The Large Hadron Collider Discovered a NEW PARTICLE!

A diagram of one possible layout of the five quarks that compose the newly discovered pentaquark

The scientists at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland have discovered yet another new particle! This one is called a pentaquark and has been postulated and searched for over the last 50 years. The discovery of this new form of matter further enables our understanding of how the universe is put together, and could eventually lead to our complete understanding of the workings of reality. This is quite exciting!

An alternate layout of a pentaquark showing it composed of a meson particle (one quark and one antiquark) and a baryon (three quarks).

LHCb spokesperson Guy Wilkinson commented: "The pentaquark is not just any new particle… It represents a way to aggregate quarks, namely the fundamental constituents of ordinary protons and neutrons, in a pattern that has never been observed before in over fifty years of experimental searches. Studying its properties may allow us to understand better how ordinary matter, the protons and neutrons from which we're all made, is constituted."

The original findings have been published in the journal Physical Review Letters:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1507.03414

Snow Around The World 2014

BEAUTY: Installation--Romain Crelier

The Abbey-church of Bellelay in Switzerland is the site of Romain Crelier's site-specific installation entitled La Mise en Abîme. Very shallow containers shaped like puddles hold pools of used motor oil but end up becoming obsidian mirrors which reflect the Abbey's magnificent architecture as well as any visitors, thus doubling and redefining the space. It creates an eerie looking glass effect that gives the illusion of depth--a second Abbey hovers in another dimension--where there is none. And finally, there is the exquisite play and tension between the pristine white abbey and the inky black oil.

http://www.courantdart.ch/ca_artiste_crelier.htm

Romain Crelier's piece reminds me so very much of 20:50, a piece by Richard Wilson which I saw at the Saatchi on the Thames many years ago.
From the Saatchi website:
Richard Wilson’s 20:50 is truly a contemporary masterpiece. The work is the only permanent installation at the Saatchi Gallery and has been continuously shown in each of the gallery’s venues since 1991. Currently on display in Gallery 13 – a room custom built for the piece – 20:50 transforms the gallery into a site of epic illusion.

Viewed from the entrance platform 20:50 appears as a holographic field: simultaneously a polished floor, infinite clear pool, an expansive and indefinable virtual space that clinically absorbs and mirrors the gallery architecture. The room is in fact entirely flooded in oil.

Visitors are invited to examine the piece close-up via a walkway that extends into the lake, placing the viewer, waist deep, at the centre of a perfect mathematically symmetrical scope. Through this altered perspective 20:50’s phantasmical aura is enhanced, amplifying the disorientating and mesmerising experience of the space, and further confounding physical logic.

20:50 takes its name from the type of recycled engine oil used. It is thick, pitch black, and absolutely indelible: please take extreme care with your clothing and belongings, and no matter how tempting, please do not touch. 20:50 often has to be demonstrated to be believed: the liquid can be seen by blowing very gently on the surface.

http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/artpages/richard_wilson_oil.htm

Whitepod

High in the snowy Swiss Alps lies Whitepod, an ecologically-minded camp of 15 geodesic domes. All the heated domes in camp are oriented toward the valley except one which faces Lake Geneva and the jazzy city of Montreux. A central common chalet houses a luxury spa/sauna and restaurant where breakfast and tea are served. A variety of outdoor activities including showshoeing, skiing, and dog sledding are available.

Of course this reminds me of the glass domed cabins at the gorgeous Hotel Kakslauttanen,in Lapland, which I wrote about here last winter.

http://www.whitepod.com/

Tamina Therme

I am dreaming of visting the geothermal baths at the new Tamina Therme, located at the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz in Bad Ragaz, Switzerland. Created by Zurich-based architecture firm Smolenicky and Partners, the interior was conceived of as a "forest" with a "glade" of gently curved columns acting as trees, surrounding the pool and treatment areas. The clean white result is both organic and otherworldly.

http://www.resortragaz.ch/en/2/tamina-therme