Mitch Hurwitz in the writers room of the new Arrested Development via Ron Howard’s twitter

• Researchers Name Language After Colbert
• Carl Sagan’s Reading List
• Hubble Unmasks Dark Matter Rich Galaxies
• A crystal computer that could outlive the universe
• Flowchart: Do you understand the Higgs Boson?
• When Old, Slow and Boring Beats New, Fast and Exciting
• Why We Love Violence in Fiction
• 11 Wonderful Libraries in Africa
• 6 Disorders Caused by the Internet, TV, Magazines and Movies
• Tumblr goodness: Facemath

Since the announced discovery of the Higgs boson, I’ve been ranting on about it to damn near everyone I come into contact with, on and offline.

Thankfully there’s this video doing the online rounds at the moment that does a much better job of explaining what the search for the Higgs has been all about and incidentally, also involves less crazy eyes and frothing at the mouth.

The Higgs Boson Explained from PHD Comics on Vimeo.

• Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy… “We’ve observed a new particle”: leaked video reveals Higgs confirmation
• How the Discovery of the Higgs Boson Could Break Physics
• Complicated Concepts Explained Using Kitchen Items
• The Nicolas Cage Paradox
• Graph: The Recession-Proof Fireworks Industry
• Identifying the “Greatest Threat” that the World Faces
• Horrible Father Abandons Family For New Life in the Philippines – Leaving a son with cancer, daughter with down syndrome (yeah, that’s right)
• Syria’s Torture Centers Revealed
• Infographic: the effects of a sip of soda

Also, legendary entertainer Andy Griffiths died today (aged 86). The internet pays tribute as always, but this mash-up of his sitcom’s theme song and Beyonce is a favourite.

Rare blue ‘night-shining clouds’ pictured at dusk over Edinburgh

• Seinfeld’s Producer: Listen to Your Gut, Then Fight For What it’s Telling You
• When His Project Was Canceled, an Unemployed Programmer Kept Sneaking Into Apple to Finish the Job
• Higgs week starts with Fermilab updates, strong evidence expected
• Scientists Invent Particles That Will Let You Live Without Breathing
• How Do Glowsticks Glow?
• How To Decide Baking Temperature When a Recipe Doesn’t Mention It
• Why you were just ‘unfriended’ on Facebook
• Anderson Cooper: “The Fact Is, I’m Gay and the internet’s reaction
• With Google Now, Android Puts Apple’s Siri To Shame
• The Oatmeal fights back, snaps photo of cash, sends money to charity
• If Harry Potter was written like a Madeline book
• Bin Laden realized the truth: Terrorism doesn’t work
• Video/Article: On board a real-life ‘ghost train’

Higgs rumours fly as meeting approaches
The latest rumour is that both ATLAS and CMS have evidence that the Higgs mass is about 125 GeV/C2 at confidence levels of 3.5σ and 2.5σ respectively. At 3.5σ, the measurement could be the result of a random fluke just 0.1% of the time whereas at 2.5σ the fluke factor is about 1%. [full article]

Fundamental constants are not constant—or maybe they are, we don’t really know
Now, there is a precedent here. The cosmic microwave background was initially thought to be isotropic—it’s the same where ever you look. However, accurate measurements show that there is a slight difference and the Universe seems to have some sort of global orientation. This might also imply that the fundamental constants could be different depending on which direction we look. [full article]

Smallest habitable world around sun-like star found
The planet, named Kepler-22b, lies 600 light years away around a star of the same type (called G) as the sun. It is about 2.4 times as wide as Earth and orbits its star every 290 days, right in the middle of its star’s habitable zone, where liquid water can exist on an object’s surface. [full article]