09 September 2008

Hawking makes $100 bet that the LHC won't find Higgs

Dr. Stephen Hawking has made a $100 bet that the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, which throws its first beam tomorrow, will not find the elusive particle knows as the Higgs boson.

What makes the Higgs the most highly sought-after particle in physics? In his TEDTalk, Brian Cox describes the Higgs particle "in language a politician can understand":

What the Higgs does is, it gives mass to the fundamental particles. The whole universe is full of something called the Higgs field, Higgs particles if you will. [Referring to the sketch above] The analogy is that these people in a room are the Higgs particles. Now, when a particle moves through the universe, it can interact with these particles. But imagine someone who's not very popular moves through the room, and everyone ignores them. They just pass through the room very quickly, essentially at the speed of light. They're massless.

Now imagine someone incredibly important, and popular, and intelligent ... walks into the room, they're surrounded by people, and their passage is impeded. It's almost like they get heavy, they get massive. And that's exactly the way the Higgs mechanism works. The ... electrons and the quarks in your body, and in the universe that we see around us, are heavy, they're massive, because they're surrounded by Higgs particles. They're interacting with the Higgs field.

The physicists at the LHC are looking to the Higgs particle to finally explain some mysteries of the universe. And that's why Dr. Hawking doesn't really want it to be found, he says:

I think it will be much more exciting if we don't find the Higgs. That will show something is wrong, and we need to think again. I have a bet of $100 that we won't find the Higgs.

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01 July 2008

Flying Stephen Hawking into zero g: Peter Diamandis on TED.com

X Prize founder Peter Diamandis talks about how he helped Stephen Hawking fulfill his dream of going to space -- by flying together into the upper atmosphere and experiencing weightlessness at zero g. (Recorded February 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 04:01.)

Watch Peter Diamandis' 2008 talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances -- including Stephen Hawking's 2008 TEDTalk about humanity's greatest questions.

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15 May 2008

Stephen Hawking meets Nelson Mandela for AIMS

Above: Professor Stephen Hawking met South Africa's former president, Nelson Mandela, in Houghton, Johannesburg, today. From left to right are Stephen Hawking, Neil Turok, Nelson Mandela, Pik Botha and David Block. Photograph by Dr Robert Groess.

Professor Stephen Hawking today met with South Africa's former president Nelson Mandela to discuss the NextEinstein initiative -- part of Neil Turok's TED Prize wish to develop math and science talent all over Africa.

The NextEinstein initiative builds on the success of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, AIMS, a pan-African centrer for postgraduate training and research, based in Muizenberg, Cape Town. AIMS has so far graduated 160 young scientists from 30 African countries; 53 students, including 20 women, are currently enrolled.

The Next Einstein plan is to create many AIMS centres all over Africa. The second AIMS centre opens in Abuja, Nigeria, in July and additional centres are planned in Ghana, Uganda, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Botswana, Rwanda and Sudan.

Upon meeting Mr Mandela, Professor Hawking said, "I am very pleased to meet you. I admire how you managed to find a peaceful solution to a situation that seemed doomed to disaster. It was one of the great achievements of the twentieth century. If only the Israelis and the Palestinians could do the same."

In turn, Mr Mandela expressed a great interest in AIMS and a desire to visit the centre.

Professor Hawking leaves tonight for Cape Town to participate in a workshop on cosmology at the new National Institute for Theoretical Physics at Stellenbosch.

Read the full press release here >>

Learn more about NextEinstein.org >>

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12 May 2008

20 new AIMS scholarships from Barclays

Amy Novogratz reports from the AIMS celebrating weekend in Muizeberg, Cape Town:

During a luncheon to celebrate the opening of the new Research Center at AIMS -- the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences -- Barclays announces their support by starting with 20 AIMS scholarships a year, renewable.

Stephen Hawking (right) is in South Africa for this event -- and to deliver his first-ever lecture in Africa. This all grows out of 2008 TED Prize winner Neil Turok's wish -- that the TED community will help him to educate the next Einstein in Africa. More reports from the AIMS party to come!

Below, AIMS founder Neil Turok receives the support of the South African government at the luncheon.

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07 May 2008

Celebrating the new AIMS Research Centre in South Africa

2008 TED Prize winner Neil Turok sends these great photos from the new AIMS Research Centre, which is set to open May 12 in Muizenberg, Cape Town, South Africa. AIMS -- the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences -- promotes math and sciences education throughout Africa. Its goal is, quite simply, to find the next Einstein in Africa.

During a two-day festival starting this weekend, Neil Turok, AIMS director Fritz Hahne and the students of AIMS will dedicate the new AIMS Research Centre -- and launch a drive to build a dozen more AIMS schools all over Africa. At the party: the head of NASA, two Nobel laureates, poets and musicians, and the 25 amazing students at AIMS, as well as Stephen Hawking, who's expected to give his first-ever lecture in Africa. Look to the TED Blog and to TEDPrize.org for more reports!

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04 April 2008

The answer was there all along

In his TEDTalk released today, physicist Stephen Hawking asks Big Questions about life, the universe and everything. His talk was recorded at Cambridge, in a borrowed classroom -- whose well-used blackboard happens to contain the Answer to life, the universe and everything. It's visible in the upper-right-hand corner of the shot above, and in this inset:



Thanks for the tip, Robert Todd!

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04 April 2008

Asking Big Questions about the universe: Stephen Hawking on TED.com

In keeping with the theme of TED2008, professor Stephen Hawking asks some Big Questions about our universe -- How did the universe begin? How did life begin? Are we alone? -- and discusses how we might go about answering them.(Recorded March 2008 in Monterey, California, and in Cambridge, UK. Duration: 10:12.)

Watch Stephen Hawking's talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances.

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