In anticipation for the announcements of the Nobel Prize 2017, we will finish up the stories behind the particles included in the Nobel Prize Collection reflective slap bracelet. If you missed the beginning, go here for part 1.
Reflective slap bracelet with the Particle Zoo Nobel Prize collection of elementary particles.
1988 – The Muon Neutrino
Colleagues Leon M. Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger shared the Nobel Prize “for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino“. Neutrinos have no charge, very little mass and limited willingness to interact with and leave tracks in particle detectors. The research trio used a multistep process to produce a neutrino beam by creating showers of pi mesons from a proton beam and then let the mesons decay in layers of thick battleship steel. …
For our fellow science nerds around the world, we teamed up with The Particle Zoo and designed an ultra-reflective slap bracelet with elementary particles related to the Nobel Prize in physics. Order it in here webshop, or in our German webshop. In our previous blog post, we discussed the significance of the Photon (1921), the Neutron (1935) and the Electron magnetic moment (1955). That means we are up to the antiproton!
Two difference views of the reflective slap bracelet with the Particle Zoo Nobel Prize collection of elementary particles.
1959 – The Antiproton
Emilio Gino Segrè and Owen Chamberlain “for their discovery of the antiproton”. An antiparticle is a “mirror image twin” of the particle and Paul Dirac’s theory predicted every particle has its antiparticle. The positron, the antiparticle of the electron, had been discovered in 1932 but the creation of the antiproton, required a more powerful machine followed by new techniques to detect and measure the result. They announced the discovery of the antiproton in 1955. Read more here> and here>.
Celebrate groundbreaking research in high-energy physics with this collection of happy elementary particles from discoveries that brought home the Nobel Prize. In cooperation with the ParticleZoo, we have created a highly reflective slap bracelet (order it here) that doubles as a cheat sheet for Nobel Prize trivia while waiting for the 2017 Nobel Prize announcements.
Reflective slap bracelet with the Particle Zoo Nobel Prize collection of elementary particles.
The Particle Zoo Nobel Prize Collection
For the curious, the Nobel Prize website lists all awarded prizes and below are the first three selected for our reflective slap bracelet:
1921 – The Photon
Albert Einstein was awarded “for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect”. Electromagnetic radiation, which is visible light, infrared, ultraviolet, radio waves, radar, x-rays, microwaves, etc. behaves both as a wave and a particle, the photon. When light (photons) hit a metal plate, they knock out electrons from their atoms. That is called the photoelectric effect and the emitted electrons are called photoelectrons.
Meet and greet the Gravitational Wave safety reflector. Design by the Particle Zoo.
On February 11, 2016, scientists of the LIGO collaboration sent ripples through the scientific community with the announcement of the detection of a gravitational wave. Gravitational waves are released from collisions of black holes, supernovae and even the remnants of radiation created by the birth of the Universe. It’s a story of bright brains, the unimaginably huge, the extremely tiny, and human persistence. Einstein predicted them 100 years ago but never expected anyone to be able to measure the tiny effect.
Gravitational Wave Safety Reflector
The remarkable discovery inspired the Particle Zoo to design a Gravitational Wave for the Particle Zoo collection. We are very excited to introduce it and you can find it in the funflector webshop. It is actually the first in the collection to be released as a safety reflector before existing as a plushie 🙂
So, what’s the big deal with gravitational waves?
Imagine 1.3 billion years ago, two black holes, about 29 and 36 times the mass of the sun, dancing around each other several times per second before merging into one black hole. Within a couple seconds, they release the energy equivlant of 3 suns worth of mass. That energy is spread around the universe in a gravitational wave and ripped through the LIGO detectors in September 14, 2015 during an engineering run. With two 4 km (2.5 miles) arms with state of the art vacuum chambers and laser beams, a distortion the size of 1/1000 of the diameter of a proton was detected. The 1000 scientists and engineers could hardly believe how lucky they were and for several months turned every stone to make sure it was a real event and not just a fault in the equipment or software. In December last year, they detected a second event. Below is a nice 6-minute explanation by awesome Neil deGrasse Tyson of the physics behind and the magnitude of the discovery.
Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains Einstein’s Gravitational Waves Theory
Like many new discoveries, the detectors are miracles of engineering and the team had to push technology to new hights to accomplish the new discoveries. If you want to dive deep into both physics and technology, this hour long lecture on Gravitational Waves from SLAC is a good start.
