Erstellt am: 20. 9. 2012 - 16:30 Uhr

Big Bang Theory

Reality Check: Higgs Boson research; how to reform parliamentary enquiries; Romney’s debacle; Italian extraordinary rendition verdict.

APA

The "Research at CERN" exhibition at the Ars Electronica centre in Linz, August 2011. Photo: RUBRA/APA

• Higgs Bosons

Mention the words “particle physics” to most people and their eyes will glaze over in utter incomprehension, sheer panic, or boredom. Or a combination of all three. I am not one of those people. I’m not a scientist but I am fortunate enough to be able to get my head around scientific ideas at a simple level in an I-don’t-really-understand-but-I-like-to-think-I-do kind of way. So I find the whole idea of CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) and the work being done at the Large Hadron Collider really exciting. CERN describes the LHC as a “gigantic scientific instrument”. This “instrument” is inside a ring-shaped tunnel, it has a circumference of 27 kilometers and it’s 100 metres underground, spanning the border between Switzerland and France. The sheer size of it is mind-boggling enough, but even more so when you consider the fact that it’s searching for answers to questions about the most fundamental building blocks of our existence (scientists, my apologies if the terminology isn’t strictly speaking correct – you have to grant me a little bit of journalistic licence on this one!)

Of course anyone who follows news has no doubt heard about the LHC and knows that researchers there are trying “to recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang, by colliding the two beams (of subatomic particles) head-on at very high energy”. And on 4th July, we had the big announcement that the teams had discovered what might be The Higgs Boson. Also referred to (generally by non-scientists) as The God Particle. The piece of the scientific puzzle that could explain Life, the Universe and Everything. On that day, I went to the Austrian Institute for High Energy Physics, where staff had gathered to watch the live feed of the announcement from Geneva, and I interviewed the Deputy Director of the Institute, Manfred Krammer, for Reality Check. After the interview I struck up a conversation with a group of young physicists, and was fascinated when one of them started talking about “other” Higgs particles. That took me by surprise, because the media had always spoken in terms of THE Higgs particle. Singular. So, I decided this fascinating side of the story had to be shared with a wider audience and I invited that young physicist, Sebastian Frank, into the Reality Check studio to explain:

• Parliamentary enquiry into corruption developments

The parliamentary enquiry into corruption is now scheduled to continue until mid-October, but with a slimmed down list of people to be interviewed, and the glaring omission of Chancellor, Werner Faymann. The head of Transparency Austria, Franz Fiedler, is calling for reforms to the procedures for such enquiries.
Melanie Sully looks at the options and how other countries avoid the chaotic situation currently facing the Austrian government.

• Italy upholds renditions verdict

22 CIA agents and one other American have lost their appeal against a guilty verdict for charges relating to extraordinary renditions in Italy's highest court. The case concerns the kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric, Abu Omar, in Milan in 2003. Although he had political asylum in Italy, he was taken to Egypt, where he was then tortured. Josephine McKenna reports from Rome on the court’s decision and the implications for US-Italian relations.

• Reviving the Romney campaign

Mitt Romney is falling further behind in the polls by the day, while President Obama is consolidating his lead. It’s hard to see what Romney can now do to change the tide. He’s reported to be sacking his campaign chief, but big changes now are just looking like desperation.
Political analyst Eleanor Clift looks at where things have gone wrong and why whatever he does now is likely to be too little and too late, or too much and make things even worse.

• Cyber spies

How the US and other countries are using cyber technology for spying in military, political and commerical connections.