Rethinking particle physics

Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider have been exploring the limits of physics by smashing particles together, but a team from Yale and Harvard has taken a different approach. The so-called ACME collaboration is taking a closer look at the electron as a way to uncover new exotic particles, but it also has the potential to upend some popular ideas in physics. By taking more precise measurements of electrons, the team has discovered these particles are much more round than they ought to be — so perfectly round that they could change our understanding of particle physics.

The Standard Model is the theory describing the interaction of forces affecting subparticles, like electrons and quarks. Physicists have long relied on the Standard Model to make experimental predictions, while at the same time knowing that it isn’t perfect. The Standard Model is simply the best answer we have right now, and it’s accepted to be close enough to reality to be a useful tool.

Many of the truly interesting things going on at CERN and other research facilities have to do with finding out where the Standard Model breaks down. Going beyond the Standard Model, physicists have proposed various explanations for these gaps in our knowledge.Supersymmetry is one such idea that holds each particle has a superpartner with the same mass and internal quantum numbers, but opposite spin. It is these particles the ACME project was looking for by observing electrons.

The team has been measuring electrons for a type of deformation called the electric dipole moment. If an electron were to interact with many particles predicted by supersymmetry it could change shape quite dramatically, possibly making it more egg shaped than round. However, the ACME researchers found that even very slight deformations were not present — electrons are consistently spherical.

So what does that mean? Some of the theorized particles would have caused massive deformation of electrons when observed under experimental conditions. Having not seen anything of the sort, that could mean the particles simply don’t exist and our understanding of the Standard Model is still incomplete, even with the addition of supersymmetry. Then there is the possibility that the experiment itself was flawed.

On that last count, the team seems confident its observations are correct. The electrons used in the experiment were within the polar molecule thorium monoxide, which amplifies the electric dipole moment. According to one of the lead researchers, if an electron were the size of Earth, this experiment would be able to detect a deformation 10,000 times thinner than a human hair. With that in mind, the smooth curve of the electron might mean the quantum soup of subparticles is much stranger than we thought. It could be a big revelation and we didn’t even need any gigantic supercolliders to figure it out.

Why do electric cars suck in cold weather?

In hindsight, it’s not surprising the Mitsubishi MiEV EV I drove barely made it to 50 miles rather than its rated 62 miles (100 km). It was a dark and chilly if not stormy early December night and that killed the range. When you drive an EV, “your mileage may vary” includes cold weather as well as hard acceleration and late braking. As temperatures dip below freezing, you could lose 25% of your electric vehicle’s precious range. Batteries are less efficient in cold weather, they don’t regenerate as well, and electric heating for the cabin, seats, and windows drains your range, too.

The same thing happened when I drove a Tesla Model S. With the 85 kWh battery, the Tesla is good for around 250 miles. During the afternoon with temperatures above freezing, the discharge rate indicated I wasn’t far off from that kind of efficiency. Driving at night as temperatures fell into the 20s (0C to -5C), I found the range fell noticeably faster than the distance gauge suggested at the start of the trip.

None of this should be surprising. The 12-volt batteries on mainstream cars are prone to failure in the first cold weeks of winter. A battery is a chemical reaction that gives off electrons, or power. When it’s cold, the reaction slows down in both directions, discharging and charging. See, there was a reason to pay attention in chemistry class. You can keep a chemical reaction going by applying heat, which is one way to get more energy out of a battery — but that can be a complex equation, if the energy to heat the battery comes from the battery itself.

How cold weather affects EV range

A cold battery is not as receptive to regeneration. Trying to charge at the same rate that’s possible during warm weather can shorten the battery’s life. The Nissan Leaf uses an electric heater to keep the battery warm; the energy comes from the battery, although the energy expended to heat the battery is outweighed by the additional power that becomes available. Tesla uses waste heat generated by the electric motor. It’s efficient once there’s waste heat available but that takes time.

