Higgs Boson: Evidence Excites Scientific CommunityOn March 14, 2013, researchers at CERN made the public announcement that data collected in 2012 has provided evidence to support their belief that they had found the long-sought Higgs boson. First theorized by a group of physicists in 1964, the Higgs boson (nicknamed by some as the “God particle”) has been the subject of research for many years – in many places. Identification of the Higgs boson is likely to stand as one of the great scientific achievements of the 21st century. Even members of the general public

who are not involved in sci-entific disciplines have shown interest and enthusiasm.

The Standard Model, which describes how the universe works and is constructed, has lacked a way explain how the various particles gain their mass. Identifying the Higgs boson is a step toward providing that explanation. It is thought that the Higgs boson inter-acts with a “field” permeating the Universe in a way that gives mass to particles.

What researchers at the Large Hadron Collider have been doing is generating two beams of protons, moving at extremely high speeds and in opposite directions. Then,

by causing collisions between the particles in these two beams, researchers are able gather data about the resulting shower of high energy particles. A Higgs boson is anticipated as one of the particles. Several detectors are utilized to gather data about the particles, which may exist only briefly.

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Credit: CERN

A typical candidate event including two high-energy photons whose energy (depicted by red towers) is measured in the CMS electromag-netic calorimeter. The yellow lines are the measured tracks of other particles produced in the collision. The pale blue volume shows the CMS crystal calorimeter barrel.

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Who is Peter Higgs?http://www.ph.ed.ac.uk/higgs/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Higgs

Peter Higgs in his own wordshttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22073084

Peter Higgs: Behind the Sceneshttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22073080

VIDEOS:The “Standard Model” of Physics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0KjXsGRvoAThe Higgs Boson Explained on NASA site

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120501.htmlPeter Higgs at the Announcement

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22079000ANS Nuclear Café – Higgs Boson Explained

http://ansnuclearcafe.org/2012/07/06/friday-nuclear-mati-nee-the-higgs-boson-explained/

ANS Nuclear Café – What is Mass? How to Discover a Particle?http://ansnuclearcafe.org/2012/07/27/nuclear-matinee-7-27-2012/

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What is CERN?http://www.cern.ch

What is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)?http://home.web.cern.ch/about/accelerators/large-hadron-collider

The US and the LHChttp://www.uslhc.us/

What is the Higgs boson?http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16116236http://science.howstuffworks.com/higgs-boson.htmhttp://science.howstuffworks.com/higgs-boson1.htmhttp://science.howstuffworks.com/higgs-boson2.htmhttp://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57574286-76/cern-physicists-now-pretty-sure-theyve-found-higgs-boson/

Why does the Higgs boson matter?http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57574534/god-particle-why-the-higgs-boson-matters/

Should the Higgs boson be renamed?http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22250092

Does the discovery spell doom for the universe?http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-the-higgs-boson-might-spell-doom-for-the-universe

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Space Probe Data Suggests Universe is Older than Previously ThoughtEstimates of the age of our universe have been extended by 80 million years based on evidence gathered by the European Space Agency’s Planck space probe. In addition, the probe’s observations seem to support an idea called inflation – that only a frac-tion of a second was required for the expansion of the universe from subatomic size to its observable size.

The probe’s telescope was mapping the sky, searching for what have been called “light” fossils – left over from the Big Bang – by looking at background radia-tion. Some scientists have suggested that the importance of the probe and its findings compare to the importance of work by other re-searchers who recently announced evidence of the Higgs boson.

Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) as observed by Planck space probe. The CMB is a snapshot of the oldest light in our Universe, imprinted on the sky when the Uni-verse was just 380,000 years old. It shows tiny temperature fluctuations that correspond to regions of slightly different densities, representing the seeds of all future structure: the stars and galaxies of today.

Credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration

Images and Information from European Space Agency

http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/ob-ject/index.cfm?fobjectid=51551

Article in General Mediahttp://news.yahoo.com/universe-ag-es-80m-years-big-bang-gets-clear-er-111323707.html

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The Search for Dark MatterSuppose you discovered a kind of matter that cannot be seen by telescopes and neither emits nor absorbs light, yet this discovery accounted for a large part of the mass of our universe. And, suppose the material you discovered interacted with other materials only through its gravity. If you made that discovery, you would have found something that has been hypothesized by astronomers and cosmologists. You would have dark matter.

That’s right! Dark matter has been hypothesized. And, scientists are doing research to find some evidence for its existence. Knowing more about it might help explain how galaxies are formed.

