5 Mysterious Particles Lurking Underground

While the world's largest atom smasher was busy finding the Higgs boson particle ? thought to explain why other particles have mass ? physicists have been quietly building giant underground laboratories deep beneath the Earth.

No, scientists aren't hiding the next James Bond supervillain down there. Instead, they are working more than a mile beneath the Earth's crust to find some of the universe's most elusive particles.?

The layers of rock may harbor evidence of a new force and shield delicate experiments from cosmic rays and other high-energy particles, allowing ultrarare particles to reveal themselves. From the unparticle to WIMPs, here are some mysterious particles that could be lurking underground.

The unparticle

Physicists are hunting for a new fundamental force within Earth's mantle. The unparticle, which behaves both as photons and mass-bearing particles do, could be responsible for long-range spin interactions, a new force that causes the electrons in atoms to align their spins over long distances.

To find evidence of the new force, researchers mapped out the electron density and spin within the Earth's mantle and are now investigating whether these subterranean electrons are affecting how neutrons and electrons spin in two experiments separated by about 3,000 miles (4,828 kilometers). If the electrons in the mantle are transmitting a force to those particles in lab experiments, it should change the frequency at which they spin. Then the new force would join gravity, electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces in dictating the behavior of the universe. [50 Amazing Facts About Planet Earth]

Dark-matter particles

The universe is filled with invisible stuff called dark matter, whose gravitational pull is thought to keep galaxies from flying apart. Leading theories propose that dark matter is made up of weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, that rarely interact with ordinary matter.

Several labs, including the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) Detector in Homestake, S.D., rely on the Earth's crust to shield experiments from cosmic rays that could drown out the few interactions of WIMPs with regular atoms. So far, traces of WIMPs have been few and far between, but with several experiments ongoing, evidence of WIMPs could be revealed within the next few years.

Solar neutrinos

Physicists at Gran Sasso National Laboratory, a particle detector buried a mile beneath an Italian mountain, have caught solar neutrinos in the act of changing types, or ?flavors.? The sun's nuclear reactions create these chargeless particles, but leading theories suggest they change flavor as they traveled to the Earth. As a result, physicists looking for certain flavors of solar neutrinos have measured fewer ?solar neutrinos of those flavors than they expected.

Solar neutrinos rarely interact with matter, but by shooting beams of the particles 454 miles (731 km) from the physics lab CERN to the underground lab in Gran Sasso, physicists managed to catch the particles in the act of changing flavor. The finding confirms that neutrinos do change flavor as they travel from the sun.

Finding geoneutrinos

Neutrinos may form at the sun, but they also are produced from radioactive elements within Earth's mantle. The Gran Sasso Lab also has isolated some of these so-called geoneutrinos, which form when radioactive uranium or thorium decays. The new particles could explain how much heat forms inside the Earth, driving the motion of tectonic plates. To catch these geoneutrinos emanating from the Earth's mantle, the researchers use an oil-based fluid that scintillates, or gives off light, when subatomic particles bump into the fluid. The researchers identified the geoneutrinos because they emit a positron followed by a neutron when bumping into the atoms of the fluid, which gives of a characteristic flash of light.

Nucleon decay

Although many subatomic particles break down into other particles, so far no one has caught the decay of protons or neutrons, which make up the nuclei of atoms. Nucleon decay is predicted by Grand Unified Theories that seek to explain everything in physics.

To find evidence of this rare decay, scientists at the Super-Kamiokande experiment under Mount Kamioka in Japan have spent several years hunting for nucleon decay. Even if it takes protons one hundred hundred thousand million billion trillion (or 10 raised to the 34th power) years to decay, the detectors should be able to find at least a few of these events. So far, though, Super K still hasn't found any evidence of proton decay.

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter @tiaghose.?Follow?LiveScience @livescience, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/5-mysterious-particles-lurking-underground-133151048.html

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Two new bird flu cases in China amid poultry crackdown

By Adam Jourdan

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Two more people have contracted bird flu in Shanghai, China's health ministry said on Saturday, as authorities closed live poultry markets and culled birds to combat a new virus strain that has killed six people.

