller number of dimensions. A third major effort in theoretical particle physics is string theory . String theorists attempt to construct a unified description of quantum mechanics and general relativity by building a theory based on small strings, and branes rather than particles. If the theory is successful, it may be considered

986-554: Is called the Standard Model . The reconciliation of gravity to the current particle physics theory is not solved; many theories have addressed this problem, such as loop quantum gravity , string theory and supersymmetry theory . Practical particle physics is the study of these particles in radioactive processes and in particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider . Theoretical particle physics

1044-532: Is explained by the Standard Model , which gained widespread acceptance in the mid-1970s after experimental confirmation of the existence of quarks . It describes the strong , weak , and electromagnetic fundamental interactions , using mediating gauge bosons . The species of gauge bosons are eight gluons , W , W and Z bosons , and the photon . The Standard Model also contains 24 fundamental fermions (12 particles and their associated anti-particles), which are

1102-595: Is in model building where model builders develop ideas for what physics may lie beyond the Standard Model (at higher energies or smaller distances). This work is often motivated by the hierarchy problem and is constrained by existing experimental data. It may involve work on supersymmetry , alternatives to the Higgs mechanism , extra spatial dimensions (such as the Randall–Sundrum models ), Preon theory, combinations of these, or other ideas. Vanishing-dimensions theory

1160-471: Is the study of these particles in the context of cosmology and quantum theory . The two are closely interrelated: the Higgs boson was postulated by theoretical particle physicists and its presence confirmed by practical experiments. The idea that all matter is fundamentally composed of elementary particles dates from at least the 6th century BC. In the 19th century, John Dalton , through his work on stoichiometry , concluded that each element of nature

1218-593: Is the youngest of three brothers, his eldest brother being Tom Singh , the founder of the UK New Look chain of stores. Singh grew up in Wellington, Somerset , attending Wellington School , and went on to Imperial College London , where he studied physics . He was active in the student union, becoming President of the Royal College of Science Union. Later he completed a PhD in particle physics at

SECTION 20

#1732800860141

1276-600: Is used to extract the parameters of the Standard Model with less uncertainty. This work probes the limits of the Standard Model and therefore expands scientific understanding of nature's building blocks. Those efforts are made challenging by the difficulty of calculating high precision quantities in quantum chromodynamics . Some theorists working in this area use the tools of perturbative quantum field theory and effective field theory , referring to themselves as phenomenologists . Others make use of lattice field theory and call themselves lattice theorists . Another major effort

1334-541: The Big Bang theory and the origins of the universe), Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial (about complementary and alternative medicine, co-written by Edzard Ernst ) and The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets (about mathematical ideas and theorems hidden in episodes of The Simpsons and Futurama ). In 2012 Singh founded the Good Thinking Society , through which he created

1392-683: The University of Cambridge as a postgraduate student of Emmanuel College, Cambridge while working at CERN , Geneva. In 1983, he was part of the UA2 experiment in CERN . In 1987, Singh taught science at The Doon School , an independent all-boys' boarding school in India. In 1990 Singh returned to England and joined the BBC's Science and Features Department, where he was a producer and director working on programmes such as Tomorrow's World and Horizon . Singh

1450-544: The atomic nuclei are baryons – the neutron is composed of two down quarks and one up quark, and the proton is composed of two up quarks and one down quark. A baryon is composed of three quarks, and a meson is composed of two quarks (one normal, one anti). Baryons and mesons are collectively called hadrons . Quarks inside hadrons are governed by the strong interaction, thus are subjected to quantum chromodynamics (color charges). The bounded quarks must have their color charge to be neutral, or "white" for analogy with mixing

1508-401: The weak interaction , and the strong interaction . Quarks cannot exist on their own but form hadrons . Hadrons that contain an odd number of quarks are called baryons and those that contain an even number are called mesons . Two baryons, the proton and the neutron , make up most of the mass of ordinary matter. Mesons are unstable and the longest-lived last for only a few hundredths of

1566-567: The BBC Horizon series. It was also aired in America as part of the NOVA series . The Proof , as it was re-titled, was nominated for an Emmy Award . The story of this celebrated mathematical problem was also the subject of Singh's first book, Fermat's Last Theorem . In 1997, he began working on his second book, The Code Book , a history of codes and codebreaking . As well as explaining

1624-408: The Standard Model during the 1970s, physicists clarified the origin of the particle zoo. The large number of particles was explained as combinations of a (relatively) small number of more fundamental particles and framed in the context of quantum field theories . This reclassification marked the beginning of modern particle physics. The current state of the classification of all elementary particles

1682-571: The aforementioned color confinement, gluons are never observed independently. The Higgs boson gives mass to the W and Z bosons via the Higgs mechanism – the gluon and photon are expected to be massless . All bosons have an integer quantum spin (0 and 1) and can have the same quantum state . Most aforementioned particles have corresponding antiparticles , which compose antimatter . Normal particles have positive lepton or baryon number , and antiparticles have these numbers negative. Most properties of corresponding antiparticles and particles are