There’s even more drain from cockpit-warming: using electric heat in the cabin, on the seats, and defrosting the front and bind windshields. Combustion engine cars give off enough waste heat to quickly warm the cockpit without hurting range. In both the MiEV and Tesla, as I saw range dropping, I dialed back the heat and put on a parka and gloves.

Researchers are looking into different battery electrolytes that would be conducive to quick charging without compromising conductivity. EV makers could also make thicker, less conductive window glass and better insulate the car. Both would also reduce road noise.

How to maximize the range of your EV

If you have a garage, park your EV there since it’s warmer than outside. Arrange charging to continue until you’re ready to leave. Use the preheat functions while the car is still connected to the charger; most EVs offer that as a feature of their smartphone apps.

If you can stand it, turn off the heat while driving, or dial it back. A fleece jacket and thin gloves are your friends. Even the infotainment system draws power and I’ve been in EVs that wanted to power down the head unit to conserve power. With its small battery pack, the MiEV was especially susceptible to the cold.

Cold weather is also the reason to consider ordering the extended range battery pack, even if it adds $10,000 or more to the price of your EV. Better you get nicked once by the price and enjoy longer driving distances than you remember all the little compromises made regularly to keep your EV going.

The problem of cold cars has existed for years. Air-cooled Volkswagens and Porsches took longer to heat the cabin than cars with water-cooled engines. The air-cooled cars used a heat exchanger wrapped around the exhaust pipe. Heat took a long time to arrive and when the heat exchangers weren’t perfectly sealed, the smell of exhaust gas and burning engine oil might invade the cockpit.

Google wins DARPA’s robotics challenge

DARPA’s Robotic Challenge took place in Florida over the weekend, pitting some of the world’s most advanced humanoid robots against each other in a series of complex tasks, and rather fortuitously for a famously acquisitive Silicon Valley company, the winning robot was fielded by a company called Schaft — a Japanese company that was recently acquired by Google as part of its rather sudden segue into robotics. Google now officially, and probably not unintentionally, has its hands on the best humanoid robot in all the land.

The Schaft robot, made by Shaft Inc of Japan — which is now one of Google’s primary robotics research labs —  is one of around 10 robots that were entered into DARPA’s Robotic Challenge (DRC). Over the weekend, the robots competed in eight different tasks to gauge the current state of semi-autonomous bipedal robots, and, of course, to find out who’s the best. (The winner has a strong chance of winning prize money and securing lucrative future contracts from DARPA and the Department of Defense.) The Schaft team won in four out of eight tasks — terrain, ladder, debris, and hose — and accrued a total score of 27 points. Second-place IHMC Robotics, which used Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot, came in second with two task wins and 20 points.

Rounding out the rest of the DRC results, Tartan Rescue (Carnegie Mellon + NREC) came in third with its CHIMP robot, picking up 18 points, and MIT came in fourth with an Atlas. NASA’s Valkyrie sadly scored zero points. A full break down of the contest and the results can be found on the DRC Trials website. Some cool videos from the event can be found on DARPA’s YouTube channel.

Schaft is a squat (1.48 meters, 4’11″), gangly-limbed robot that is primarily notable for its use of a capacitor to drive “high-voltage liquid cooled motors,” rather than a battery and normal servos. Capacitors have a lot of power (they can discharge very quickly), but cannot store much energy (they run dry after a few seconds). By using a capacitor, Schaft has much stronger and faster muscles. (Historically, despite how they’re depicted in movies likeTerminator, standalone robots are rarely fast or strong. Batteries, due to their low specific power, struggle to produce a lot of speed and torque.)

Despite being the runaway winner, if you watch the video above, it’s clear that robots are still very slow, sometimes taking more than a minute to plan their next move. This is partly due to the slowness of the on-board motors, but also because the robots are still primarily being operated by human controllers. The next step for Schaft, and for any other humanoid robot that wants a piece of the lucrative humanoid robot market, is to increase autonomy. The idea is that you should be able to tell one of these robots to do something — clear that debris, drive that ambulance to the hospital, go and fight on the front line — and then just leave it to carry out those actions. Such autonomy requires a lot more than just fancy motors and dexterous robotic limbs, though — we’re talking about highly advanced computer vision, problem solving, and other advanced applications of computer science that we can’t yet squeeze onto a robot.

