Author Archives: Jon Butterworth

About Jon Butterworth

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

The Universe Speaks in Numbers

Posted on 16/04/2019

I have reviewed Graham Farmelo’s new book for Nature. You can find the full review here. Mathematics, physics and the relationship between the two is a fascinating topic which sparks much discussion. The review only came out this morning and … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Physics, Physics Stories, Science, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Exploring the “Higgs Portal”

Posted on 11/04/2019

The Higgs boson is unique. Does it open a door to Dark Matter? All known fundamental particles acquire mass by interacting with the Higgs boson. Actually, more correctly, they interact with a quantum field which is present even in “empty” … Continue reading →

Posted in Astrophysics, Particle Physics, Physics, Science | Tagged , , ,

Particle & astro-particle physics annual UK meeting

Posted on 10/04/2019

The annual UK particle physics and astroparticle physics conference was hosted by Imperial this week, and has just finished. Some slightly random highlights.

Posted in Astrophysics, Particle Physics, Physics, Science | Tagged , , , , , , ,

Observation of a previously unseen behaviour of light

Posted on 09/04/2019

Originally posted on Life and Physics:
Beams of light do not, generally speaking, bounce off each other like snooker balls. But at the high energies in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN they have just been observed doing exactly that…

Posted in Particle Physics, Physics, Science | Tagged , ,