news 2011

Physicists working at the Large Hadron Collider have received an early Christmas present. Using apparatus partly designed in Bristol, the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) collaboration has presented the first tentative evidence of the Higgs boson. The discovery of this new particle has been described as the 'holy grail of particle physics' and would confirm our understanding of the fundamental laws of nature.

Contrary to the ideal of a completely engaged electorate, individuals who have the least interest in a specific outcome can actually be vital to achieving a democratic consensus. These individuals dilute the influence of powerful minority factions who would otherwise dominate everyone else, according to new research published in Science.

For fifty years, mathematicians have grappled with the so-called "fixed point" theorem. A team has now found an elegant, one-page solution that opens up new perspectives in physics and economics. Take a map of the world. Now put it down on the ground in Central Park, against a rock on Mount Everest, or on your kitchen table; there will always be a point on the map that sits exactly on the actual physical place it represents.

To match pollinators' probing tongues, cells in floral spurs elongate, driving rapid speciation : Caroline Perry , (617) 496-1351 - Columbine flowers are recognizable by the long, trailing nectar spurs that extend from the bases of their petals, tempting the taste buds of their insect pollinators. New research at Harvard and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), helps to explain how columbines have achieved a rapid radiation of approximately 70 species, with flowers apparently tailored to the length of their pollinators' tongues.

21 October 2011 New device measures viscosity of ketchup and cosmetics A device that can measure and predict how liquids flow under different conditions will ensure consumer products – from make-up to ketchup – are of the right consistency. The technology developed at the University of Sheffield enables engineers to monitor, in real time, how the viscous components (rheology) of liquids change during a production process, making it easier, quicker and cheaper to control the properties of the liquid.

Computers learn to turn biological processes into equations First it was chess. Then it was Jeopardy. Now computers are at it again, but this time they are trying to automate the scientific process itself. Using a Cornell-developed software called Eureqa, an interdisciplinary team of scientists that includes Cornell's Hod Lipson has demonstrated that a computer can analyze raw experimental data from a biological system and derive the mathematical equations that describe how the system operates.

Researchers have developed new statistical methods based on the complete genome sequences of people alive today to shed light on events at the dawn of human history. They applied their methods to the genomes of individuals of East Asian, European, and western and southern African descent. They analyzed only six genomes, but made use of the fact that these genomes contain traces of genetic material from thousands of human ancestors, which have been assembled into new combinations over the millennia by genetic recombination.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. MIT researchers have created a new Urban Network Analysis (UNA) toolbox that enables urban designers and planners to describe the spatial patterns of cities using mathematical network analysis methods. Such tools can support better informed and more resilient urban design and planning in a context of rapid urbanization.

Mathematicians and biologists at Harvard explain why vertebrate intestines are so predictably loopy : Caroline Perry , (617) 496-1351 Between conception and birth, the human gut grows more than two meters long, looping and coiling within the tiny abdomen. Within a given species, the developing vertebrate gut always loops into the same formation'however, until now, it has not been clear why.

A theory linking two 'broken symmetries' in high-temperature superconductors is proposed and verified A theory advanced by a Cornell theoretical physicist to link two "broken symmetries" in a high-temperature superconductor has been verified by experiment, bringing scientists a step closer to understanding and perhaps improving superconducting materials.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Oh, the challenges of being a neuron, responsible for essential things like muscle contraction, gland secretion and sensitivity to touch, sound and light, yet constantly bombarded with signals from here, there and everywhere. How on earth are busy nerve cells supposed to pick out and respond to relevant signals amidst all that information overload' Somehow neurons do manage to accomplish the daunting task, and they do it with more finesse than anyone ever realized, new research by University of Michigan mathematician Daniel Forger and coauthors demonstrates.

— Coral Gables — University of Miami physicist Neil Johnson and his collaborators have developed a simple mathematical model that can estimate the progression of fatal terrorist and insurgency attacks around the world. The report unveils a new mathematical model that utilizes the time interval between the first couple of attacks in order to forecast the evolution of the conflict.

New research establishes the relationship between the number of squares in a Rubik?s-cube-type puzzle and the maximum number of moves required to solve it. Last August, 30 years after the Rubik's cube first appeared, an international team of researchers proved that no matter how scrambled a cube got, it could be solved in no more than 20 moves.

by Gale Scott Whether packing oranges into a crate, fitting molecules into a human cell or getting data onto a compact disc, wasted space is usually not a good thing. Now, in findings published June 20 in the Proceedings of the National Academy Sciences, Princeton University chemist Salvatore Torquato and colleagues have solved a conundrum that has baffled mathematical minds since ancient times - how to fill three-dimensional space with multi-sided objects other than cubes without having any gaps.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. If you flip a light switch and nothing happens, there are a couple of possible explanations. One is that something has gone wrong in the external world - maybe the bulb has burned out. Alternatively, you may have made a mistake, perhaps flipping the wrong switch. Learning to make the distinction between our own influence and the impact of the outside world is a critical part of cognitive development.

New research from the University of Warwick and the IZA Institute in Bonn shows that 10% of middle-aged Europeans took antidepressants in 2010. The researchers looked in detail at the lives of a randomly selected sample of nearly 30,000 Europeans. The study covered 27 countries. Andrew Oswald, an economics professor at the University of Warwick, and co-author of the study, described the results as concerning, he said: "Antidepressants are a relatively new kind of commodity.

Preschool children seem to grasp the true concept of counting only if they are taught to understand the number value of groups of objects greater than three, research at the University of Chicago shows. "We think that seeing that there are three objects doesn't have to involve counting. It's only when children go beyond three that counting is necessary to determine how many objects there are," said Elizabeth Gunderson, a UChicago graduate student in psychology.

by Simon Levey 10 June 2011 A recent ranking of university mathematics departments has listed Imperial College London as having the most influential mathematics research of any institution in Europe. Academic publishers Thomson-Reuters created the new chart by establishing how much the research findings of scientists in the world's top 200 institutions influenced research by others outside of that institution.

Findings could aid in the development of better technologies for hydraulic fracturing and other fluid extraction techniques from the earth PASADENA, Calif.—When geologists survey an area of land for the potential that gas or petroleum deposits could exist there, they must take into account the composition of rocks that lie below the surface.