Europe champions digital freedom and its open source community.
We have introduced a tailored approach to boost open source development across EU countries and ensure it is safe from cyber threats.
We only apply security rules to software used in commercial activities.
We are also creating open source software stewards to support security with a light-touch regime and no administrative fines.
Find out more đ
https://link.europa.eu/Jc7hBy
The LHCb experiment at CERNâs Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has discovered a new particle consisting of two charm quarks and one down quark, a similar structure to the familiar proton, but with two heavy charm quarks replacing the two up quarks of the proton, thus quadrupling its mass. The discovery, presented at the ongoing Moriond conference, will help physicists better understand how the strong force binds protons, neutrons and other composite particles together. Quarks are fundamental building blocks of matter and come in six flavours: up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom. They usually combine in groups of twos and threes to form mesons and baryons, respectively. Unlike the stable proton, however, most of these mesons and baryons, which are collectively known as hadrons, are unstable and short-lived, making them a challenge to observe. Producing them requires smashing together high-energy particles in a machine such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). These unstable hadrons will quickly decay, but the more stable particles that are produced as a result of this decay can be detected and the properties of the original particle can therefore be deduced. Researchers have used this approach many times to find new hadrons, and the new particle just announced by the LHCb Collaboration brings the total number of hadrons discovered by LHC experiments up to 80. âThis is the first new particle identified after the upgrades to the LHCb detector that were completed in 2023, and only the second time a baryon with two heavy quarks has been observed, the first having being observed by LHCb almost 10 years ago,â says LHCb Spokesperson Vincenzo Vagnoni. âThe result will help theorists test models of quantum chromodynamics, the theory of the strong force that binds quarks into not only conventional baryons and mesons but also more exotic hadrons such as tetraquarks and pentaquarks.â In 2017, LHCb reported the discovery of a very similar particle, which consists of two charm quarks and one up quark. This up quark is the only difference between this particle and the new one, which has a down quark in its place. Despite the similarity, the new particle has a predicted lifetime that is up to six times shorter than its counterpart, due to complex quantum effects. This makes it even more challenging to observe. By analysing data from protonâproton collisions recorded by the LHCb detector during the third run of the LHC, the LHCb Collaboration observed the new baryon with a statistical significance of 7 sigma, well above the threshold of 5 sigma required to claim a discovery. âThis major result is a fantastic example of how LHCbâs unique capabilities play a vital role in the success of the LHC,â says Mark Thomson, CERN Director-General. âIt highlights how experimental upgrades at CERN directly lead to new discoveries, setting the stage for the transformative science we expect from the High-Luminosity LHC. These achievements are only possible thanks to the exceptional performance of CERNâs accelerator complex and the teams who make it all work and to the commitment of the scientists on the LHCb experiment.â Further information: LHCb presentation at Moriond is available here. LHCb news article.
The deaf blacksmith who married in 1576 â and the history of sign as a legal language
The medieval churchâs acknowledgement that signs were equivalent to a spoken language was transformative for deaf people.
by Rosamund Oates
Sign language at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subjects/search/?query=sign+language
had a good conversation earlier that went something like this:
them: âis AI making pentesting easier?â
me: âyes.â
them: âwhy, because you can use it to look for vulnerabilities in code quicker?â
me: âno, because it generates vulnerabilities in code quickerâ
European Commission
Logan Five Thousand
Janne M. Korhonen
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Project Gutenberg
RevK 
Leonhard Gandhi
Mike Sheward
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