Google, of course, is probably rubbing its hands together and cursing the fact that it publicly stated it wouldn’t take on any further military contracts. The grand final for the DRC is next year, and the winner — other than netting a $2 million cash prize — would almost certainly score a large contract from the US government, which initially wants to procure robots for disaster response, and eventually war. We still have no idea what Google plans to do with its newly acquired robotics department, and realistically it’ll probably be a long while before Google tells us — if it even knows the answer itself.

A Target store in Miami on Thursday. Cybercriminals appear to have targeted the point-of-sale systems in Target’s retail stores, which collect information from customers’ credit and debit cards.

In a statement, Target said that criminals gained access to its customer information on Nov. 27 — the day before Thanksgiving and just ahead of one of the busiest shopping days of the year — and maintained access through Dec. 15.

“As of Dec. 15, we identified an unauthorized access and were able to resolve the issue,” Molly Snyder, a Target spokeswoman, said in an email.

A security blogger, Brian Krebs, first reported the breach on Wednesday.

Target said that criminals had stolen customer names, credit or debit card numbers, expiration dates and three-digit security codes for 40 million customers who had shopped at its stores. The company noted that online customers were not affected by the breach, which appeared to have been isolated to the point-of-sale systems in Target’s retail stores.

Immediately after discovering the breach, Target said, it alerted federal authorities and financial institutions, and is currently working with a third-party forensics firm on an investigation.

Brian Leary, a spokesman for the Secret Service, which investigates financial fraud, said the agency was investigating.

Target advised its store customers to scan their credit and debit accounts for unauthorized transactions and check their credit reports.

“We take this matter very seriously and are working with law enforcement to bring those responsible to justice,” Gregg W. Steinhafel, Target’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

The company is encouraging everyone who shopped in its United States with a credit or debit card during the period, in all regions of the country, to monitor their accounts. Ms. Snyder said she could not disclose the number of people in that group. She said the company began alerting customers Thursday morning.

Citing the ongoing investigation, Ms. Snyder said she could not disclose how the company became aware of the problem.

At this stage, the company’s approach to outreach has been using social media, email and news coverage to alert customers, rather than targeting particular customers who may have been affected. The company also set up a dedicated hotline for its shoppers, with hundreds of people to answer the phones.

Some shopper data was also compromised in 2007, Ms. Snyder said, but the exposure and the number of accounts were “extremely limited.”

This time, however, the breach is massive, and it could hardly come at a worse time of year for the retailer, during the final surge of Christmas shopping. The holiday shopping season can generate anywhere from 20 to 40 percent of a retailer’s annual sales, according to the National Retail Federation.

Ms. Snyder said some Target Red Card holders were having trouble accessing their accounts online Thursday. She said Target was working to fix the problem as quickly as possible.

Point-of-sale systems have become a major target for cybercriminals in recent years. By breaching point-of-sale systems, they can steal the so-called track data on credit and debit cards, which can be sold, in bulk, on the black market and used to create counterfeit cards.

A similar breach affected Barnes & Noble stores last year. Last year, criminals also breached Global Payment Systems, one of the biggest card transactions processors. The biggest known security compromise to date was an attack at Heartland Payment Systems, another credit card processor, in 2009. Criminals used malware to break into the company’s internal network and steal data for 130 million cards.

In such cases, security experts said a company insider could have inserted malicious software into a company machine, or persuaded an unsuspecting employee to click on a link that downloaded software giving criminals a foothold into a company’s systems.

On Thursday, the Target website was festooned for the holidays with discounts, stocking stuffer suggestions, and a color palette of red and green. At the top of the festive page, however, was a stark alert in black and white: “Important notice: unauthorized access to payment card data in U.S. stores.”

Apple TV could really use an updated design, and this proposal is from Andrew Ambrosin which I think is very successful.