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.

Keep calm, carry on, but don’t keep quiet

Posted on 04/10/2010 by Jon Butterworth

See also Chapter 4.1 of Smashing Physics. I have been dealing with cuts in science since 2007. It can be draining and depressing, but I have learned at least two important lessons. The HERA collider started up for the first … Continue reading →

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Health and Safety in Particle Physics II

Posted on 29/09/2010 by Jon Butterworth

After Lily’s post on poor risk assessment in particle physics, I thought I should bring to your attention the risk of putting your hand in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) – as discussed by Ed Copeland and his colleagues at … Continue reading →

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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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