THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2008
NEWS
5A
SCIENCE
Three scientists win $1.4 million physics Nobel Prize
bus like the to corse," is soon lew to meme- ted to new her study on
bulling to talk reading."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Retired University of Chicago Physics professor Yoichiro Nambu responds to a question during a news conference after winning the Nobel Prize in Physics on the university campus in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago on Tuesday.
Prize awarded for theoretical advances in explanation of smallest particles
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Two Japanese scientists and an American won the 2008 Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for theoretical advances that help explain the behavior of the smallest particles of matter.
The American, Yoichiro
The A. K.
Nambu, 87,
of the University of
Chicago, won
half the $1.4
million prize
for mathematic
work he did
nearly a half-
century ago.
"I had almost given up" on getting the Nobel, Nambu said.
a spokesman for the American Institute of Physics, put it: "Nature works in strange ways, and these three physicists helped to explain that strangeness in an ingenious way"
Makoto Kobavashi and
They focused on a concept physicists call symmetry, and more specifically on occasions when that
"Nature works in strange ways, and these three physicists helped to explain that strangeness in an ingenious way."
Toshibide Maskawa of Japan shared the other half for a 1972 theory that forecast the later discovery of a new family of subatomic particles.
PHIL SCHEWE Physicist
The insights of the three scientists "give us a deeper understanding of what happens far inside the tiniest building blocks of matter," said the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which presents the physics award.
Or, as physicist Phil Schewe,
symmetry is violated.
In physics, the idea of symmetry means that a physical situation will be unaltered by certain changes. At the subatomic level, for example, things should happen the same way whether time is
running forward or backward, so if you were watching a movie, you couldn't tell which way the movie was going. Similarly, symmetry could mean that you couldn't tell whether you were viewing action directly or through a mirror.
If one of those rules is violated, the symmetry is broken.
An important example of broken symmetry arose immediately after the big bang, when just a tiny bit
more matter than antimatter was created. Because these two kinds of particles annihilate each other when they meet, that excess of matter was responsible for seeding the visible parts of the universe.
Nambu introduced his description of so-called spontaneous broken symmetry into particle physics in 1960. The Nobel citation said his theories now permeate the Standard Model of physics, which is the basic theory of how the universe operates. For example, spontaneous
broken symmetry offers an explanation for how different particles acquired different masses.
In 1972,
Kobayashi
and Maskawa
explained why
later, they were proven right.
"I wasn't expecting the prize. I've been only pursuing my interest."
The Japanese-born Nambu moved to the United States in 1952 and is a professor at the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago, where he has worked for 40 years. He became a U.S. citizen in 1970.
an earlier experiment had found that some subatomic particles called kaons failed to follow the rules of symmetry. Their explanation correctly predicted the existence of a new family of quarks, which are a kind of subatomic particle.
Kobayashi and Maskawa also predicted that broken symmetry would arise for other particles called B-mesons. Nearly 30 years
TOSHIHIDE MASKAWA Physicist and Nobel Prize recipient
Kobayashi, 64, works for the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, or KEK, in Tsukuba, Japan. Maskawa, 68, is a physics professor at Kyoto Sangyo University in Japan's ancient capti-
tal of Kyoto. He also teaches at Nagoya University in his hometown in central Japan.
"I wasn't expecting the prize," Kobayashi said.
at a news conference. "I've been only pursuing my interest."
TECHNOLOGY
Masakawa told reporters that as a scientist he wasn't thrilled.
"The Nobel prize is a rather mundane thing" he said.
The prizes in chemistry, literature and the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced later this week. The economics award will be presented on Monday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
'Goggles' make drunk users do math before e-mailing
SEATTLE — Here's the scenario:
It's Friday night, and what began as an innocent hour-happy margarita morphed into a few pitchers. After all, those tacos were salty.
Bidding friends adieu, you jump
in a cab, head home and decide a quick e-mail check is in order and there it is: a message from your ex; or your boss; or that friend you're secretly mad at.
If you're the kind of person who types tipy and regrets it in the morning, Google's "Mail Goggles,"
a new test-phase feature in the free Gmail service, might save you some angst.
The Gogles kick in at night on weekends. The feature requires you to solve a few easy math problems in short order before hitting "send." If your logical thinking skills
are intact. Google is betting you're sober enough to work out the repercussions of sending that screed you just drafted.
And if you can't multiply two times five, you'll probably thank Google in the morning.
To activate Goggles, Gmail users
can click the "Settings" link at the top of a Gmail page, then go to the "Labs" section.
There's no shame in admitting that sometimes you need a little extra help.
Gmail engineer Jon Perlow designed Goggles with his own
weaknesses in mind.
The name is derived from the slang term "beer goggles."
But you can set up Mail Goggles to protect you from yourself at other emotionally vulnerable times — before your morning coffee, for example, or after "Grey's Anatomy."
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Saturday, Oct. 18:
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Tournament starts at 10:00 A.M.
The Top 64 (or 128) players
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October 17-19,2008 Overland Park Convention Center 6000 College Blvd., Overland Park KS 66211
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Tournaments - Drafts - Prizes - Artist Signings - Gunslinging Game Play- Giveaways Booster Drafts All Weekend STARTING FRIDAY! Meet Magic artists Dan Scott & Daarken and get your cards signed! For complete Public Events listings, go to: www.feralevents.com
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