March 15, 2010, 11:42 AM CT

Mobile Phone Service Providers Look To Snare New Customers With Free Gadgets

As technology in the mobile phone industry has advanced so rapidly over the last 12 months - particularly with the advent of many new smart phones - and with such a large selection of similar handsets available from different manufacturers offering similar features at equally competitive tariffs, mobile phone service providers are now seeking new marketing angles and unique selling points in order to try and differentiate themselves in a highly competitive and largely saturated marketplace.

Some providers are now turning away from the frequently available free handsets, minutes and text bundles that have traditionally provided the bait for snaring new customers and are instead offering a selection of alternative gadgets and tech products such as free HDTVs, Xbox 360s, laptops or a free Nintendo Wii as incentives to attract new business and make them stand out from the crowd. This has proved a logical step for service providers not only from a sales and marketing stance, but also as modern smart phone technology can often be synchronised and used in conjunction with such products in order to further advance the user experience and help them get the most out of their new handsets. Indeed, this integration of technology through a number of electronic mediums is seemingly becoming central to users in the digital era, as telecommunications and social networking begin to merge to provide the user with 24 hour virtual interaction with the world around them – and the telecommunications industry seems to have latched onto this in order to differentiate themselves in a busy and highly competitive yet lucrative marketplace......... Posted by: John      Read more         Source

March 10, 2010, 9:17 PM CT

Reduce your overheads with VMware hosting

Businesses have had a hard time of late with the global recession which has affected all of us in one way or another. Companies are looking for ways to tighten their belts and reduce their overheads and one method that has emerged is the use of VMware hosting solutions for their IT needs.

VMware hosting can be an especially prudent investment for SMEs with relatively few IT requirements where buying and maintaining a server in house, which may only be using a fraction of its capacity to run the email and data systems, just does not make sense anymore. Plus with an in house server you need an in house IT team to look after it, deal with issues and software updates and you run the risk of downtime if the server breaks down.

What is VMware Hosting

VMware technology allows a server to be compartmentalised, with each compartment acting as a virtual server in its own right and running its own operating system. Hosting companies can offer hosting on server stacks running VMware technology and support the IT requirements of multiple companies on a fraction of the hardware and energy that would be being used if each company were using their own in house systems. As the cost of running and supporting the systems is spread across the clients, the hosting companies can offer the services at much lower cost to each client than if they kept everything in house......... Posted by: John      Read more         Source

March 10, 2010, 9:09 PM CT

Low cost Linux virtual hosting

Linux is a free open source operating system based on the Unix operating system and is a popular alternative to others (such as Microsoft) due to it's versatility. Additionally, Linux servers which most often run a platform of Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Python have become very popular with web developers and in turn many businesses have websites and systems run on this software. In fact, IBM has chosen Linux to be the operating system on their Sequioa supercomputer due to be unveiled in 2011.

Linux virtual hosting has emerged as a service for companies running their IT systems on the Linux platform. It offers them the opportunity to outsource their IT requirements to specialised hosting companies who run virtual servers – server machines which have been compartmentalised, with each compartment running its own operating system and acting as an individual server.

This can be a very low cost solution which can really benefit small to medium businesses who are trying to lower overheads as we emerge from the recent recession. Plus, the nature of the virtual hosting system and the Linux platform allow perfectly for scalability as your business grows. As your needs increase, your hosting company can increase the server space available and add extra software applications, updates etc as you require them......... Posted by: John      Read more         Source

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:45:26 GMT

Mycorrhizal Networks

Today"s BPotD is the second in the series of BPotD"s contribution to the 2010 UBC Celebrate Research Week.

Lindsay organized today"s entry, selected the links, and introduces Dr. Suzanne Simard:

Dr. Suzanne Simard is a professor with the UBC Faculty of Forestry, where she lectures on and researches the role of mycorrhizae and mycorrhizal networks in tree species migrations with climate change disturbance. Networks of mycorrhizal fungal mycelium have recently been discovered by Professor Suzanne Simard and her graduate students to connect the roots of trees and facilitate the sharing of resources in Douglas-fir forests of interior British Columbia, thereby bolstering their resilience against disturbance or stress and facilitating the establishment of new regeneration.