1740-469: The case had gathered wide support for Singh, as well as prompting calls for the reform of English libel laws. On 1 April 2010, Simon Singh won his court appeal for the right to rely on the defence of fair comment. On 15 April 2010, the BCA officially withdrew its lawsuit, ending the case. To defend himself for the libel suit, Singh's out-of-pocket legal costs were tens of thousands of pounds. The trial acted as

1798-509: The case was brought against him, The Guardian supported him and funded his legal advice, as well as offering to pay the BCA's legal costs in an out-of-court settlement if Singh chose to settle. A "furious backlash " to the lawsuit resulted in the filing of formal complaints of false advertising against more than 500 individual chiropractors within one 24-hour period, with one national chiropractic organisation ordering its members to take down their websites, and Nature Medicine noting that

Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme - Misplaced Pages Continue

1856-597: The constituents of all matter . Finally, the Standard Model also predicted the existence of a type of boson known as the Higgs boson . On 4 July 2012, physicists with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN announced they had found a new particle that behaves similarly to what is expected from the Higgs boson. The Standard Model, as currently formulated, has 61 elementary particles. Those elementary particles can combine to form composite particles, accounting for

1914-582: The course of the First World War . Other programmes discuss how two great 19th-century geniuses raced to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs and how modern encryption can guarantee privacy on the Internet. On his activities as author he said in an interview to Imperial College London : When I finished my PhD, I knew I wasn't exceptionally good and would never get the Nobel prize. As a kid, I wanted to be

1972-450: The development of nuclear weapons . Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, a bewildering variety of particles was found in collisions of particles from beams of increasingly high energy. It was referred to informally as the " particle zoo ". Important discoveries such as the CP violation by James Cronin and Val Fitch brought new questions to matter-antimatter imbalance . After the formulation of

2030-478: The first experimental deviations from the Standard Model, since neutrinos do not have mass in the Standard Model. Modern particle physics research is focused on subatomic particles , including atomic constituents, such as electrons , protons , and neutrons (protons and neutrons are composite particles called baryons , made of quarks ), that are produced by radioactive and scattering processes; such particles are photons , neutrinos , and muons , as well as

2088-538: The gravitational interaction, but it has not been detected or completely reconciled with current theories. Many other hypothetical particles have been proposed to address the limitations of the Standard Model. Notably, supersymmetric particles aim to solve the hierarchy problem , axions address the strong CP problem , and various other particles are proposed to explain the origins of dark matter and dark energy . The world's major particle physics laboratories are: Theoretical particle physics attempts to develop

2146-424: The hundreds of other species of particles that have been discovered since the 1960s. The Standard Model has been found to agree with almost all the experimental tests conducted to date. However, most particle physicists believe that it is an incomplete description of nature and that a more fundamental theory awaits discovery (See Theory of Everything ). In recent years, measurements of neutrino mass have provided

2204-732: The inaugural recipient of the Lilavati Award . In February 2011 he was elected as a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry . On 19 April 2008, The Guardian published Singh's column "Beware the Spinal Trap", an article that was critical of the practice of chiropractic and which resulted in Singh being sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association (BCA). The article developed

2262-433: The interactions between the quarks store energy which can convert to other particles when the quarks are far apart enough, quarks cannot be observed independently. This is called color confinement . There are three known generations of quarks (up and down, strange and charm , top and bottom ) and leptons (electron and its neutrino, muon and its neutrino , tau and its neutrino ), with strong indirect evidence that

2320-497: The models, theoretical framework, and mathematical tools to understand current experiments and make predictions for future experiments (see also theoretical physics ). There are several major interrelated efforts being made in theoretical particle physics today. One important branch attempts to better understand the Standard Model and its tests. Theorists make quantitative predictions of observables at collider and astronomical experiments, which along with experimental measurements

2378-417: The more moderate chiropractors have ideas above their station. The British Chiropractic Association claims that their members can help treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged crying, even though there is not a jot of evidence. This organisation is the respectable face of the chiropractic profession and yet it happily promotes bogus treatments. When

Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme - Misplaced Pages Continue

2436-476: The new law. Singh married journalist and broadcaster Anita Anand in 2007. The couple have two sons and live in Richmond, London . Particle physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation . The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the scale of protons and neutrons , while

2494-483: The photon or gluon, have no antiparticles. Quarks and gluons additionally have color charges, which influences the strong interaction. Quark's color charges are called red, green and blue (though the particle itself have no physical color), and in antiquarks are called antired, antigreen and antiblue. The gluon can have eight color charges , which are the result of quarks' interactions to form composite particles (gauge symmetry SU(3) ). The neutrons and protons in

2552-426: The primary colors . More exotic hadrons can have other types, arrangement or number of quarks ( tetraquark , pentaquark ). An atom is made from protons, neutrons and electrons. By modifying the particles inside a normal atom, exotic atoms can be formed. A simple example would be the hydrogen-4.1 , which has one of its electrons replaced with a muon. The graviton is a hypothetical particle that can mediate