Dr. Brian Lantz taking about “Gravitational Waves – The Sound of Black Holes Colliding”, courtesy of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
I remember learning about the LIGO experiment while taking a class in relativity in college. At that time, it seemed like they aimed for a very lofty goal, so I was thrilled to read about the discovery back in February. Although I’m not pursuing physics research anymore, it’s fun to circle back and provide friends, former colleges, physicists and other scientists with some unique and very niched physics related safety reflectors for jackets, bags and backpacks. I know firsthand how easy it is to lose track of the time and not get out of the lab until way later (after sunset) than planned…
This is a tricky one: Stocking stuffers for physicists and science buffs, especially those geared towards cosmology and subatomic (particle) physics. What do you do when your geek friends don’t want any more science kits and own all the cool/fun/silly T-shirts, tea mugs and mousepads from red bubble, cafepress or sazzle?
Particle Zoo funflector safety reflectors are ideal stocking stuffers for physicists, astronomers and cosmologists.
Particle Zoo Stocking Stuffers for Physicists
Fortunately, graphic designer Julie Peasley combined her interest for cosmology, the quantum world and theoretical physics with her design talent and created the line of Particle Zoo plushies. The felt creatures reflect the personalities of the various particles in a fun and educational way and are as much fun on the distinguished professor’s desk as in the class room. The Particle Zoo line has since expanded to magnets (who would not want to play with Feynman diagrams on their fridge door???), pencil pouches, buttons, greeting cards and reflectors! The reflectors, you can of course buy in the funflector webshop. They are perfect gifts and stocking stuffers for hard working students, grad students, engineers, teachers and professors who get home from work after sunset. For everything else, go to the Particle Zoo website. Just don’t forget to say hi from the funflector team!
Pencil or makeup pouches from ParticleZoo, $15.
Relativity Watch
Although a bit over budget, we could not resist this cool Einstein Relativity Watch for $43 at 3B Scientific! What do you think, will those who use it be on time or not? And if so, where?
Tired of your friends being late? Give them an Einstein relativity watch and they might be on time – or not!
We are so excited that the 2014 funflector® wholesale catalog is off the press! We hope you are too! It has all our new (and old) designs and our first licensed line of reflectors from the Particle Zoo. New for this year is also an online flip book, (you just need a little bit of patience while it downloads) but we have stocked up with envelopes and stamps and will gladly mail a copy to your store! You can order it here or shoot us an email.
Higgs boson safety reflector by Particle Zoo and funflector
The existence of the Higgs field was predicted 50 years ago to provide an explanation for the origins of mass. It was hypothesized to fill space and interact with the most basic particles in a way that gives them mass when otherwise they would have none. An invisible field that fills all of space might seem odd, but right now there is an invisible gravitational field keeping you from floating away. There is also an invisible electromagnetic field that keeps you from simply passing straight through the floor. Find a way to put some extra energy into a field and you can “shake loose” particles. We do that all the time with electromagnetic fields, for example in a light bulb. We call he result light and the particles that emerge are photons, bearers of light.
After years of trying, an international team of physicists managed to show that the Higgs field exists. Instead of turning on a light bulb and observing the light, they smashed protons together in the LHC at CERN and “shook loose” some of those long-sought Higgs particles, which were recorded by huge particle detectors to, after quite some work, be observed on computer screens.
We know of no better way to visualize the Higgs field than this beautiful animation by Nigel Holmes:
Congratulations to François Englert and Peter Higgs and to all our friends and former colleagues, who tirelessly have kept building and tweaking the LHC and the Atlas and CMS detectors, long after our careers headed elsewhere!
This cute but geeky Valentine’s poem is a good reason for us to introduce one of our new elementary particle reflectors with Particle Zoo design: DARK MATTER!
Scientists believe the universe is expanding due to Dark Energy, which makes up as much as 68% of the universe. Only 5% is matter that we know and the rest, 27% is dark matter. Dark matter cannot be seen, does not absorb or emit light. So how do we know it’s there? Astronomers have noticed that the behavior of large astronomical objects could not be explained with the gravitational forces between all known objects, so a mysterious dark matter with plenty of weight was added to explain the gravitational pull. Guesses to what dark matter is range from never seen elementary particles to heavier objects although as late as November 2013, it was ruled out that they were large primordial black holes. So maybe fun-sized primordial black holes? In the early universe, dark matter was evenly distributed but the passage of time has left its mark and gravity has pulled it into clumps and empty spaces. Our Dark Matter funflector thinks life is good! Happy Valentine’s day from Particle Zoo and funflector!
We are thrilled to launch our first line of licensed pedestrian safety reflectors – designs from The Particle Zoo! The personalities reflected in the charming plushies teach us so much about the elementary particles. Now you can get the proton and the photon as safety reflectors to hang on your jackets and backpacks!
Some of our favorite particles – neutrino, gluon, quarks, the Higgs, nucleons, electron and dark matter – from The Particle Zoo
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This cute but geeky Valentine’s poem is a good reason for us to introduce one of our new elementary particle reflectors with Particle Zoo design: DARK MATTER!