State-run Xinhua news agency said authorities planned to slaughter birds at two live poultry markets in Shanghai and another in Hangzhou after new samples of the H7N9 virus were detected in birds at the three sites.

More than 20,000 birds have been culled at another Shanghai market where traces of the virus were found this week.

Officials in Shanghai, China's financial hub, closed all the city's live poultry markets on Saturday, emptying food stalls.

All poultry trading was banned in Nanjing, another eastern Chinese city, although local officials said they had not found any trace of the bird flu virus and declared that chicken on the retail market was safe to eat, official media reported.

The new strain of bird flu has infected 18 people in China, all in the east. Six people have died in an outbreak that has spread concern overseas.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said that 10 infected people were severe cases and two were mild cases. It reiterated there was no evidence of ongoing human-to-human transmission of the virus.

"More than 530 close contacts of the confirmed cases are being closely monitored. In Jiangsu, investigation is ongoing into a contact of an earlier confirmed case who developed symptoms of illness," the Geneva-based WHO said in a statement on Saturday.

There were no signs of panic in Shanghai, where four of the six people died, and people generally said they were not worried. But the culling, which has been widely publicized, did underline for some how close to home the issue had become.

"Now it's just downstairs," said Liu Leting, a user of Weibo, China's version of Twitter which has more than 500 million users.

"Suddenly I discover that I'm living in an epidemic zone!"

In one city restaurant, a waitress said they planned to stop serving chicken because of the outbreak.

"After we sell out the chicken in stock, we will not buy new chicken and will stop serving chicken dishes for the time being," said the waitress, who declined to be identified.

While the strain does not appear to be transmitted from human to human, authorities in mainland China and Hong Kong said they were taking extra precautions.

Hong Kong's government said it was intensifying surveillance of travelers and poultry coming into the city.

China's Food and Drug Administration said it had fast-tracked approval for intravenous anti-influenza drug Peramivir, developed by the U.S.-listed biotechnology firm BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Peramivir is in medical trials to prove its effectiveness against type-A and type-B influenza, the administration said in a statement. The H7N9 strain belongs to the type-A group.

Shanghai authorities have stressed the H7N9 virus remained sensitive to the drug Tamiflu and those who were diagnosed early could be cured. Tamiflu is made by Roche Holding AG.

China and Hong Kong were badly hit by a 2002-2003 epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome that started in China and killed about one-tenth of the 8,000 people infected worldwide.

(Additional reporting by Farah Master in Hong Kong, and Vivi Lin and Reuters TV in Shanghai, and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Alistair Lyon and Richard Meares)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-bird-flu-virus-found-more-markets-shanghai-031011386.html

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Fire official: 2 trapped N.C. children likely dead

DENVER, N.C. (AP) ? Two young children trapped when dirt fell on them at a home construction site Sunday were not expected to be found alive and crews expected to work through the night to recover their bodies, a fire official said.

A father of one of the children called 911 at about 6 p.m. to report what happened, said Lincoln County Emergency Services public information officer Dion Burleson. Crews were on the scene in minutes, but couldn't get to the 7-year-old boy and 6-year-old girl, Burleson said.

Crews used shovels and climbing gear trying to get to the children at the Denver neighborhood. Emergency personnel from several places, including nearby Charlotte, were on the scene late Sunday.

Video from WSOC-TV shows backhoes scooping dirt from a deep hole surrounded by dirt. Equipment surrounded the hole. Burleson said it is hard to estimate how far down the children might be.

The man who called was the father of at least one of the children, Burleson said. Neighbors told WBTV that the children were cousins.

This is "devastating for both the family members and responders who are on the scene," Burleson said. "This is a tragic night in Denver."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fire-official-2-trapped-nc-children-likely-dead-021803356.html

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Mainers air concerns on national debt at meeting

BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER) --- The United States government is currently running close to $17 trillion in debt.?On Friday?many people were talking about how to get the country out of it.

