http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/caroline-hamilton/ Caroline Hamilton is an award-winning novelist and the Communications and Outreach Coordinator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Were-this-close-to-finding-the-elusive-god-particle/ It’s the silly season; there is no doubt about it. But last night I went to an office party with a difference. In the middle of the night, armed with diet cola and chocolate biscuits, I caught the lift to the seventh floor of the Physics building at the University of Melbourne, and suddenly found myself surrounded by physicists drinking beer and talking animatedly. Yes, there was a definite buzz about the room, and it was not from the beer. When the clock struck midnight there was a hush as the data projector fired up and we all began to watch a live webcast from CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research, based on the France–Switzerland border near Geneva). Why? feedback@thepunch.com.au (Caroline Hamilton) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Were-this-close-to-finding-the-elusive-god-particle/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Were-this-close-to-finding-the-elusive-god-particle/#item7376 Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:55:39 +0000 Caroline Hamilton | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/believing-in-the-god-particle/ It has been dubbed the ‘God Particle’ by some and nonexistent by others. There are literally thousands of scientists from across the globe all working towards the same goal: finding the Higgs Boson particle. Scientists from the Australian Research Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale (CoEPP) are getting excited because they feel we are closer than ever to its discovery. Supposing we find the Higgs? The particle’s discovery will answer a lot of questions and bring us another step closer to a grand unified theory, or, a ‘theory of everything’. But in particular it will explain how the fundamental building blocks of nature acquire mass. Einstein explained how mass and energy were interchangeable though his famous equation E=mc2 (the basis of which was thrown into doubt last week) and we have since found out that there are fundamental particles making up our universe, and the explanation for how this all works is called the Standard Model. But there is something missing. Mass. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Caroline Hamilton) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/believing-in-the-god-particle/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/believing-in-the-god-particle/#item6782 Sun, 25 Sep 2011 19:55:21 +0000 Caroline Hamilton | Author bios | The Punch