Woke up this morning to the happy news that my post "The Fine Structure Constant is Probably Constant" walked away with the Charm Quark (i.e., tied for third place) in this year's 3QuarksDaily science blogging prizes. Many thanks to Lisa Randall for judging and Abbas Raza and the 3QD crew for hosting. And of course congrats to the other winners:
Top Quark: SciCurious, Serotonin and Sexual Preference: Is It Really That Simple?
Strange Quark: Anne Jefferson, Levees and the Illusion of Flood Control
Charm Quark: Ethan Siegel, Where Is Everybody?
I already have a great nominee for next year's contest. One of the most confusing things in particle physics is the notion of "chirality." The related notion of a particle's "helicity" is relatively easy to explain -- is the particle spinning in a left-handed or right-handed sense when compared to its direction of motion? But a massive particle need not ...
