If you want to collide the largest number of particles at the highest possible energies, you’ll want to build a circular particle accelerator and collider: similar to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. The LHC is the largest particle accelerator ever built on Earth, with a circumference of around 27 kilometers. However, we can imagine building far larger ones, including ultimately, around the equator of Earth itself. However, some have envisioned even grander particle accelerators, which could reach the most extreme energies of all-time, by building them in space. We’d gain so much, but is it truly feasible?

Ask Ethan: Could we build a collider bigger than Earth?

Don’t fall into the determinism trap. Everything is, in fact, random, says chemist Lee Cronin:. According to current physics, the universe began with a Big Bang, leading to an expanding universe where matter, hydrogen, stars, and galaxies formed. From exploding stars came planets, and eventually, life emerged, leading to human beings and technology as we know it today.

How does something come from nothing? A chemist explains

Chicago, IL

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Foodie in Chicago

Shortly before 3 AM, people in the Chicago area may have felt their houses shake as a 3.4-magnitude earthquake occurred about 60 miles west of the city. (CHICAGO) The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported a 3.4-magnitude earthquake around Somonauk, IL. Somonauk is in DeKalb and LaSalle Counties, 64 miles west of Chicago.

Did You Feel the Earthquake?

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The Lens

This year’s area of low oxygen in the Gulf of Mexico is larger than average, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on Thursday. The “dead zone” is approximately 6,705 square miles , as measured last week. Within NOAA’s 38 years of measuring the dead zone, this year’s assessment marks the 12th-largest area of low to no oxygen, which can kill fish and marine life.

Gulf ‘dead zone’ larger than average, larger than expected for 2024, scientists announce

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The Current GA

Since 2020, the condition known as long COVID-19 has become a widespread disability affecting the health and quality of life of millions of people across the globe and costing economies billions of dollars in reduced productivity of employees and an overall drop in the work force .

Expert: Long COVID puzzle pieces are falling into place – picture is unsettling

Declutterbuzz

More and more people are warming up to the idea that decluttering your physical possessions goes hand-in-hand with decluttering your mind aka mental clutter. The following is how a clear mind will help your decluttering goal.

How A Clear Mind Will Benefit Your Decluttering Goal

Bucks County Beacon

As chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, Senator Bernie Sanders released a June report entitled “ By the Wealthy, for the Wealthy: The Coordinated Attacks on Public Education in the United States .” The report is a brief but thorough (16 pages of text, 4 pages of footnotes) takedown of the current wave of attempts to end public education as we know it.

Senator Bernie Sanders Warns in New Report of Right-Wing Billionaire Plot to Sabotage Public Education in Order to Privatize It

Main story: Writer and neuroscientist Anne-Laure Le Cunff explains that solving for immediate outcomes often does nothing to improve long-term results. By taking the time to consider second- and third-order consequences, we’re more likely to determine the most favorable decision. Also among this week’s stories: A defense of tech monopolies, the perils of comfort, and Sam Altman’s prescription for a fulfilling career.

The long-term benefits of “second-level” thinking

Though written as the film’s antagonist, Anxiety isn’t a villain; she means well. The film’s story functions as an analogy for managing your emotions in a healthy and productive way. Riley, the main character of the 2015 animated movie Inside Out, is based on director Pete Docter’s...

“Inside Out 2” creators on rediscovering joy and being a better parent

First introduced way back in 1905, Einstein’s most famous equation, E = mc², put forth the mathematical formula relating energy to the amount of rest mass inherent to an object. Although few people who recognize the equation can explain it, there are actually three big meanings attached to it: for turning energy into mass and mass back into energy and more. The big takeaway is this, however: mass is not conserved on its own, and that the act of extracting energy from mass is vital to the Universe evolving in a way that makes our existence possible.

3 big lessons from Einstein’s most famous equation: E=mc²

People report feeling overwhelmed when tasked with Decluttering. Whether it's the lack of time, dealing with chronic illness, or managing ADHD, these obstacles can seem impossible. Today, we're going to make your decluttering process simpler by using the guide How To Overcome Common Obstacles To Decluttering.

How To Overcome Common Obstacles To Decluttering

Photos taken from Wimbledon’s Centre Court over the last 50 years show less wear and tear in “volley valley.” The photos parallel a change in the game, from the serve-and-volley style of the 1970s and 80s to one dominated by powerful serves and returns. While there are many potential reasons for the shift, nostalgic fans no doubt pine for the dynamic games of yesteryear compared to the static ones of today.

Do these pictures prove tennis is dead?

Green Bay, WI

Northern Kentucky Tribune

Joe Heller was the editorial cartoonist for the Green Bay Press-Gazette in Green Bay, Wis., from 1985 until being laid off in July 2013. He still draws several cartoons a week and distributes them through his own syndicate. Through Heller Syndication, his cartoons regularly appear in more than 400 newspapers, making him the most successful self-syndicated editorial cartoonist in the nation. His cartoons are reprinted many times in USA Today, Denver Post, St. Paul Pioneer Press, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek Japan, The Week and The Washington Post. Joe’s cartoons have won numerous distinctions, including 10 Best of Gannett awards, eight Milwaukee Press Club awards and two Honorable mentions for the John Fischetti Award. He lives in Green Bay with his wife, Pamela. He is a regular featured cartoonist for the NKyTribune .

Joe Heller: Cartoonist views Olympics, court limits, last supper, eye-for-eye, orange/black

Even though the speed of light is fast, at nearly 300,000 km/s, Earth moves fairly quickly around the Sun as well, with an average speed of 30 km/s in orbit. The Michelson-Morley experiment sought to leverage this fact to measure how light appeared to shift when you moved with (or against) the Earth’s motion, instead of perpendicular to its motion. Yet it saw no effect: giving a null result for the experiment. This was one of the most important measurements in physics history, culminating in Einstein’s original, special theory of relativity.

How a failed experiment led to Einstein’s first big revolution

At Big Think+, we understand the importance of data-driven decision-making and how crucial it is for learning leaders to have instant access to valuable learner data. With the launch of our new Analytics feature, you can easily identify the trends and successes that enable you to maximize your learning program’s effectiveness.

Introducing Big Think+ Analytics: Real-time analytics for your learning programs

West Texas Livestock Growers

Introducing protein tubs into your pasture is a convenient way to provide additional nutrition. Once it’s in place, you don’t need to check it daily, which is particularly beneficial for those with other commitments, such as a job in town, who can’t be on the ranch daily.

5 simple steps before actually buying protein tubs exposed

Denver, CO

David Heitz

Have you ever thought about what it costs to be homeless?. Oh, I know, the quick answer is that it doesn’t cost anything. Everything is free. My readers bemoan free phones, Medicaid, food stamps … everything that is provided to people experiencing homelessness. So, they especially didn’t like it when I reported that the Denver Basic Income Project wants more money from the city.

Opinion: Living unhoused proves an expensive pit to be in; Denver Basic Income Project provides exit

“Luck” is often assumed to be a thing of random chance. In the 1970s, the neurologist James H. Austin suggested that we could actually reframe luck in four different ways. Here we look at Austin’s “Four Types of Luck” and see how they can change our attitude to life.

How the “4 Types of Luck” can enrich your work-life

NewsBreak

The big idea of Grand Unified Theories of physics

In the Standard Model of particle physics, excluding gravity, there are three fundamental quantum forces: electromagnetism, plus the strong and weak nuclear forces. At high energies,...

The big idea of Grand Unified Theories of physics

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