Author Archives: Jon Butterworth

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About Jon Butterworth

UCL Physics prof, works on LHC, writes (books, Cosmic Shambles and elsewhere). Citizen of England, UK, Europe & Nowhere, apparently.

A surprise from the LHC already!

Posted on 22/09/2010 by Jon Butterworth

The CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) announced a surprise yesterday which may dramatically change our ideas about quarks, gluons and protons. Continued at The Guardian.

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Can you tell what it is yet?

Posted on 22/09/2010 by Jon Butterworth

See also Chapter 3.7 of Smashing Physics. Detailed software models of particle physics detectors are an essential part of designing and using them. GEANT, the huge open-source software project developed for them, is also used for space and medical applications … Continue reading →

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From liquid argon to M theory?

Posted on 16/09/2010 by Jon Butterworth

See also Chapter 2.6 of Smashing Physics. Claiming to understand the universe from first principles is all very well, but the foundations have to be built on experiment and observation. And it is slow, hard work. Even in Pisa. Continued … Continue reading →

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Is poor advice betraying UK science and engineering?

Posted on 10/09/2010 by Jon Butterworth

The UK is reputedly poor at capitalising on its scientific excellence. Is this due to a lack of vision in the advice given to politicians? Crises provide opportunities, as every good manager knows. From my point of view as a … Continue reading →

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