‘God particle’ could destroy the universe, warns Stephen Hawking

"This could happen at any time and we wouldn’t see it coming,".The elusive ‘God particle’ discovered by scientists in 2012 has the potential to destroy the universe, famous British physicist Stephen hawking has warned the world. 

According to Mr. Hawking, at very high energy levels the Higgs boson, which gives shape and size to everything that exists, could become unstable.This, he said, could cause a “catastrophic vacuum decay” that would lead space and time to collapse,Express.co.uk reported.

The Higgs potential has the worrisome feature that it might become mega-stable at energies above 100bn giga-electron-volts (GeV),” Hawking wrote in the preface to a new book called Starmus.

“This could mean that the universe could undergo catastrophic vacuum decay, with a bubble of the true vacuum expanding at the speed of light.

"This could happen at any time and we wouldn’t see it coming -- PROF. STEPHEN HAWKING Theoretical physicist"

British cosmologist Stephen Hawking.

“This could happen at any time and we wouldn’t see it coming,” said Mr. Hawking.

The Higgs boson, also known as the God particle, was discovered in 2012 by scientists at CERN — who operate the world’s largest particle physics laboratory.

Hawking said the likelihood of such a disaster is unlikely to happen in the near future, however, the danger of the Higgs becoming destabilised at high energy is too great to be ignored.

reference:The Hindu

IISc develops molecular "sniffer dog" to detect explosives

The sniffer dog might finally have its day. Scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) have created a highly sensitive fluorescent polymer that scouts out a class of commonly used explosives.

TNT and other nitroaromatic compounds, which are used in a cocktail of chemicals in landmines and plastic explosive devices, release vapours that ‘quench’ the polymers, reducing their glow, according to a team from IISc.’s Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry.

“The team has developed two types of fluorescent polymers — supramolecular polymers and porous metallic-organic polymer — that are electron-rich and pick up vapour from TNT and other nitroaromatic explosives much like a molecular ‘sniffer dog’,” says P.S. Mukherjee, associate professor at the department and co-author of a paper on the experiment published in the latest edition of Chemistry: A European Journal.

“While the drop in fluorescence is not visible to the naked eye, it is visually sensed and interpreted by a high resolution spectrometer,” Dr. Mukherjee explained.

Nitroaromatic compounds are replacing conventional metal-based weapons in the explosives industry, the research paper says, adding that the compounds are available commercially. Besides their explosive nature, the chemicals contaminate groundwater after military operations and an efficient method to detect them at low concentrations is now needed. “The next step for the teamnow is to develop similar systems to detect other forms of explosives such as RDX and ammonium nitrate.”

Source: The Hindu :http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/iisc-develops-molecular-sniffer-dog-to-detect-explosives/article6395093.ece

25 Unbelievable Facts About The Human Body (SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY)

Did you know that babies can only see in black and white? Or that one of your hairs can last up to 7 years on your head? These are 25 unbelievable facts about the human body.

25

The average human will shed 40 pounds of skin in their life

24

The only reason the acid in your stomach doesn't eat right through your body is because the stomach cells are renewed faster than they are destroyed

23

Your stomach acid is even strong enough to dissolve razor blades

22

In order to taste something your mouth has to be able to dissolve it. Try drying off your tongue before eating your favorite candy…

21

Your brain uses up about 20% of all your body's oxygen and calories

20

Apart from identical twins every single person on Earth has a unique smell

19

A higher IQ is correlated with more dreams

18

You are about 1 cm shorter at night because the cartilage between your bones is compressed throughout the day

17

Your feet have half a million sweat glands that produce over a pint of fluid everyday

16

There are over 300 million capillaries in your lungs. If you stretched them out end to end they would reach across the United States

15

If you laid all of your blood vessels end to end they would stretch 60,000 miles, or around the world nearly two and a half times

14

Women blink twice as much as men

13

Men get hiccups twice as much as women

12

During your lifetime, you will produce enough saliva to fill two swimming pools.

11

After eating too much, your hearing is less sharp

10

By age sixty you will have lost half your taste buds

9

Babies can only see black and white when they are born

8

Your cornea is the only part of your body without a blood supply. It gets its oxygen directly from the air

7

You knew that 75% of your body is water, but did you know that 80% of your brain is water?

6

The average lifespan of a human hair is 3-7 years

5

Aside from being flammable, human hair is exceedingly difficult to destroy even with strong acids

4

The human body may appear fragile but it’s possible to survive even with the removal of the stomach, the spleen, 75 percent of the liver, 80 percent of the intestines, one kidney, one lung, and virtually every organ from the pelvic and groin area.

3

A full bladder is roughly the size of a softball

2

Your teeth start growing 6 months before you are born

1

Most babies are born with blue eyes. Exposure to ultraviolet light (the sun) and melanin are what eventually bring out their true color