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Submission + - CERN discovers new particle (web.cern.ch)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: CERN has announced the discovery of a new particle. The particle seems to have properties similar to the Higgs Boson, which is a particle predicted over 50 years ago by Peter Higgs and 5 others. The new particle was discovered with a sigma value of 5. Scientifically, this qualifies as a discovery. More experiments are needed to further explore the nature of the new particle.

Submission + - CERN Announces Discovery of a New Higgs Candidate Particle (web.cern.ch)

Submitted by
stephinity
stephinity writes: "Today's press release [CERN.ch] from CERN announced exciting news from the ATLAS and CMS [Wikipedia] experiments. "'The results are preliminary but the 5 sigma signal at around 125 GeV we’re seeing is dramatic. This is indeed a new particle. We know it must be a boson and it’s the heaviest boson ever found,' said CMS experiment spokesperson Joe Incandela." Although further analysis of the most recent data still underway, the publication of today's results is expected at the end of July. “'We have reached a milestone in our understanding of nature,' said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. 'The discovery of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson opens the way to more detailed studies, requiring larger statistics, which will pin down the new particle’s properties, and is likely to shed light on other mysteries of our universe.'”"

Submission + - Quantum Computing At Room-Temperature (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by asavin
asavin writes: A major obstacle in the way of practical quantum computing has been removed. Harvard researchers were recently able to create quantum bits (qubits) and store information on them for nearly two seconds at room temperature.
Science

Submission + - Higgs 1

Submitted by
The Bad Astronomer
The Bad Astronomer writes: "Scientists at CERN announced today the discovery of a new fundamental subatomic particle that is almost certainly the Higgs boson — a particle that is crucial in giving other particles mass.

The new particle has a mass of about 125 — 126 GeV (roughly 125 times the mass of a proton) which is just what the Higgs mass is predicted to be by the Standard Model of particle physics. A signal was seen in preliminary results from 2011, but observations since then have raised the confidence level hugely: the strength of the signal indicates it is real to the 5 sigma level — that is, with 99.9999% confidence. In physics, that qualifies as a "discovery". This is a monumental step in particle physics, and toward our understanding of one of the most fundamental and mysterious properties of matter in the Universe: mass."

Submission + - Higgs Boson Discovery: The Full CERN Statement (ibtimes.co.uk) 1

Submitted by asavin
asavin writes: The latest results from CERN experiments observed a particle consistent with long-sought Higgs Boson.

"We observe in our data clear signs of a new particle, at the level of 5 sigma, in the mass region around 126 GeV. The outstanding performance of the LHC and ATLAS and the huge efforts of many people have brought us to this exciting stage," said ATLAS experiment spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti, "but a little more time is needed to prepare these results for publication."
Electronic Frontier Foundation

Submission + - Charles Carreon drops case against The Oatmeal (eff.org)

Submitted by
Dynamoo
Dynamoo writes: "Charles Carreon has reportedly dropped his lawsuit against the creator of The Oatmeal, Matthew Inman. This bizarre lawsuit (dubbed a SLAPP suit by the EFF) kicked off after a dispute between Inman and FunnyJunk.com which span rapidly out of control. Perhaps Carreon has seen sense, but it turns out that there might be an even more bizarre twist in this tale"
Software

Submission + - Valve hands over its own movie-making tools to gamers (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: Valve has gained a reputation over the years not just for consistently putting out great games, but also for the slick trailers and promo videos that go along with them. But now the developer is turning the tables and handing over its own video-making tools to fans free of charge. With the Source Filmmaker, gamers will be able to direct, animate, and record their own videos as if they were shooting on location inside a video game.

Submission + - LHC claims new particle discovery (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by diewlasing
diewlasing writes: Cern scientists reporting at conferences in the UK and Geneva claim the discovery of a new particle consistent with the Higgs boson.

The particle has been the subject of a 45-year hunt to explain how matter attains its mass.

Both of the two Higgs-hunting experiments at the Large Hadron Collider have reached a level of certainty worthy of a "discovery".

More work will be needed to be certain that what they see is a Higgs, however.

