Researchers from the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) Collaboration in the United States recently revealed that they had precisely measured the mass of the W boson.
This precisely established number did not match the estimates from the mainstream model of particle physics, according to the researchers.
The W boson was discovered at CERN, on the Franco-Swiss border, in 1983.
The W bosons are relatively hefty, in contrast to the photon, which is massless, hence the weak force they mediate is quite short ranged.
CERN is the world’s biggest nuclear and particle physics laboratory, and is best known as the operator of the Large Hadron Collider, which discovered the elusive Higgs boson in 2012.
The W-plus and W-minus are both heavy and charged, unlike the photon, which is electrically neutral.
A neutron can transform into a proton, for example, by exchanging such W bosons: this is what happens in beta decay, a radioactive interaction that occurs in the sun.
As a result, the W boson aids interactions that cause the sun to burn and produce energy.
The standard model of elementary particles is a physics theoretical construct that models the interaction of matter particles.
It shows how mathematical symmetry connects the world’s constituent particles, much as bilateral (left-right) symmetry connects two objects.
These are mathematical groups that are formed by continuous transformations from one particle to another, for example.
There are a finite number of fundamental particles in this paradigm, which are represented by the distinctive “eigen” states of these groups.
Experiments have confirmed the existence of particles anticipated by the model, such as the Z boson.
The Higgs boson, which gives mass to massive particles, was discovered last in 2012.
It completely ignores gravity because it combines just three of the four fundamental forces of existence — electromagnetic, weak nuclear, strong nuclear, and gravitational interactions.
As a result, the standard model was determined to be inadequate in the larger scheme of unifying all forces such that a single equation could describe all matter interactions.
Furthermore, it lacks a description of dark matter particles.
So far, only their gravitational pull on the surrounding matter has been discovered.
Because they are created by “gauge transformations,” the symmetries of the standard model are known as gauge symmetries.
A set of continuous transformations is known as gauge transformations (like rotation is a continuous transformation). A gauge boson is connected with each symmetry.
The photon, for example, is a gauge boson involved with electromagnetic interactions. The W and Z gauge bosons are related with weak interactions. W+ and W- are the two types of W bosons.
Canada recently introduced legislation that would require Internet companies like Google and Facebook to compensate news publishers for the use of their content.
The bill aims to regulate digital news intermediaries in order to “improve fairness and contribute to the long-term viability of the Canadian digital news sector.”
Use of Tools and Tactics: Until recently, their connection was mostly focused on how publishers might use tools and strategies to maximise the reach of these platforms.
Many conventional news companies rely heavily on Google and Facebook for traffic.
Platforms make a lot of money from this arrangement all around the world, but publishers suffer.
Publishers must also deal with frequent modifications to the platform algorithm, which poses the genuine risk of losing a huge number of readers all at once.
About: The Canadian decision on the matter is likely to improve India’s news publishers’ chances of obtaining a fair revenue-sharing structure.
In December 2021, the ndia stated that it has no plans to force tech behemoths like Facebook and Google to compensate local publishers for news content.
The Competition Commission of India, however, initiated inquiries into Google earlier in 2022 after a complaint from the Digital News Publishers’ Association (DNPA).
The watchdog did take account of the laws in Australia and France while drafting the order.
With nearly 800 million people online, India, previously the world’s largest unconnected country, will soon be one of the world’s largest internet-enabled nations.
Technology will almost certainly play a significant role in our economy, accounting for over a fifth of our total output.
Unregulated social and digital media may jeopardise India’s emergence as a trustworthy and responsible nation, as well as the world’s largest democracy.
These problems can be solved by effectively regulating social media and upgrading our laws and institutions.
Google and Facebook are fighting in court about remuneration for using news content all around the world.
Regulators and publishers are suing them for antitrust violations.
With news publishers in Australia, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and France enacting or proposing to pass legislation to ensure a fair revenue-sharing model, the internet behemoths appear to be fighting tooth and nail to maintain their alleged monopolistic system and reap massive profits.
The Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change recently spoke at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCDfifteenth )’s Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Cote d’Ivoire (Western Africa).
The United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP 15) represents a watershed event in the fight against desertification, land degradation, and drought.
It will build on the findings of the Global Land Outlook’s second edition to provide a practical response to the interconnected concerns of land degradation, climate change, and biodiversity loss.
The UNCCD’s flagship publication, the Global Land Outlook (GLO), highlights land system concerns, highlights transformative policies and practises, and identifies cost-effective approaches to scale up sustainable land and water management.
Drought, land restoration, and associated enablers including land rights, gender equality, and youth empowerment are among the conference’s major priorities.
‘Land. Life. Legacy: From Scarcity to Prosperity’ is the theme.
Land degradation is defined as the loss or decline of dryland biological or economic productivity.
Land degradation occurs in arid, semiarid, and dry subhumid areas as a result of a variety of factors, including climatic changes and human activity.
One of the main causes of desertification is the loss of soil cover, which is mostly caused by rainfall and surface runoff.
Cutting down trees has a negative impact on the soil and causes degradation. As the population of cities grows, so does the demand for resources.
“The temporary or permanent loss in the density, structure, species composition, or productivity of plant cover,” according to Vegetation Degradation.
Badland Topography is the outcome of water erosion, which is the first stage of desertification.
Badlands are dry areas with softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils that have been heavily eroded.
Sand encroachment by the wind diminishes soil fertility, making the region vulnerable to desertification.
It was discovered to be responsible for 5.46 percent of India’s desertification.
Climate change may increase desertification by altering temperature, rainfall, solar radiation, and wind patterns in space and time.
UNCCD stands for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. It is the only legally enforceable international agreement combining environment and development to sustainable land management, having been formed in 1994.
The UNCCD’s 14th CoP issued the Delhi Declaration in 2019, which urged for improved land access and stewardship, as well as gender-sensitive transformative projects.
The Bonn Challenge: By 2020, restore 150 million hectares of deforested and damaged land around the world, and 350 million hectares by 2030.
The Great Green Wall is a GEF initiative in which eleven countries in Sahel-Saharan Africa have pooled their resources to combat soil degradation and restore native plant life to the region.
India is working on sustainable land and resource management for community livelihood generation in order to make local lands healthier and more productive in order to provide a better homeland and a better future for its people.
In 2001, the National Action Plan for Combating Desertification was created in order to take proper action in tackling desertification issues.
India adopted six restoration flagships that aim to restore 12.5 million hectares of degraded land in response to a global call for nominations for World Restoration Flagships.
The following are some of the major programmes currently being done to address concerns connected to land degradation and desertification:
During the World Forestry Congress, the 2022 edition of the State of the World’s Forests (SOFO) was released.
According to the SOFO report, deforestation has resulted in the loss of 420 million hectares (mha) of forest during the last 30 years (1990-2020).
This represents about 10.34% of the total forest area of 4.06 billion ha (31% of the earth’s geographical area).
It went on to say that, despite the fact that deforestation was decreasing, 10 million hectares of forest were lost every year between 2015 and 2020.
More than 700 million hectares of forest (18 percent of total forest area) are protected by law.
Deforestation and forest degradation, however, continue to threaten forest biodiversity.
Between 2016 and 2050, an estimated 289 million hectares of forest would be deforested in the tropics alone, resulting in the emission of 169 GtCO2e.
The report also outlined three approaches to achieving green recovery and addressing environmental challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss:
It went on to say that deforestation and land-use change are to blame for 30% of new diseases reported since 1960.
Deforestation has been linked to a rise in infectious diseases including dengue fever and malaria, particularly in the tropics.
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