University of Minnesota Researchers Discover rare subatomic particles

Note: This is an article from an external source not my own.

As you probably know by now, one of the most long-lasting, and equally unfruitful scientific endeavors of our times has been the search for dark matter. The stuff is believed to make up a significant portion of the matter that exists in our Universe, and physicists have inferred its existence from the gravitational pull it exerts on normal matter. Galaxies are apparently kept in their place through this effect, but no one has thus far been able to discover the particles that make up dark matter. One reason for this is that it does not interact with regular matter, which means that it doesn't give off any kind of radiations. But now scientists are hot on a lead that could see them finding the stuff here on Earth.


Many experts believe that dark matter may be passing through objects such as your hand, your car, your home, and indeed the planet with ease, without bouncing off a single atom. This is one of the main reasons why several research initiatives have taken their studies underground, in detecting facilities buried miles under the surface of the planet. Their hope is to be there, prepared to detect dark matter bouncing off regular matter, if and when this happens. “They're just streaming right through us, and every once in while there's an interaction,” University of Minnesota expert Angela Reisseter said.

She was speaking at a meeting of the American Physical Society, which took place earlier this month in Washington, DC. The scientist is a member of a large-scale, dark matter-hunting project called the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS). She and her team believe that they may have detected two such rare instances. But in a recent issue of the journal Science Express, the CDMS team writes that these are mere probabilities. “Our previous results have been no, no, no. This is our first maybe – that is all it is,” Reisseter added. She shares that the detectors, buried 700 meters underground in Minnesota, are protected by several layers of material, including rock, plastic, lead, and copper.

The point of all these protective layers is to prevent any other type of radiation reaching the detectors but dark matter. Speaking further about the two possible dark matter detection events, the expert added that, “If it was one, we'd say 'Oh, it's the background.' If it was three you start to say 'Oh, it's a signal.' We can't call it background and we can't call it signal.” A different approach to detecting dark matter may be through the recently reopened Large Hadron Collider, the largest physical experiment, and particle accelerator, ever built.

“It could be that now we have this new machine we'll finally have enough energy to make this dark matter particle and see it in our collisions,” University of Maryland physicist Sarah Eno, who is also a member of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment team, explained recently. The CMS is one of the three main particle detectors at the LHC, Space reports.

School Literature: A Terror no more

The notoriously boring books that have been presented in Language Arts classrooms have been prevalent for decades. Whether it has been The Jungle by Upton Sinclair or Macbeth by William Shakespeare, students have long dreaded to open the covers to find tiny characters of some seemingly foreign language inscribed upon these pages. Now I have long considered it the school's failure to supply teachers with modern and updated materials, thus allowing the students to connect better with the tale.

For example, a 7-th grade student will connect better to Harry Potter than to Othello, and each are just as potent in their ability to teach children the Hero's Journey idea. In my AP Literature class, our teacher was given a generous budget and thus was able to handpick some very good quality materials for us to read. Titles such Beowulf ( which has been made into a major motion picture) and the hilarity of the Canterbury Tales are examples pointing to it. Of course, many of the reasons why students love certain pieces of literature is how good the teacher is. For some, the presentation of Dante Alighieri's Inferno is more important than the actual reading, which is ridiculously complicated and far beyond most high schoolers level.

With more and more teachers forcing their adminstrators to give them a larger budget, the advantages toward children's willingness to learn through reading has gone through the roof.

Junior Year: Importance of the PSAT

If you dont know already, I am a junior at John Marshall High School. The big thing for me this year is all of the standardized exams that I have to take. One of them is the PSAT, considered a preparation test for the SAT. Despite the SAT already being downplayed (John Marshall is in the middle of Minnesota, where the ACT reins supreme), the PSAT is barely even given a notice. You recieve a small piece of paper showing the time and cost of the PSAT and that it's it. No announcements and you never have classes to practice for it. Thats probably the reason why more than 50% of John Marshall doesn't take the test, but fortunately for me, my AP Lit classes requires me to take it.

You can underestimate the power of the PSAT, it goes with National Merit Scholarship, which is considered to be the most presitigious of all the scholarships, and many colleges look for students to do well in the PSAT as an indicator to how they match up with the rest of their graduating class.

The rest of Minnesota can't compete if this is the attitude shown by schools about this test.

Obama's Speech to Schoolchildren

While the media has focused on the fact that seemingly many parent's are refusing to allow their children to watch President Obama's speech. However, what they didn't report was that he virtually had the majority of young men, women, and teens. The small, yet defiant minority only helped to throw the rest of America off balance, with cries of a "political brainwash". There have even been reports of school districts canceling the show due to its supposed controversy. Even my home state of Minnesota, whose governor, incidentally, is Tim Pawlenty, a 2012 front runner for the Republican nomination.
What President Obama is virtually trying to say is, do good in school, work hard, and dont give up. That's it. None of the "Vote for me you high schoolers", just an gentle encouragement from a role model. The good thing is that more and more teenagers are becoming aware of what is happening around them, however this is still a pitifully sad minority of students. Obama was just simply trying to reach out to them. Can't blame a man for trying.

Pay Per Post

Since i have recently just signed up for the Pay Per Post program, i have to post a random sentence about what they show me. So here goes:

The throat sighs!

Yep, that's it.

My first eHow article!!

Today I finally completed my first eHow article!! For those of you who don't know it's the world's largest online how-to site.

Here's an article to it:http://www.ehow.com/how_5225137_buy-custom-computer-laptop.html

The main reason I'm doing this is for the money. That's right, I get paid. It's kind of like this blog itself, but it generates money through ads and also everytime your article is viewed. Sometimes they'll even give you a bonus for writing a good article. For more info, just leave me your email address and I'll send you some more info.

Corporate propaganda

So i just recently applied for a job at Target, knowing that i was probably about to be introduced into the boring, monotonous world of department stores. However, i wasn't expecting a 15 minute long video about the many disadvantages of being in an union. Using B-List celebrities, Target's pathetic attempt at persuasion merely made me roar in laughter. However, judging from the ex-convict who was sitting by me, it was merely another video that was wasting his time, and in all truth it probably was.