Higgs Bosun

Having left the world of particle physics far behind, I missed the excitement of the Large Hardon Collider in Cern in the last couple of weeks. An accelerator which has been sexed up so much in the past years was heading for a fall. Phrases like "finding the God particle" and "recreating the conditions of the big bang" may be propagated by journalists in search of a headline, but must have originated with physicists overly keen to sell their product.

So a Magnet breaking from its support and blowing out lots of Helium can become a big story. I have long regarded broken, burnt, flooded or leaky magnets as an intregal part of a particle accelerator, but the public response to the Times article is strong and crazy in equal parts. Special attention should be paid to the comments by Amelie in London (surely a delightful piece of trolling),

'Bosun' or 'boatswain' not boson! Does no-one at The Times use their spell-checker?

to Walter E. Wallis in Palo Alto

It is a scientific breakthrough, but when something breaks it is an engineering error?

and to Mark Bergner in Chicago

Not to make light of a bad situation, but how seriously can you take a dozen scientists yelling, "Run for your lives" in a squeaky high-pitched helium-induced voice?

Practical problems arouse.

I continued learning English this week. I know now the difference between like and such as (explained here), and between using and utilising (explained here).

Now try to analyse these sentences:

1/ Your best friend says to you

"I wish to have a girlfriend like yours."
"I wish to have a girlfriend such as yours."

The first would be a fine compliment, the second a threat.

2/ I may say

"I used my keyboard to type this sentence."
"I utilised my keyboard to beat to death the guy next to me, who is still listening to Roxette very loudly."

I now read things with a keener eye, and spotted a lovely mistake in a book about ultrasound that I'm reading:

Ideas of three-dimensional (3D) imaging of organs by beam scanning in 3D directions, was first introduced in the 50'ies, but severe practical problems arouse...

The author of the book is Norwegian and knows a lot about ultrasound, so I firmly place any blame at the hands of his publishers and their proofreader. Every time I read this sentence, I find another mistake, but the really good one is arouse instead of arose. Getting turned on by severe practical problems must be quite distracting for most scientists.