Dr. Simard writes:

Mycorrhizal fungi form obligate symbioses with trees, where the tree supplies the fungus with carbohydrate energy in return for water and nutrients the fungal mycelia gather from the soil; mycorrhizal networks form when mycelia connect the roots of two or more plants of the same or different species. Graduate student Kevin Beiler has uncovered the extent and architecture of this network through the use of new molecular tools that can distinguish the DNA of one fungal individual from another, or of one tree"s roots from another. He has found that all trees in dry interior Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca) forests are interconnected, with the largest, oldest trees serving as hubs, much like the hub of a spoked wheel, where younger trees establish within the mycorrhizal network of the old trees. Through careful experimentation, recent graduate Francois Teste determined that survival of these establishing trees was greatly enhanced when they were linked into the network of the old trees.Through the use of stable isotope tracers, he and Amanda Schoonmaker, a recent undergraduate student in Forestry, found that increased survival was associated with belowground transfer of carbon, nitrogen and water from the old trees. This research provides strong evidence that maintaining forest resilience is dependent on conserving mycorrhizal links, and that removal of hub trees could unravel the network and compromise regenerative capacity of the forests.

In wetter, mixed-species interior Douglas-fir forests, graduate student Brendan Twieg also used molecular tools to discover that Douglas-fir and paper birch (Betula papyrifera) trees can be linked together by species-rich mycorrhizal networks. We found that the mycorrhizal network serves as a belowground pathway for transfer of carbon from the nutrient-rich deciduous trees to nearby regenerating Douglas-fir seedlings. Moreover, we found that carbon transfer was enhanced when Douglas-fir seedlings were shaded in mid-summer, providing a subsidy that may be important in Douglas-fir survival and growth, thus helping maintain a mixed forest community during early succession. This is not a one-way subsidy, however; graduate Leanne Philip discovered that Douglas-fir supported their birch neighbours in the spring and fall by sending back some of this carbon when the birch was leafless. This back-and-forth flux of resources according to need may be one process that maintains forest diversity and stability.

Mycorrhizal networks may be critical in helping forest ecosystems deal with climate change. Maintaining the biological webs that stabilize forests may help conserve genetic resources for future tree migrations, ensure that forest carbon stocks remain intact on the landscape, and conserve species diversity. UBC graduate student Marcus Bingham is finding that maintaining mycorrhizal webs may be more important for the regeneration and stability of the dry than wet interior Douglas-fir forests, where resources are more limited and climate change is expected to have greater impacts. Helping the landscape adapt to climate change will require more than keeping existing forests intact, however. Many scientists are concerned that species will need to migrate at a profoundly more rapid rate than they have in the past, and that humans can facilitate this migration by planting tree species adapted to warm climates in new areas. UBC graduate student Brendan Twieg is starting new research to help us understand whether the presence of appropriate mycorrhizal symbionts in foreign soils may limit the success of tree migrations, and if so, to help us design practices that increase our success at facilitating changes in these forests.

Daniel adds: Some housecleaning bits to add. Dr. Simard noted that a version of today"s BPotD appeared in the Faculty of Forestry"s newsletter Branch Lines, here: Simard, S.W. (2010) Why research matters to the forest systems of BC (PDF). Branch Lines, 20: 4-5. Dr. Simard also contributed the photograph of Cantharellus formosus. The illustration of the fungi and tree is courtesy of Shannon Wright. The schematic of the fungal network is by Kevin Beiler, and was published in: Beiler KJ, Durall DM, Simard SW, Maxwell SA, Kretzer AM. 2010. Architecture of the wood-wide web: Rhizopogon spp genets link multiple Douglas-fir cohorts. New Phytologist, 185: 543-553. Posted by: Daniel Mosquin      Read more     Source

March 8, 2010, 9:14 AM CT

A high-tech handrest

University of Utah engineers developed a computer-controlled, motorized hand and arm support that will let doctors, artists and others precisely control scalpels, brushes and tools over a wider area than otherwise possible, and with less fatigue.

"We've invented a new device the Active Handrest that's useful for aiding people in performing precision tasks with their hands such as surgery, painting, electronics repair or other tasks that require precise control of the fingertips," says William Provancher, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

A patent on the device is pending, and Provancher says he may form a spin-off company to commercialize it, or may license it to companies that produce touch-feedback devices, make robotic surgery equipment, produce art or refurbish electronics.