The CMS team claimed they had seen a "bump" in their data corresponding to a particle weighing in at 125.3 gigaelectronvolts (GeV) — about 133 times heavier than the proton at the heart of every atom.
Security

Submission + - FBI to shut down DNSChanger servers Monday -- but should it cut off 300k PCs? (pcpro.co.uk) 1

Submitted by
nk497
nk497 writes: "The FBI is set to pull the plug on DNSChanger servers on Monday, leaving as many as 300,000 PCs with the wrong DNS settings, unable to easily connect to websites — although that's a big improvement from the 4m computers that would have been cut off had the authorities pulled the plug when arresting the alleged cybercriminals last year.

The date has been pushed back once already to allow people more time to sort out their infected PCs, but experts say it's better to cut off infected machines than leave them be. "Cutting them off would force them to get ahold of tech support and reveal to them that they’ve been running a vulnerable machine that’s been compromised," said F-Secure's Sean Sullivan. "They never learn to patch up the machine, so it’s vulnerable to other threats as well. The longer these things sit there, the more time there is for something else to infect.""
Science

Submission + - Cern Announces they found the Higgs Boson (Maybe) (theverge.com)

Submitted by
_0x783czar
_0x783czar writes: "CERN has just finished their announcement about the Higgs Boson. The Verdict:
Maybe...
They are confirming that they have discovered a new boson which falls very close to the expected range for the Higgs Boson, but they emphasize that they are still needing more data."

Submission + - CERN announces discovery of Higgs Boson (theverge.com)

Submitted by
Diggester
Diggester writes: "Scientists at CERN say they've found the Higgs particle with 5-sigma accuracy — about 1 in 3 million. Evidence of the particle's existence in the 126GeV mass range was gleaned from the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva."
Open Source

Submission + - How Open Source Hardware Is Driving the 3D-Printing Industry (readwriteweb.com)

Submitted by
TheNextCorner
TheNextCorner writes: "Open source software has been a key player in all kinds of disruptive technologies — from the Web to big data. Now the nascent and growing open source hardware movement is helping to power its own disruptive revolution.

The potential of 3D printing to transform the way we get things — the market is predicted to hit $3.1 billion in the next four years. But not much of that attention has focused on the unique role of open source hardware in enabling 3D printing to realize its promise."
Medicine

Submission + - FDA Approves HIV Home-Use Test Kit

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The LA Times reports that the Food and Drug Administration has approved the first over-the-counter HIV test kit, allowing people to test themselves in private at home and get preliminary results in less than 30 minutes. The test which works by detecting antibodies in a swab from the gums, should not be considered final — in trials, the test failed to detect HIV in 1 in every 12 patients known to be infected, and returned false positives in 1 in 5,000 cases. The new at-home test, called OraQuick, will be sold in supermarkets and pharmacies and manufacturer, OraSure, has not said how much the test will cost, only that it will be more than the $18 cost for the professional kit. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that of the 1.2 million people in the US with HIV, 1 in 5 is not aware of the infection and that a disproportionate number of the 50,000 new cases of HIV each year is linked to people who have not been tested. Chip Lewis, a spokesman for Whitman-Walker Health, which provides AIDS care in Washington, says at-home testing could reach some people who didn't want to go to a clinic but removing medical professionals from the process could cause problems. "It's not like a home pregnancy test," says Lewis. "You need really a lot of information about how to read the test, how to use the test properly.""
Cellphones

Submission + - Mozilla Vows Firefox OS Phones in Early 2013 (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "Mozilla has rebranded its 'Boot to Gecko' mobile operating system — which it's been working on for more than a year — as Firefox OS, to tie it with its popular browser. Smartphones powered by the new Firefox OS will be manufactured by Hong Kong's TCL Communication Technology, under its Alcatel One Touch nameplate, and by China's ZTE. The first such device won't ship until next year, however. Mozilla has also lined up several mobile carriers that have pledged support for Firefox OS, including Sprint in the U.S., Germany's Deutsche Telekom, Abu Dhabi's Etisalat, Smart Communications in the Philippines, Italy's Telecom Italia, Spain's Telefonica and Norway's Telenor. In a Monday blog post, Mozilla and its new partners touted Firefox OS's functionality, especially its ability to run on entry-level hardware.'Mobile operators will have the ability to offer richer experiences at a range of price points, including at the low end of the smartphone price range, helping to drive adoption across developing markets,' Mozilla asserted."

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