Weird Science

Scientists say the world’s largest atom smasher has broken the record for proton acceleration, sending beams of the particles at 1.18 trillion electron volts.

A statement by the European Organization for Nuclear Research says the Large Hadron Collider eclipses the previous high, which was just short of 1 Tev at Fermilab outside Chicago.

The latest success Monday at the LHC is part of the preparation to go much higher for significant experiments to start next year on the makeup of matter and the universe.

It comes on top of a rapid series of operating advances of the machine, which underwent extensive repairs and improvements after it collapsed during the opening phase last year.

Source/Full Story: CERN: Big Bang machine sets power record – Yahoo! News

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Stewart David Nozette, who is credited with helping discover evidence of water on the moon and has been a leader in recent lunar exploration work, was arrested Monday and charged in a criminal complaint with attempting to communicate, deliver and transmit classified information, the Justice Department said.

Nozette, 52, of Chevy Chase, Md., was expected to make his initial appearance in federal court in Washington on Tuesday. Law enforcement officials said Nozette did not immediately have a lawyer.

Nozette worked in various jobs for the Energy Department and NASA. In 1989 and 1990, he worked for the White House’s National Space Council.

He developed the Clementine bi-static radar experiment that is credited with discovering water on the south pole of the moon. He also worked at the Energy Department’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he designed highly advanced technology, from approximately 1990 to 1999.

At Energy, Nozette held a special security clearance equivalent to the Defense Department’s top secret and “critical nuclear weapon design information” clearances. DOE clearances apply to access to information specifically relating to atomic or nuclear-related materials.

Nozette also held top offices at the Alliance for Competitive Technology, a nonprofit corporation that he organized. Between January 2000 and February 2006, Nozette, through his company, had several agreements to develop advanced technology for the U.S. government.

To build a case against Nozette, FBI agents posed as officers of the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, and the criminal complaint suggests why they thought their suspect would take the bait.

From 1998 to 2008, the complaint alleges, Nozette was a technical adviser for a consultant company that was wholly owned by the Israeli government. Nozette was paid about $225,000 over that period, the court papers say.

Then, in January of this year, Nozette allegedly traveled to another foreign country with two computer thumb drives and apparently did not return with them. Prosecutors also quote an unnamed colleague of Nozette who said the scientist said that if the U.S. government ever tried to put him in jail for an unrelated criminal offense, he would go to Israel or another foreign country and “tell them everything” he knows.

The complaint does not allege that the government of Israel or anyone acting on its behalf violated U.S. law. In Jerusalem, Israeli government officials had no immediate comment.
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Source/Full Story: US scientist accused of trying to sell secrets – Yahoo! News

One of two men arrested in France on Thursday on suspicion of having links with an Islamist terrorist group was working as a researcher at the Cern “big bang” laboratory on the French-Swiss border, the nuclear research body said on Friday.

The man, believed to be a French national of Algerian descent, was detained by police near Poitiers with his brother, after allegedly being in contact with people close to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a branch of the terrorist network.

Cern said the man arrested was a physicist working with the Large Hadron Collider experiment intended to re-create conditions immediately after the “big bang” that created the universe.

The suspect’s role at Cern will raise concerns that suspected Islamist militants are seeking to acquire advanced technological expertise, or that the laboratory at Cern, which stands for European Organisation for Nuclear Research, could have been targeted for a potential attack.

Source/Full Story: FT.com
Technorati Tags: Large Hadron Collider

Something about this makes me sick to my stomach…

This robot is controlled by the brain of a rat – making it the world’s first cyborg rodent.