Provancher will discuss development and testing of the Active Handrest on March 25, during the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Haptics Symposium in Waltham, Mass. Haptics is to the sense of touch as optics is to the sense of sight.

"The Active Handrest would benefit surgeons and other medical personnel, artists, machinists, workers performing pick-and-place tasks, or anyone requiring dexterous control of tools," Provancher wrote in a paper prepared for the meeting......... Posted by: John      Read more         Source

February 26, 2010, 11:42 PM CT

A Guide to Choosing from Different Types of Headsets

Technology is so advanced these days that life is becoming more and more effortless with each passing day. Take for example the recent introduction of G4 Bluetooth by Cardo Systems. These little devices are basically designed for bikers so that they can converse with each other while riding on the same bike or on different bikes. Hence, even bikers also can keep in touch with each other while riding bikes. There are different types of headsets available in the market today. There are user specific headsets and you can choose the one that suits all your requirements. The following list will help you decide which one would be best suited to you and will fulfill all your needs.

Business and Telephone Headsets

Headsets for home or business purposes come with wired or wireless features. Today the wireless varieties come with noise cancelling technologies and hence, they are apt for business environments. You can easily use them during long important conversations so that you don’t miss any minute details in noisy environments. At the same time the wireless ones come in very handy in your home as well as in the office as you can perform other tasks and carry on a telephonic conversation simultaneously.

VOIP Headsets........ Posted by: John      Read more         Source

February 24, 2010, 9:55 PM CT

Still haven't found the right web hosting provider for your website?

One of the reasons why a lot have been setting up their own websites either for personal or for business is that there’s just so many options to choose from these days. But sometimes, the more choices there are, the more confusing it is to actually choose the right provider.

If you don’t want to spend much or to spend at all on a hosting provider, then you might be looking for something like a free hosting package. Although, there are a lot of web hosts who offer free hosting, not all of them are quite nice neither for your website nor worth your time. Some web hosts actually put annoying ads, even pop-ups on your site in exchange for the free service they provide. Your site may look very unprofessional and you’re not even going to get any share from it either. And others are just simply not capable enough of providing you a good and reliable hosting.

Doteasy, on the other hand, is one of the leading domain name registrars that also provide web hosting services. What sets them apart from other web hosts is that they offer really low prices without sacrificing the quality of service they provide. Their unlimited hosting plan which is perfect for a business website starts at only $9.95 per month. And if you want to first test how reliable their service is, you can actually try out their free web hosting package which is completely free. No set up fee and no monthly fee. Aside from that, they currently have a promo which lets their customers register for any domain name for only $5.95 and already get a free hosting package with it. ........ Posted by: Milan      Read more         Source

February 18, 2010, 9:56 PM CT

Stitching together lab-on-a-chip

Researchers in Australia are reporting the first use of ordinary cotton thread and sewing needles to literally stitch together a microfluidic analytical device microscopic technology that can transport fluids for medical tests and other purposes in a lab-on-a-chip. The chips shrink room-sized diagnostic testing equipment down to the size of a postage stamp, and promise revolutionary applications in medicine, environmental sensing, and other areas. Their study is in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, a monthly journal.

Wei Shen and his colleagues note that the development of low-cost "lab-on-a-chip" diagnostic tests has become an attractive area of research. Existing devices require etching microscopic channels onto slivers of silicon, glass, ceramics, or metal in a costly, complicated process. The researchers set out to find an alternative, and did so with cotton thread, which wicks fluids along its tiny fibers.

They stitched thread into paper to form microfluidic sensors capable of detecting and measuring substances released in the urine of patients with several human medical conditions. "The fabrication of thread-based microfluidic devices is simple and relatively low cost because it requires only sewing needles or household sewing machines," the report said. "Our results demonstrate that thread is a suitable material for fabricating microfluidic diagnostic devices for monitoring human health, environment and food safety, particularly for the population in less-industrialized areas or remote regions"......... Posted by: John      Read more         Source

February 18, 2010, 9:40 PM CT

Genes, environment, or chance?

Biologists attribute variations among individual organisms to differences in genes or environment, or both. But a newly released study of nematode worms with identical genes, raised in identical environments, has revealed another factor: chance.