A recent story on the internet bore the headline “Hints of Dark Matter Possibly Seen.” The article carried information about results from the Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (SuperCDMS) be-ing conducted in an underground laboratory in Minnesota at the Soudan mine. In three instances, the experimenters detected events which might suggest the presence of a WIMP (weakly interactive massive particle). A WIMP might help explain dark matter.

But the experimenters are cau-tious. They say they have not made a discovery, suggesting only that this suggests an experimental “re-gion of interest.”

Dark Matter Signals?http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=dark-matter-sig-nals-recorded-in-minnesota-mine

Soudan Mine Tourhttp://www.physics.umn.edu/out-reach/soudan/tour

Soudan Underground Laboratoryhttp://www.soudan.umn.edu/

Historical Tour – Soudan Minehttp://www.towersoudan.com/souda-nundergroundmine.html

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Are There Still More Particles?As exciting as recent discoveries about the nature of matter have been, some scientists are eager for further exploration. They hope for even more exciting discoveries.

Read some thoughts about what may remain to be discovered.http://www.livescience.com/27903-other-particles-beyond-higgs.html

ANS Offers Teacher Workshops – Register NowWould you like to learn some new activities to use in teaching about atomic structure and nuclear science and technology? Consider attending an ANS teacher workshop, DETECTING RADIATION IN OUR RADIOACTIVE WORLD.

ANS will conduct full-day workshops in Atlanta, GA, on Saturday, June 15, and in Washington, DC, on Saturday, November 9. Attend-

ees at both workshops will partic-ipate in hands-on activities, hear knowledgeable speakers, and receive a variety of materials along with an analog radiation monitor for class-room demonstrations.

Registration is now open for the June workshop. Those who register by May 15 will realize a significant saving. Information and on-line registration is available at http://www.new.ans.org/pi/edu/teachers/workshops/

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Three Different Projects: Something in CommonThree different sets of researchers are involved in the new discoveries and experiments covered in this issue of ReActions.

The massive effort to achieve evidence of the Higgs boson has provided the exciting announcement of March 14, 2013. Ongoing work to learn about elusive dark matter is providing only an initial hint of its

existence. The ESA’s Planck space probe results in new information about the universe and its origins.

All three projects continue to seek new and exciting infor-mation about the world in which we live – its origins, its

structure and how everything interacts.

Humankind has incredible curiosity. We are continu-ally pressing forward for more information. Some of

your students will eventually be among the scientists pursuing the next great discoveries. They must be

prepared with knowledge of a wide variety of scientific information and the processes used to gather information. Your challenge is immense and exciting! We hope that the materials in this issue of ReActions help you along the way.

National Nuclear Science WeekOctober 21-25, 2013

For more information visit

http://www.nuclearscienceweek.org/

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©2013 American Nuclear Society. ReActions — teachers may reproduce portions of the newsletter for classroom use or filing; in other uses, please credit ReActions and the American Nuclear Society. ANS was founded in 1954 as a nonprofit, international scientific and educational organization. Its members are scientists, engineers, and educators working in government, academia and industry. Teacher names are welcome for addition to the ReActions e-mail list. Any communication dealing with this publication should be addressed to ReActions Editorial staff, American Nuclear Society, 555 N. Kensington Ave., La Grange Park, IL 60526-5592; telephone 708/352-6611; e-mail outreach@ans.org;

http://www.ans.org April/May 2013

ACTIVITY: Challenge your students to do some research on terms and discoveries men-tioned in this issue of ReActions, using the internet. Ask them to find answers to questions such as these:

• What is the Higgs boson and why is its discovery important? • What is dark matter and why is research into it important? • What is meant by the Standard Model? • Is there a video to help explain the Standard Model? • Why are experiments to learn about dark matter located underground?

Of course, you may create other challenging questions. ORYou may simply ask students to learn the meaning of some key words, such as:

• Boson • Big Bang • CERN • Higgs Boson • Standard Model • Cosmology • Dark Matter • Large Hadron collider • Astrophysics

Of course, you can always expand the list.

Your purpose with an activity such as this is to get beyond learning new words. Use their research work as the basis for a classroom discussion. Ask them to share what they found (including videos) and to explain what it means.

You will be working to help students understand a bit about research being done by a huge number of scientists. And, you will be providing your students with the challenge to see why this work is of importance.

Please make your colleagues aware of ReActions and encourage them to sign up for email notification

of our next issue by going tohttp://Reactions.ans.org

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