So nice to hear from you again, Sarah; the Prodigal Daughter returns!

You teach me a new word - vigintillion - which, based on its meaning, is obviously a cognate of the French VINGt = English tWENty.

BTW, a few years before you were born I came dangerously close to visiting Zurich to work with John Sandercock, who was then doing Brillouin scattering (i.e. inelastic light scattering from acoustic waves). Googling JS now, I learn that in his Nobel lecture, laureate Peter Gruenberg generously thanks him for pioneering a technique of which he made important use; see the bottom of the page here. Anyway, sadly, so far I've never been in Switzerland longer than it takes to change between airplanes, but I do recall Sandercock expressing discomfort about the plight of guest workers there.

Regarding ATLAS et alia, I don't know why anyone need assume there is something "disturbing" about the apparent imbalance between matter and antimatter in the universe; wouldn't a balance increase the hazard of their mutual annihilation into photons? And while I've never heard the issue raised, I've always wondered if the universe has a net electrical charge, which would be a factor biasing its expansion, outside of any other considerations.

And thanks for the photo of ATLAS. Now, how about one of you at your desk?

Best, Ron

Hi Ron,
Thanks so much for you long message ! I'm now with the ATLAS Experiment team (dark matter side :-)

So work and life gets in a way that fun or tears are not an option.

I misse you all ! and vigintillion of huge kisses for you !
With love from Sarah

Hello Sarah,

Given your scant attention to this Web site (even less frequent than mine!) I didn't hold up much hope of ever hearing back from you. Thank you for "friending" and inquiring after me.

You write: LOL let me know more about you...
What in particular would you like to know?

Since I last posted in this visitor message thread, in part because I ran into you, I've read a couple books on particle physics which explain our current understanding from a phenomenological viewpoint. It seems to me that the way the Higgs field is said to give particles a rest mass is very similar to the way in which lattice vibrations (especially polar ones) renormalize the mass of electrons in solids, a topic central to my own long-ago doctoral thesis.

The late Viki Weisskopf, an early director of CERN, was head of our physics department during my early years at university. The new book by Ugo Amaldi quotes him in its preface. Weisskopf states there are three kinds of physicists: machine-builders, experimentalists and theoreticians. (I did a bit of each while I was in the business.) And he says that you machine-builders are the most important of the three!

In a linked forum post, I had told you about how childhood experiences led me into science and engineering work. So I'm rather curious what led Sarah to go into engineering physics. Are you willing to say?

The closest I came to building particle accelerators myself was during the last hurrah of cathode-ray tube display technology during your childhood. It was the only time I've ever made use of electron optics. But part of my work went very well and was exhibited 30 years ago in Monaco, where Ted Heath was among the visitors I enlightened. If you are British (you've never said?) do you remember who he was?

I also remain curious what brought you here. My enduring interest in Danielle arose because of her (eventually-abandoned) ambition to use her business earnings to fund a very expensive medical education. I would like to think that when her medical ambitions vanished, I encouraged her to study 21st century entertainment arts and technology, as she appears to have started doing. Do you have any words of advice to her as a young professional woman yourself?

It would be so nice to hear from you again, given your demanding career.

Ron

I spoke with Dan Brown and he explained why it is as obvious as a ley line that Danielle and PWH share the same birthday: Danielle wants people to look for her big bosom, just like PWH wanted people to look for his Higgs Boson.

sara,

I hope you find reading my reply here, titled Kiddie Particle Physics, to your original posting even half as amusing as I did writing it. If so, you will be pleased indeed!

Hey Sarah,

Are you really conCERNed with building gear to find itty-bitty things, or is it just a playful mask you don on the Internet? If the former, did you ever notice that Danielle shares the same birthday as PWH? Might I also ask what brought this site to your attention? (Do please be more specific than noting that it uses an Internet protocol a former colleague, Sir Tim, PIONeered. My guess is that it was through a common fondness for Elua: Love as thou wilt.) You make me feel old - I was in the middle of writing my PhD thesis the day you popped into the world, sigh. (I had studied a less itty-bitty thing, the polaRON.)

P.S. Happy 2^5 birthday!

P.P.S. Are you clever enough to re-manufacture your ring thing into a large hard-on collider, so Danielle can play with it in a video? She could title it I Love A Big Bang


I love Micucci (left), as well as coochie. But printed books? How retro! Must be a LIE-brary.