It's another source of variation for researchers to consider. "Scientists have been exploring whether organisms evolve different ways to cope with genetic and environmental variation," said author Scott Rifkin, an assistant professor of biology at UC San Diego. "This study adds random variation to that mix".

Rifkin, who joined the UCSD faculty this fall, completed the study while working at MIT. The paper, co-authored by Arjun Raj, who contributed equally to the work, Erik Andersen and Alexander van Oudenaarden of MIT, is reported in the February 18 issue of Nature

Rifkin and colleagues looked at the development of the gut in C. elegans In a number of, but not all worms with mutations in a gene called skn-1, the gut failed to develop, even when the embryos were genetically identical and incubated together.

"Often when people look at variation in a trait among organisms they try to trace it back to genetic differences or differences in environmental conditions or some combination of the two. In our study there were no such differences, and so we hypothesized that the only other source for the variation could be differences that arose at random during the process of development," Rifkin said......... Posted by: Nora      Read more         Source

January 25, 2010, 8:08 AM CT

Supercomputers to explore nuclear energy

Ever wanted to see a nuclear reactor core in action? A new computer algorithm developed by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory allows researchers to view nuclear fission in much finer detail than ever before.

A team of nuclear engineers and computer researchers at Argonne National Laboratory are in the process of developing the neutron transport code UNIC, which enables scientists for the first time to obtain a highly detailed description of a nuclear reactor core.

The code could prove crucial in the development of nuclear reactors that are safe, affordable and environmentally friendly. To model the complex geometry of a reactor core requires billions of spatial elements, hundreds of angles and thousands of energy groups-all of which lead to problem sizes with quadrillions of possible solutions.

Such calculations exhaust computer memory of the largest machines, and therefore reactor modeling codes typically rely on various approximations. But approximations limit the predictive capability of computer simulations and leave considerable uncertainty in crucial reactor design and operational parameters.

"The UNIC code is intended to reduce the uncertainties and biases in reactor design calculations by progressively replacing existing multilevel averaging techniques with more direct solution methods based on explicit reactor geometries," said Andrew Siegel, a computational scientist at Argonne and leader of Argonne's reactor simulation group......... Posted by: Edna      Read more         Source

January 12, 2010, 8:53 AM CT

Faster and More Efficient Software for the Air Force

Scientists at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln have addressed the issue of faulty software by developing an algorithm and open source tool that is 300 times faster at generating tests and also reduces current software testing time.

The new algorithm has potential to increase the efficiency of the software testing process across systems.

The project, funded in part by an Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Award and through a National Science Foundation Early CAREER Award, is of particular interest to the military because of the potential to reduce errors in theater. This technology will also be helpful to the private sector where some agencies are reporting financial losses of up to 50 billion dollars per year because of poor software.

"Software failures have the potential to cause financial, environmental or bodily harm," said lead researcher, Dr. Myra Cohen. "Our techniques will help to improve the quality of software in the military to help ensure that those systems behave properly in the field".

"The ultimate goal of research like this is not just to reduce software testing costs, but to do so while maintaining or even increasing confidence in the tests themselves," said AFOSR Program Manager, Dr. David Luginbuhl who is overseeing Cohen's work......... Posted by: John      Read more         Source

September 23, 2009, 7:17 AM CT

Exposing dangerous invisible pollution

Worried that dust from a nearby construction zone will harm your family's health? A new Tel Aviv University tool could either confirm your suspicions or better yet, set your mind at rest.

Prof. Eyal Ben-Dor and his Ph.D. student Dr. Sandra Chudnovsky, of TAU's Department of Geography have developed a sensor called "Dust Alert" - the first of its kind - to help families and authorities monitor the quality of the air they breathe. Like an ozone gas or carbon monoxide meter, it measures the concentration of small particles that may contaminate the air in your home. Scientific studies on "Dust Alert" appeared recently in the journal Science of the Total Environment, Urban Air Pollution: Problems, Control Technologies and Management Practices.

"It works just like an ozone meter would," says Prof. Ben-Dor. "You put it in your home or office for three weeks, and it can give you real-time contamination levels in terms of dust, pollen and toxins." Functioning like a tiny chemistry lab, the device can precisely determine the chemical composition of the toxins, so homeowners, office managers and factories can act to improve air quality.