The grassroots group 'Fix the Debt Maine' held a meeting in the?morning at Husson University. The?awareness group?is co-chaired by former Maine governor John Baldacci who led the discussion.

Baldacci says the national debt is strangling economic growth in the?United States?in more ways than one. The group says about $400 billion is added onto it each year in interest payments. Baldacci says budgeting that debt will mean less money for federal programs such as education and defense over the years. It would also bring further increases in interest rates for things like car and home loans.

The former governor says he feels the only way for the nation to climb out of debt?is if both Republicans and Democrats in Washington work together.

"When I was in Congress {working with}?Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich..we had a Congress that addressed the debt and deficit," Baldacci said, "and frankly it's part of that experience that leads me to believe that if we can get this package put together in a comprehensive approach and get our debt and deficit on a downward trend then our economy will see a great bump."

The gathering was small at Husson?Friday morning but nationally many people are backing 'Fix the Debt'. The group has collected about 250,000 petition?signatures across the U.S.?

Source: http://bangor.wcsh6.com/news/news/264453-mainers-air-concerns-national-debt-meeting

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AP source: US delays missile test as tensions rise

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Amid mounting tensions with North Korea, the Pentagon has delayed an intercontinental ballistic missile test that had been planned for next week at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, a senior defense official told The Associated Press on Saturday.

The official said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel decided to put off the long-planned Minuteman 3 test until sometime next month because of concerns the launch could be misinterpreted and exacerbate the Korean crisis. Hagel made the decision Friday, the official said.

The test was not connected to the ongoing U.S.-South Korean military exercises that have been going on in that region and have stoked North Korean anger and fueled an escalation in threatening actions and rhetoric.

North Korea's military warned earlier this week that it was authorized to attack the U.S. using "smaller, lighter and diversified" nuclear weapons. And South Korean officials say North Korea has moved at least one missile with "considerable range" to its east coast ? possibly the untested Musudan missile, believed to have a range of 1,800 miles. U.S. officials have said the missile move suggests a North Korean launch could be imminent and thus fuels worries in the region.

Pyongyang's moves come on the heels of the North's nuclear test in February, and the launch in December of a long-range North Korean rocket that could potentially hit the continental U.S. Added to that is the uncertainty surrounding the intentions of North Korea's new young leader, Kim Jong Un.

Meanwhile, North Korea has been angered by increasing sanctions and ongoing U.S.-South Korean military exercises, which have included a broad show of force ranging from stealthy B-2 bombers and F-22 fighters to a wide array of ballistic missile defense-capable warships. The exercises are scheduled to continue through the end of the month.

This past week, the U.S. said two of the Navy's missile-defense ships were moved closer to the Korean peninsula, and a land-based system is being deployed to the Pacific territory of Guam later this month. The Pentagon last month announced longer-term plans to beef up its U.S.-based missile defenses.

While Washington is taking the North Korean threats seriously, U.S. leaders continue to say that they have seen no visible signs that the North is preparing for a large-scale attack.

The defense official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the Minuteman 3 test delay and requested anonymity, said U.S. policy continues to support the building and testing of its nuclear deterrent capabilities. And the official said the launch was not put off because of any technical problems.

The globe-circling intercontinental ballistic missiles make up one of the three legs of America's nuclear arsenal. There are about 450 Minuteman 3 missiles based in underground silos in the north-central U.S. The other two legs of the nuclear arsenal are submarine-launched ballistic missiles and weapons launched from big bombers, such as the B-52 and the stealthy B-2.

The traditional rationale for the "nuclear triad" of weaponry is that it is essential to surviving any nuclear exchange.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-06-Missile%20Test%20Delayed/id-8edcc3eae9004791abe0f88c0b327072

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College Sports Could Raise Players' Risk for Depression, Study Finds

FRIDAY, April 5 (HealthDay News) -- Current college athletes are twice as likely to be depressed as former athletes, researchers have found.

The findings suggest the need for further research to learn more about depression among college athletes, the Georgetown University investigators said.

For the study, they examined questionnaires completed by 117 current and 163 former college athletes who had participated in Division I NCAA-sponsored sports. The current athletes played in 10 different sports and the former athletes had played in 15 different sports.

