Votes at 16? We can't even pick Keir Starmer out of a line-up! Teens are wary of voting at next General Election - but they do know who Nigel Farage is
Youngsters (pictured) set to be given the right to vote in the next General Election have showcased a shocking lack of knowledge about the UK's political leaders.
Mysterious Antimatter Physics Discovered at the Large Hadron Collider
"Scientists at the world's largest particle collider have observed a new class of antimatter particles breaking down at a different rate than their matter counterparts," reports Scientific American:
[P]hysicists have been on the hunt for any sign of difference between matter and antimatter, known in the field as a violation of "charge conjugation-parity symmetry," or CP violation, that could explain why some matter escaped destruction in the early universe. [Wednesday] physicists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)'s LHCb experiment published a paper in the journal Nature announcing that they've measured CP violation for the first time in baryons — the class of particles that includes the protons and neutrons inside atoms.
Baryons are all built from triplets of even smaller particles called quarks. Previous experiments dating back to 1964 had seen CP violation in meson particles, which unlike baryons are made of a quark-antiquark pair. In the new experiment, scientists observed that baryons made of an up quark, a down quark and one of their more exotic cousins called a beauty quark decay more often than baryons made of the antimatter versions of those same three quarks... The matter-antimatter difference scientists observed in this case is relatively small, and it fits within predictions of the Standard Model of particle physics — the reigning theory of the subatomic realm. This puny amount of CP violation, however, cannot account for the profound asymmetry between matter and antimatter we see throughout space...
"We are trying to find little discrepancies between what we observe and what is predicted by the Standard Model," [says LHCb spokesperson/study co-author Vincenzo Vagnoni of the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics]. "If we find a discrepancy, then we can pinpoint what is wrong." The researchers hope to discover more cracks in the Standard Model as the experiment keeps running. Eventually LHCb should collect about 30 times more data than was used for this analysis, which will allow physicists to search for CP violation in particle decays that are even rarer than the one observed here.
So stay tuned for an answer to why anything exists at all.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tickets for Colchester Castle Summer Series almost sold out as countdown begins
TICKETS for the Colchester Castle Summer Series have almost sold out, as the countdown for the live music event begins.
Residents split over Lower Thames Crossing plans as Thurrock could be 'cut in half'
They are on the doorstep of plans for a huge new crossing and an electricity project
Blake Lively's life IN HIDING: Allies tell why she 'doesn't want to be seen out'... and who she's leaning on as famous friends desert her
After months of endless exposure - largely thanks to her protracted legal battle with Justin Baldoni - Blake Lively has been noticeably absent from the public eye in recent weeks.
I was cured of one of the deadliest forms of cancer after trialling a new drug... my brain cancer is gone
Ben Trotman, 43, who was diagnosed with glioblastoma in October 2022, is now showing no signs of the disease after being administered an immunotherapy drug in a world first two years ago.
Border Patrol agent shot in the face by illegal immigrant during botched robbery in New York City park
The federal agent, 42, was sitting in Fort Washington Park, Manhattan, when he was approached by two men on a moped attempting to rob him just before midnight.
Carolyn Bessette's friends tell for first time of cruel JFK Jr snub that tortured her... and sparked an unhealthy obsession with hiding the truth from the public
It is 26 years since John F Kennedy Jr and his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy died in a catastrophic plane crash off the coast of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.
Trump calls for Obama's arrest with jaw-dropping Truth Social post after Tulsi Gabbard claimed ex-president was behind 'years-long coup'
The president signaled his support for spy chief Gabbard's claims that Obama fabricated evidence to make it seem like Russia interfered in the 2016 election in a bid to undermine Trump's win.
Reject island: Some think they're 'digital nomads' living the dream, others are has-beens... but here's what these cocky Bali influencers aren't telling you
If you scroll through the social media feeds of these 'nomads', it's easy to assume they live a charmed life. But, as we will demonstrate, they aren't always the big shots they claim to be...
Afghan troops whose personal details were leaked may be in line for a £20,000 payout, sources say
Al Carns staged talks with former Special Forces soldiers (pictured, file photo) on Saturday before formal negotiations around payouts begin.
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews Karen Pirie: With plots as deep and dark as a coal mine shaft, this is no ordinary Karen
Based on the superb books by Val McDermid, this returning drama has plots as deep and dark as a coal mine shaft.
