blush

well it is a scientific paper... but the data is there :)

and in this field, like most of physics, all papers are made public as preprints, you can take a look yourself here:

well there is some data in the paper, and as this is an accelerator experiment things are much better controlled than in astronomy, but indeed the gravitational polarisation of the BICEP2 experiment also

and yes, I am back! Teaching semester is over so I have some more time

Everything that comes out of CERN is public, and is published in scientific journal papers so also readeable for non-CERN people (although of course I admit we use some jargon which can confuse non-experts).I

if that accelerator would have been built,we would have discovered the Higgs particle in 2001 or so already. It was really a sad day for US science when the project was cancelled

haha well a lot of what I do is computer based too, don't worry

haha well our offices are pretty crappy, if that's a comfort. We spend our money on cables and the experiments because: (and experiments)

Happy to hear you like the post! We will start running again this spring, and fun results are coming out all the time. Once I've gone over the basics I will start writing about the physics results we make

Hi, thanks! I don't personally study neutrinos in detail but do use them as they are produced in the collisions I study :)

What a great post, I have a soft spot for biology and really enjoyed reading this intro. Thanks!

I'd love to read about the hyperloop work, definitely! And let me know if you end up writing a song about Higgs bosons, but just to be aware: you have Nick Cave and others to compete with :)

Happy to hear that, I think it is important to talk about the concepts, not to obfuscate with technicalities or jargon, I'm happy to read you noticed :)

Both (sorry!), there are known factors that the collisions are different, but also actual are actual statistical probabilities of different things that can happen when exactly the same initial condition

that is the nature of quantum physics. Even if the initial conditions would be exactly the same, every collision would have a certain number of possible outcomes (not just one, many!), and there are

the research we do is basic (fundamental) science. This means it produces knowledge, in my case the understanding of particles, forces between particles etc. The goal is not to have applications beyond

Lovely post, very good summary

nope. The size in meters of a particle has nothing to do with how many electrons/protons get ionized, that only has to do with the charge of the particle that flies through matter, to first order. And

and I will explain why CMS is "Compact" in a future blog. Relatively it is, amazingly enough.