Interest of the day

PBS has posted the NOVA Large Hadron Collider documentary on YouTube. It was a very good account of the search for the Higgs Boson.

The Cosmos website has posted an interesting article on the coronal hole that developed on the south pole of the Sun recently. The Sun has an magnetic field that flips every 11 years. The exact details of how the coronal hole develops is not well understood, but the north pole has flipped and the south pole magnetic field flip is still catching up. This could be part of the process that causes the coronal hole.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham use 3D X-ray CAT scans to study plant root systems to better understand plant biology and environmental effects on plant root systems.

New Scientist has a collection of articles on the 13 boldest ideas in science. These ideas include:

• Higher Dimensions
• Space-time
• Quantum reality
• Computing
• Infinity
• Deep time
• Big Bang
• Probability
• Mathematics
• Fields
• Relativity
• Evolution
• Alien Contact

The BBC has posted the Top 10 physics breakthroughs for the year. These include:

• Light on the cosmic web
• Neutrinos from the Sun
• Laser fusion milestone
• Acoustic tractor beam
• Supernovas in the lab
• Electron magnetism
• A better fibre for images
• Holographic memory
• Quantum compression

The National Academy of Engineering has announced the annual EngineerGirl Essay Contest due March 1, 2015 and it is open to both boys and girls. The winners receive $500 (3 categories). The topic is Engineering in Sports.

Researchers are studying the magnetic field interactions between stars and their orbiting planets with magnetic fields. 3D models of this magnetic field interaction indicate that a planet with a magnetic field can induce hot spots on the surface of its sun. This may lead to another means of detecting exoplanets.

The ESP Rosetta spacecraft will be dropping a lander onto the comment 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko tomorrow. It's a wild mission and mission scientist need a lot of luck for the lander to successfully land on the comment. It turned out the comet 67P is vastly different than what they planned on landing on as the intended comet could not be found.

The NSF is running a visualization challenge for the best scientific and engineering visualizations in five categories including:

• Photography
• Video
• Illustration
• Posters & Graphics
• Games & Apps

The deadline is Sept 30, 2014.

Blitzortung.org post real time maps of lightning strikes around the world. It's neat to watch lightning storms that are 1000s of miles a part across the US fire off in a kind of synchronized way.