Nearly 17 percent of current athletes had questionnaire scores consistent with depression, compared with 8 percent of former athletes, according to the study published online recently in the journal Sports Health.

"We expected to see a significant increase in depression once athletes graduated, but by comparison it appears the stress of intercollegiate athletics may be more significant than we and others anticipated," senior investigator Dr. Daniel Merenstein, an associate professor of family medicine and human science at Georgetown University Medical Center, said in a university news release.

These stressors include things such as overtraining, injury, pressure to perform, lack of free time, or trying to juggle athletics and schoolwork.

"College in general is a potentially stressful time for many students. The additional stress of playing high-level sports appears to add to that stress," Merenstein said.

He advised parents, friends and coaches to pay attention to changes in behavior, weight and sleep of college athletes, and of all students.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has more about college students and depression.

SOURCE: Georgetown University, news release, April 2, 2013

Copyright ? 2013 HealthDay. ?All rights reserved.

HealthDayNews articles are derived from various sources and do not reflect federal policy. healthfinder.gov does not endorse opinions, products, or services that may appear in news stories. For more information on health topics in the news, visit Health News on healthfinder.gov.

Source: http://www.healthfinder.gov/News/Article.aspx?id=675055

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Lomography Belair X 6-12 Jetsetter

The Lomography Belair X 6-12 Jetsetter ($299.99 direct) is a bold design from a company known for its toy cameras. It's an interchangable lens camera that captures 6-by-12-centimeter images on standard 120 medium format film. Previously you'd have search out a specialized camera from the likes of Linhof or Horesman to get such a big, wide negative. And those cameras sell for several thousand dollars, even on the used market.

For only a few hundred dollars, don't expect the Belair to operate with the same precision as its expensive competition, and you won't get the same image quality out of its compact plastic lenses as you will from a German-made Rodenstock optic that can cover a large format negative. The plastic lenses that are included with the Belair will satisify the needs of film lovers looking to make smaller prints or share on the Web, but they don't resolve as much fine detail as a glass lens would. There are a pair of Russian-made glass lenses available for the Belair for shooters who desire a bit more detail in their images.

The Belair is currently available in two editions. We reviewed the metal-bodied Jetsetter, which has a tan leatherette covering. There's also the plastic City Slicker model ($249.99), which has a black body and black leatherette. The two models are functionally identical, but if you plan on shooting with the camera on a regular basis it's not a bad idea to spend the extra money on the metal version. The Jetsetter's two-tone look is a bit more retro than the all-black City Slicker. The tan leatherette is on the lower end of the quality spectrum; it's easily dented and feels a bit slick in the hand. If you want a covering that will hold up better and give you a better grip, the folks at CameraLeather?should be able to hook you up with an uncut sheet that you can easily cut to size with an exacto knife. Lomography even has an online tutorial about how to recover the Belair yourself.

When collapsed, the camera measures 3.5 by 7 by 2 inches (HWD) without a lens or finder attached. The finder and lens add about an inch to each the height and depth, and the depth is 5 inches when the bellows are extended for shooting. The lens board extends outward with a single press of a button on the bottom of the Belair, but closing it back up is a bit trickier. You need to hold down buttons on the top and bottom of the hinge mechanism and push the lens board back towards the body. Some care is required to push the board back evenly, but it's a skill that is mastered pretty quickly.

Loading film is straightforward, there are two catches on the bottom plate that allow you to remove the back and load the roll. Film masks for 6-by-9 and 6-by-6 shooting are included if you'd rather not shoot in 6 by 12. You'll only get six shots per roll when shooting at the widest format, so narrowing the camera's field of view will help you get more frames out of each roll. Shooting in 6 by 9 extends your roll to eight shots, and your photos will be captured at a more print-friendly aspect ratio. Shooting square gives you twelve shots per roll.