Princess Margaret's wild Monty Python night at the aristocrats' party revealed by BBC presenter
The Queen's sister was described as being 'incredibly sloshed' as musicians danced around, according to former BBC presenter Steve Blacknell.
Primark's 'gorgeous' £22 summer dress that works with 'sandals or trainers'
It is set to be a must have this summer
'Influencer' who garnered more than 165,000 followers while 'enjoying Wimbledon' is revealed as an AI creation
The 'model' whose social media persona became an internet sensation at the championships was actually created by AI.
Newly-engaged Emily Atack enjoys romantic getaway with fiancé Alistair Garner as the pair share a kiss while soaking up the sun in France
Newly engaged Emily Atack and her fiancé Alistair Garber have been enjoying a romantic getaway at the Midi-Pyrenees in France
My £4,000 veneers were supposed to fix my teeth. Instead they mutilated my mouth - and the cost didn't end there. Anyone thinking about them MUST read my horror story first
Sitting up in the dentist's chair, still numb from the anaesthetic, I gazed into the mirror and felt sick with dismay.
Migrant, 26, 'forced himself onto suicidal mother and kissed her on the lips when she refused to go back to his asylum hotel with him'
Zayed Alanzi, 26, (pictured) is said to have stalked a woman before he grabbed her by the cheeks, kissed her and shoved his tongue inside.
'Fossil' Discovered Beyond Pluto Implies 'Something Dramatic' Happened 400M Years Ago
"The distant reaches of the Solar System are still mysterious," writes ScienceAlert. "Not much sunlight pierces these regions, and there are strong hints that undiscovered objects lurk there. The objects that astronomers have discovered in these dim reaches are primordial, and their orbits suggest the presence of more undiscovered objects."
And now thanks to the giant 8.2-meter Subaru telescope at Hawaii's Mauna Kea Observatory, astronomers have discovered "a massive new solar system body located beyond the orbit of Pluto," reports Space.com.
The weird elongated orbit of the object suggests that if "Planet Nine" exists, it is much further from the sun than thought, or it has been ejected from our planetary system altogether.
The strange orbit of the object, designated 2023 KQ14 and nicknamed "Ammonite," classifies it as a "sednoid." Sednoids are bodies beyond the orbit of the ice giant Neptune, known as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), characterized by a highly eccentric (non-circular) orbit and a distant closest approach to the sun or "perihelion." The closest distance that 2023 KQ14 ever comes to our star is equivalent to 71 times the distance between Earth and the sun... This is just the fourth known sednoid, and its orbit is currently different from that of its siblings, though it seems to have been stable for 4.5 billion years.
However, the team behind the discovery, made using Subaru Telescope as part of the Formation of the Outer Solar System: An Icy Legacy (FOSSIL) survey, thinks that all four sednoids were on similar orbits around 4.2 billion years ago. That implies something dramatic happened out at the edge of the solar system around 400 million years after its birth. Not only does the fact that 2023 KQ14 now follows a unique orbit suggest that the outer solar system is more complex and varied than previously thought, but it also places limits on a hypothetical "Planet Nine" theorized to lurk at the edge of the solar system.
There's "no viable transfer mechanisms" to explain the observed orbits "with the current configuration of planets," according to the team's recently-published paper. But since those orbits are stable, it "suggests that an external gravitational influence beyond those of the currently known Solar System planets is required to form their orbits."
So where does that leave us? ScienceAlert summarizes the rest of the paper — and where things stand now:
Astronomers have proposed many sources for this external gravitational influence, including interactions with a rogue planet or star, ancient stellar interactions from when the Sun was still in its natal cluster, and the capture of objects from other lower-mass stars in the Solar System's early times. But the explanation that gets the most attention is interactions with a hypothetical planet, Planet Nine.
If Planet Nine exists, it has a huge area to hide in. Some astronomers who have studied its potential existence think it could be the fifth largest planet in the Solar System. It would be so far away that it would be extremely dim. However, we may be on the cusp of detecting it, if it exists. The Vera Rubin Observatory recently saw first light and will begin its decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The LSST will find transient events and objects in the Solar System like no other telescope before it. It's purpose-built to find hard-to-detect objects, and not even an elusive object like Planet Nine may be able to hide from it.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Drugs were being sold like 'food at a market' at notorious music festival where university student died after taking MDMA, coroner says
Former film student Ben Buckfield died last year after overdosing on Class A drug, MDMA, while attending the Boomtown festival in South Downs National Park, near Winchester, Hampshire.