If you are reading this, then my blog post has successfully reached you in the future

Cyanide & Happiness, a webcomic by Explosm :)

Now that I have your attention, I can start geeking out. You may or may not know what a neutrino is. For those of you who don't know, a neutrino is an elementary subatomic particle. In English, that means it's “really freakin' tiny”. And by tiny, I mean that the squared radius of an electron neutrino is only 1.0E-33 cm. [1] For comparison, a normal electron has a radius of 2.8E-15 m. (The squared radius of an electron is about 78 million times larger.) And the electron neutrino is the largest of the three flavors – yes, physicists really do refer to the different types as “flavors”.

Before you navigate back to the awesome Hunger Games trailers out of boredom, let me explain why this post is about neutrinos.

Neutrinos are so small that they, logically, have very little mass. This allows them to propagate at speeds approaching the speed of light. (They were thought to be massless until they were found to oscillate.) However, there are some speculative models that show neutrinos as having tachyonic properties, meaning they can travel at the speed of light and possibly back in time. [2]

The prospect of traveling back in time has always been a closet fantasy of mine ever since I was a young child. While all the normal, well-adjusted children were playing tag or maiming each other in dodgeball, I was riding the slide over and over trying to get up enough speed to go back and see the dinosaurs. (I assumed I needed to be moving at least 88 MPH.) The possibility of watching an infinite number of Swat Kats episodes was also a factor.

More recently, however, my desire to travel back in time has deepened, fueled by the desire to stop myself from ever seeing Twilight. In my defense, it was only the last few minutes of the movie.

In the middle of the night, I still wake up screaming in horror, reaching desperately for a bottle of Captain Morgan rum hoping against all hope that I can forget. Unfortunately, as any vet from 'nam will tell you: “What has been seen...cannot be unseen.”

And it only gets worse. A few weeks ago, I heard that the OPERA researchers who did the neutrino-moving-faster-than-light experiment goofed up. I checked this article on Wired Science to find out more. Apparently, there was a loose fiber-optic cable, which made the time stamps from the master clock wrong. The margin of error was so small that the neutrino was only clocked as arriving 60 nanoseconds before it was supposed to [3], so I guess it's true: the size of your margin of error isn't important; it's the motion of your oscillation! HAHAHA! (crickets chirping)

At least that's what people keep telling...my friend. Anyway, another experiment conducted in the same laboratory earlier in March recorded neutrinos as moving at the speed of light. According to this article on BBC News, Antonio Ereditato (the head scientist of the original controversial experiment) has resigned.

Looks like I won't be going back in time anytime soon. Now not only will I never get to see my favorite dinosaur (the ankylosaurus) in action, but to add insult to injury it looks like I've lost my Man Card forever. My dreams of happiness and salvation now lay in shambles around me.

[1] Neutrino. Retrieved April 13, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino.

[2] Tachyon. Retrieved April 13, 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachyon.

[3] Wired Science. Faster than light neutrino results may be due to faulty cables. Retrieved April 13, 2012 from http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/02/neutrinos-faulty-cable/.

[4] BBC News. Neutrino 'faster than light' scientist resigns. Retrieved April 13, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17560379. 

Still blogging strong even after all that alcohol

 Even though I am no longer taking Senior Seminar, I have decided to continue posting to our blog. As an avid scientist-in-training, I feel the need to share things about science that I find interesting. As usual, my aim is to try to amuse the average web surfer while teaching a little bit too.

I was sifting through my e-mail when I noticed the link my brother sent me about new pictures NASA obtained of the sun. Four different cameras allow the satellite to look at the sun’s surface, layer by layer.

These pictures, which are 10x better than HD, should help scientists better understand the link between the sun’s activity and the atmosphere (or, more specifically, climate change).

Here is the link.  I would have posted this sooner, but I had Finals to take.  You will have to watch a stupid ad first. I tried to use my mad coding skillset to get around this, but I’m still feeling the effects of partying with my graduating friends so I didn’t try too hard:

http://news.yahoo.com/video/environment-15749659/19271005

BAIL OUT!!! (Special Saint Patrick's Day post)

As he dropped the first bomb in the bombing raid he was assigned to go on, the pilot couldn’t help but think how this would help his reputation: He would be hailed as a war hero, fearlessly swooping over the enemy territory putting them in their place. But halfway through the mission, an enemy plane suddenly appears out of nowhere behind him! Try as he might to shake him, the enemy’s plane is a superior model and stays within striking range. The enemy pilot gets a lock and blasts off the tail fin with ease. Our hero’s plane careens out of control, plummeting down to earth towards his imminent doom.

But our hero has one last trick up his sleeve: his ejector seat. Even though his adversary was technically superior, this useful trick allows him to escape, living to fight another day.

What could this possibly have to do with science, you ask?

Well, lean back and grab a cold one; it’s story time.

While we’re on the subject of bailing out, I would like to thank Nikki for being the only friend who DIDN’T bail on me on Saint Patrick’s Day.
I love Saint Patrick's Day!  First of all, it's a great excuse to quality test the green spirits.  Second, since my name is Patrick, I feel a certain obligation to be extra thorough in that testing.  (The first two shots may have been fine, but we all know that only having two data points does not constitute a trend.)

As I sat there all by my lonesome wondering if anyone would show up, naturally my mind wandered to science. (Even when I’m drinking, I’m still incredibly nerdy apparently.)

Anyway, there is a parallel to the ejector seat in the animal world, which allows escape from otherwise deadly situations.

That’s right: some lizards can “bail out” from a predator attack. For the relatively small price of a tail, it can escape to live another day.

How is this possible? Easy: they just add stuff to turn the shot green.

Oh, you meant the lizard? Well, they have special "fracture planes" spaced regularly down the length of the tail that allow it to snap right off. After it falls to the ground, the tail starts to wiggle and move on the ground, giving the lizard a chance to escape while the predator is focused on the moving tail.

Of course, the lizard does have to spend resources and energy into growing the tail back. Until it does, the lizard will be off balance and more vulnerable to predators, since it no longer has a tail it can drop.

[1] Lizard tail loss - Autotomy
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?c=6016&articleid=2485