Theorist Chien-Peng Yuan of Michigan State University suggests a type of Higgs boson may be lighter than we thought. If this is the case we may already have data in the “debris” emerging from high-energy proton-antiproton collisions* from the Tevatron collider at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois to prove it.

Petabytes of data.

Parallels to human genome (NCBI) and proteome research are interesting. Certainly data handling and mining techniques may apply. Doubtless there are variations in human DNA called Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) that have yet to provide insight into human disease.

It makes me wonder what human disorders and potential treatments are already detected. What can we learn from HEP and other sciences that can help us move forward?

(See also: ScienceMag: Higgs Hiding in Plain Sight?)
(See also: Higgs boson)
(See also: Scientific American: What exactly is the Higgs boson?)
(See also: Higgs: One page explanations)
(See also: Higgs boson: Glimpses of the god particle)

Sun is buying the ‘M’ in the LAMP* stack.

Not surprising when you consider the history Sun has with OpenOffice, JAVA, NetBeans, and other Open Source communities. Sun grew largely with the growth of the web. Though other companies have struggled, post-bubble, Sun has returned to profitability over the last four consecutive quarters. My reaction, along with much of the net, believes this is a good fit for both organizations.

Sun will pay approximately $800 million in cash in exchange for all MySQL stock and assume approximately $200 million in options. The transaction is expected to close in late Q3 or early Q4 of Sun’s fiscal 2008.

We support terabytes of MySQL databases on Sun Microsystems SPARC hardware running Solaris.

* Linux Apache MySQL Perl (LAMP)

(See also: Jonathan’s blog: helping dolphins fly)
(See also: MySQL: Sun to Acquire MySQL)
(See also: blogs.mysql.com)
(See also: New York Times: Sun Buying Swedish Software Firm for $1 Billion)
(See also: mysql.com)
(See also: sun.com)

HECToR will run at speeds of up to 63 teraflops – carrying out 63 trillion calculations a second (equivalent to every person on the planet performing 10,000 calculations every second). — Guardian

Installed at the University of Edinburgh, HECToR is now the most powerful supercomputer in Britain and one of the top systems in Europe. Compared with the world’s best supercomputers, HECToR ranks 17th in the world.

Ex-crayons are proud.

Note: Reuters claims “It can make 63 million calculations each second..”. Someone needs to have a chat with their science staff.

(See also: Guardian: Inside the UK’s fastest machine)
(See also: Reuters)
(See also: Cray: news release)

I am interested in designing systems to support social communities engaged in Life Sciences research. Broadly distributed and diverse research teams will need tools to provide more than simply data aggregation.

More than a spreadsheet, more than a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) or merely a frame around storage. An active environment that analyzes and finds broad connections between research efforts and the stories behind the numbers. Social intimacy, ambient intimacy. Ultimately creating connections between people and their research.

A Ponte Vecchio of ideas and community.

(See also: disambiguity: ambient intimacy)
(See also: Great Buildings: Ponte Vecchio)
(See also: Ponte Vecchio: Image)
(See also: Ponte Vecchio)

Our datacenter hardware move is complete. Demolition has begun in our old computer room. 8TD of data travelled over the network to a Sun Microsystems NAS device in our new facility prior to hardware migration. Systems making the transition travelled by truck. Legacy systems were decommissioned in place. Services are returning as systems are re-racked and configured for new network segments.

More to follow.

(See also: Semisonic: Feeling Strangely Fine )
(See also: CR150 2.5MB image)