2610-555: The promotion of science, engineering and mathematics in schools and in the building of links between universities and schools". This was followed up by his receipt of the Kelvin Medal from the Institute of Physics in 2008, for his achievements in promoting Physics to the general public. In July 2008, he was also awarded a degree of Doctor of Science ( Honoris Causa ) by Royal Holloway, University of London . In July 2011, he

2668-444: The same, with a few gets reversed; the electron's antiparticle, positron, has an opposite charge. To differentiate between antiparticles and particles, a plus or negative sign is added in superscript . For example, the electron and the positron are denoted e and e . When a particle and an antiparticle interact with each other, they are annihilated and convert to other particles. Some particles, such as

2726-442: The science of codes and describing the impact of cryptography on history, the book also contends that cryptography is more important today than ever before. The Code Book has resulted in a return to television for him. He presented The Science of Secrecy , a five-part series for Channel 4. The stories in the series range from the cipher that sealed the fate of Mary, Queen of Scots , to the coded Zimmermann Telegram that changed

2784-446: The size of the observable universe . Singh proposed corrected lyrics, though he used the value of 13.7 billion light years; accounting for expansion of the universe, the comoving distance to the edge of the observable universe is 46.5 billion light years. BBC Radio 4 's Today programme brought Melua and Singh together in a radio studio where Melua recorded a tongue-in-cheek version of the song that had been written by Singh. Singh

2842-577: The study of combination of protons and neutrons is called nuclear physics . The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) and bosons (force-carrying particles). There are three generations of fermions, although ordinary matter is made only from the first fermion generation. The first generation consists of up and down quarks which form protons and neutrons , and electrons and electron neutrinos . The three fundamental interactions known to be mediated by bosons are electromagnetism ,

2900-466: The theme of the book that Singh and Edzard Ernst had published, Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial , and made various statements about the lack of usefulness of chiropractic "for such problems as ear infections and infant colic ": You might think that modern chiropractors restrict themselves to treating back problems, but in fact they still possess some quite wacky ideas. The fundamentalists argue that they can cure anything. And even

2958-557: The undergraduate's performance. Simon Singh Simon Lehna Singh , MBE (born 19 September 1964) is a British popular science author, theoretical and particle physicist. His written works include Fermat's Last Theorem (in the United States titled Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem ), The Code Book (about cryptography and its history ), Big Bang (about

SECTION 50

#1732800860141

3016-591: The website "Parallel" to help students learn mathematics. Singh has also produced documentaries and works for television to accompany his books, is a trustee of the National Museum of Science and Industry , a patron of Humanists UK , founder of the Good Thinking Society , and co-founder of the Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme . Singh was born in a Sikh family to parents who emigrated from Punjab, India to Britain in 1950. He

3074-460: The world's most notorious mathematical problem entitled Fermat's Last Theorem in 1996. The film was memorable for its opening shot of a middle-aged mathematician, Andrew Wiles , holding back tears as he recalled the moment when he finally realised how to resolve the fundamental error in his proof of Fermat's Last Theorem . The documentary was originally transmitted in January 1996 as an edition of

3132-462: Was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) by Loughborough University , and in 2005 was given an honorary degree in mathematics by the University of Southampton . In 2006, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Design degree by the University of the West of England "in recognition of Simon Singh's outstanding contribution to the public understanding of science, in particular in

3190-707: Was awarded another degree of Doctor of Science ( Honoris Causa ) by the University of Kent at Canterbury for services to Science. In June 2012, Singh was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science ( honoris causa ) for his contribution to science communication, education and academic freedom by The University of St Andrews . In 2003, Singh was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to science, technology and engineering in education and science communication. In 2010 he became

3248-682: Was composed of a single, unique type of particle. The word atom , after the Greek word atomos meaning "indivisible", has since then denoted the smallest particle of a chemical element , but physicists later discovered that atoms are not, in fact, the fundamental particles of nature, but are conglomerates of even smaller particles, such as the electron . The early 20th century explorations of nuclear physics and quantum physics led to proofs of nuclear fission in 1939 by Lise Meitner (based on experiments by Otto Hahn ), and nuclear fusion by Hans Bethe in that same year; both discoveries also led to

3306-400: Was introduced to Richard Wiseman through their collaboration on Tomorrow's World . At Wiseman's suggestion, Singh directed a segment about politicians lying in different mediums, and getting the public's opinion on whether the person was lying or not. After attending some of Wiseman's lectures, Singh came up with the idea to create a show together, and Theatre of Science was born. It was

3364-764: Was part of an investigation about homeopathy in 2006. This investigation was made by the organization Sense about Science . In the investigation, a student asked ten homeopaths for an alternative to her preventive malaria medication. All ten homeopaths recommended homeopathy as a substitute. This investigation was reported by the BBC . Singh is a member of the Advisory Council for the Campaign for Science and Engineering . Singh has been involved in television and radio programmes, including Five Numbers (BBC Radio 4, 11 March 2002 to 20 September 2005). In 2003 Singh

#140859