Using the measurements, Prof. Ben-Dor can sometimes find a quick remedy for a dusty or pollen-filled home. The solution could be as easy as keeping a window open, he says. "We've found through our ongoing research that some simple actions at home can have a profound effect on the quality of air we breathe"......... Posted by: John      Read more         Source

September 15, 2009, 7:59 AM CT

Dual simulation improves crash performance

Crash tests often produce startling results. A new simulation process which factors in deformation during production as well as preliminary damage can predict the results of a crash test more accurately than ever.

There are components that save lives: if a car rolls over during an accident, the 'B-pillar' plays a key role. It forms one of the connections between the floor and roof of the vehicle and is designed to prevent the passenger cell from deforming too much. The materials from which the B-pillar is manufactured therefore need to meet very exacting requirements: to save fuel they need to be ultra-lightweight, yet at the same time need to be tremendously strong and must not break. Yet what does the optimum component actually look like? With the aid of countless experiments, simulations and crash tests, the auto industry has been getting nearer to answering this question. Now Fraunhofer scientists are providing further impetus to development.

Engineers will commonly carry out a range of virtual tests. Known materials properties provide the basic knowledge in such a scenario. "We are well aware of the physical and mechanical characteristics of the materials in their original state," says Dr. Dong-Zhi Sun, Group leader at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM. Yet during the course of the manufacturing process, the components change: with a B-pillar, for instance, the material goes through a complicated manufacturing chain. As it is deformed and stretched, minor damage such as pore formation may occur. "If you're going to fit these kinds of parts into vehicles, you need to take into account their deformation history during manufacture," explains Sun. That's why the scientists have developed a special method: "With our failure model, we can simulate manufacturing processes more effectively," explains Sun. "To ensure we understand the manufacturing processes inside out, we work together closely with automakers and materials producers." Thanks to the simulation, the scientists can precisely model and analyze the deformation of the component during manufacture. So they know to what extent the process affects the properties of the end product, and whether the manufacturing process gives rise to potential preliminary damage such as pore formation and microcracks. The engineers combine the results of the process simulation with a crash simulation, which is conducted using a newly developed material model......... Posted by: John      Read more         Source

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 02:56:43 GMT

The Most Exciting Future Biophysics Tool

If you could wish for any capabilities in an instrument to help you with your research, what would they be? It might not be hard to come up with a useful super power that’s way out of reach of current or near-future technology, but what about something you might actually have in the next 10 or 20 years?

One of my interests is high resolution imaging, either by scanning probe or fluorescence microscopy, and I’ve seen and taken advantage of some great electron microscopy as well (although I haven’t done any myself). Each of these methods in their current most common form has advantages and disadvantages: scanning probe microscopies tend to be slow but offer high resolution with little sample preparation, fluorescence microscopy suffers from lower resolution but has pretty good acquisition rate and molecular specificity, and electron microscopy involves more complicated sample preparation that can distort the sample and only provides a snapshot, but it can provide truly exquisite images at a range of spatial scales.

These methods are all providing new insights into every area of cell biology and biophysics—fluorescence microscopy especially is now a staple of almost every lab in these fields—but it’s the ways that these methods are being pushed beyond their current limits that are truly exciting. New tools have always provided new insights, but I think cell biology is poised to be completely revolutionized in the next few decades.

Take atomic force microscopy. High resolution in water, but painfully slow. Wouldn’t it be nice if it were faster? It is. The animated gif on the right is an AFM movie taken at 12 frames per second in Toshio Ando’s lab at Kanazawa University in Japan. You’re seeing a single myosin molecule undergo a conformational change in real time. Single molecule fluorescence methods have provided a lot of insight into the mechanism of molecular motor motion (they walk) but there are still finer scales to investigate and high-speed AFM may prove to be the tool of choice in the very near future.

That’s very nice for in vitro work, but ultimately cells are where the action is. I want an instrument that will reduce the vast majority of cell biology to computer science. That will “only” require the convergence of three existing technologies: cryo-electron tomography, environmental scanning electron microscopy, and femtosecond electron diffraction. The ultimate fantasy or course is an atomic scale femtosecond movie of a living cell over hours. That would give you a complete genetic, proteomic, biophysical, and biochemical picture of cell function. You would still need interesting perturbations to ask questions, but all the answers would be provided by a single instrument and clever data mining. Even relaxing the goal by orders of magnitude in every direction to 10 nm spatial resolution and millisecond time resolution in a one minute movie would be radical.