The included optical viewfinders have markings to show each of the narrower formats, but they're a bit hard to see. If you find yourself shooting in something other than 6 by 12 with regularity you may want to use a thin strip of tape to better mark the frame line, just be careful to use a type that won't leave a sticky residue on the front of the viewfinder. Viewfinder framing is approximate, and just what the camera captures will vary based on your distance from the subject. It's best to frame a little bit loose, just to be safe.

Physical controls are minimal. There's a dial to set the desired ISO; it ranges from 100 to 1600 in one-stop increments, and there's a bulb setting that will keep the shutter open as long as you hold the release down. There's no manual shutter speed dial, aside from the bulb, you'll have to rely on the meter to deliver a correct exposure; the meter requires two LR44 batteries to operate. There's no way to preview the shutter speed before you fire a shot, so you'll have to trust your photographic skills (or a handheld light meter) to decide whether you'll want to use a tripod for a particular shot or if hand holding will do. The Belair takes photos in a single exposure without any sort of lens movement?so you won't have to worry about holding the camera steady as its lens swings from one end to other like you do with the Horizon Kompakt.

A simple dial advances the film; you'll need to peer through the frame window on the rear of the camera to determine how many times to turn it to advance to the next frame. This red window is familiar to medium format shooters; it shows you the frame numbers that are printed on the film's backing paper.?There's a standard hot shoe for a flash, but you'll have to experiment with your particular strobe and film to get your exposures down as the camera's meter will always assume that you're not using a flash. You may prefer to set the ISO much higher than the actual film speed for a shorter exposure that relies heavily on the illumination provided by your flashgun. Or you could set the meter to the actual ISO, which will generally result in a longer exposure in dim environments where you use the flash. This can be a fun effect, as you'll the flash exposure will freeze the motion of your subject, but the long exposure will surround it by a bit of motion blur.?

The Belair ships with a 58mm f/8 and a 90mm f/8 lens. Both feature plastic optics and can be stopped down to f/16. Each is impressively small, especially when you consider the size of the 6-by-12 negative. The 58mm provides a field of view that's not too far off from a 21mm lens on a full-frame digital or 35mm film camera. I did notice a good deal of barrel distortion when shooting with the 58mm, but I was able to fix it pretty easily in Lightroom by setting the distortion slider to +40 and lines that curved outwards straightened. If you're wet printing in a darkroom you'll just have to live with this; to get a lens that wide in this format that is perfectly corrected for distortion requires you to start looking at those pricey Linhof and Horseman cameras.?

The 90mm is a bit narrower, its equivalent focal length is about 32mm. You'll have to focus by scale, that is by approximating the distance between the film plane and your subject. There are marks on each lens for 1 meter, 1.5 meters, 3 meters, and infinity. There is also a pair of glass lenses available, although we haven't had a chance to review them as of yet. The Belairgon 90mm f/8 and 114mm f/8 have just been released and are each priced at $199.

We didn't run formal resolution tests on the included lenses?this isn't a camera that you buy if you're concerned about test charts. To my eye the images had decent sharpness, especially when shooting at f/16. I could see larger text with ease, but the ability to capture extremely fine detail and texture isn't there. The images don't have the low-fi look that you get from the Diana F+, but they also won't keep up with medium-format shots from the good glass you get from classic medium format cameras big lenses. It will be interesting to see how much detail that Lomo's glass lenses bring to the table.

The Lomography Belair X 6-12 Jetsetter is a refreshing change of pace for Lomography. Even though it ships with plastic lenses, it is not at all a toy camera?the images are a bit too refined for that. They aren't tack sharp, but the dreamy, hazy "Lomo look" is nowhere to be found. Distortion is a bit of an issue with the ultra-wide 58mm lens, but it's easily corrected if you're working with the photos digitally. A manual shutter setting would go a long way to improve the functionality for shooters who like to use a flash, and a shutter speed indicator would be a welcome addition. If shooting in a panoramic format is appealing to you and you're a fan of medium format film, the Belair is right up your alley. If you can't live without technical perfection in a camera, spend the money and get a Horseman SW-612 system?just realize that even used, they can sell for thousands of dollars.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/IBO5nrxA5ec/0,2817,2417296,00.asp

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