Sounds far-fetched, but don’t forget that we’ve already got Wolfgang Baumeister talking about Kanazawa University and Wolfgang Baumeister and people like Philip’s advisor doing Kanazawa University. Wolfgang Baumeister works in water vapour. At a talk at the Kanazawa University, Ahmed Zewail spoke about an Kanazawa University for electron diffraction and imaging. He showed a picture of a cell they took with it and he says their goal is to do a Kanazawa University version of electron diffraction in a cell within a few years.

Maybe he wasn’t even exaggerating…




While on the topic of things that might be possible in the future, nanotech enthusiasts might be interested to know that Kanazawa University now has a blog called Kanazawa University. Posted by: Andre      Read more     Source

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 17:10:34 GMT

Healthcare in Second Life

I just found a playlist on Youtube that is dedicated to healthcare in Second Life, the virtual world. Numerous videos about tools for medical education and sites for patient support.

An example:

Posted by: Bertalan      Read more     Source

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 04:13:43 GMT

Cladina sp

I''m on vacation, so please accept my apologies for the brief entries. -- Daniel.

I''m not sure of the identity of this one, but I suspect Cladina rangiferina, or reindeer moss (though it''s really a lichen). This was growing at ~850m (2800ft) in elevation. It was a common sight in the White Pass area, although I must admit it does look a bit different when a macro lens is used (see other images of Cladina spp.).

It also seems that all Cladina species are now lumped into Cladonia; the USDA PLANTS database still uses Cladina. Posted by: Daniel Mosquin      Read more     Source

September 10, 2008, 9:01 PM CT

First beam for Large Hadron Collider

An international collaboration of researchers today sent the first beam of protons zooming at nearly the speed of light around the 17-mile-long underground circular path of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's most powerful particle accelerator, located at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland.

The researchers also accelerated a second beam of protons through the path in the opposite direction, the goal being head-on collisions of protons that can offer clues to the origin of mass and new forces and particles in the universe. The second beam made one turn around the LHC.

Celebrations across the United States and around the world mark the LHC's first circulating beams, an occasion more than 15 years in the making. An estimated 10,000 people from 60 countries have helped design and build the accelerator and its massive particle detectors, including more than 1,700 scientists, engineers, students and technicians from 94 U.S. universities and laboratories supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science and the National Science Foundation.

UCR faculty Robert Clare, John Ellison, J. William Gary, Gail Hanson and Stephen Wimpenny, along with postdoctoral researchers and graduate students are involved in the LHC's Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment, a large particle-capturing detector whose discoveries are expected to help answer questions such as: Are there undiscovered principles of nature? What is the origin of mass? Do extra dimensions exist? What is dark matter? How can we solve the mystery of dark energy? And how did the universe come to be?........ Posted by: John      Read more         Source

September 10, 2008, 8:09 PM CT

UC Santa Barbara has key role in Large Hadron Collider project

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) -- Earlier today, some 300 feet below the Earth's surface, in a circular tunnel so extensive that it travels from Switzerland into France and back again, researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva fired the first beams of protons that they hope will eventually produce history-making science.

A contingent of more than 40 faculty members, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, engineers, technicians, and undergraduates from UC Santa Barbara have worked for eight years to help construct the experimental apparatus. The UCSB group is part of an international effort that is now embarking on a 15-year quest to try to answer fundamental questions about the universe.

The startup of the LHC marked a milestone for the UCSB particle physics program. The group has played a key role in constructing one of four major experiments now in place the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), a complex array of instruments for detecting subatomic particles. The device weighs more than 12,000 tons and is as tall as a four-story building.

UCSB's team is led by four members of its experimental high-energy physics faculty. Professor Joseph Incandela has been in Switzerland for the past year, shepherding the CMS experiment as deputy physics coordinator. Shuttling back and forth between Santa Barbara and Switzerland have been professors Claudio Campagnari, Jeffrey Richman, and David Stuart. The faculty members are unanimous in their praise for CERN's monumental effort in building the LHC, the world's largest particle accelerator......... Posted by: John      Read more         Source