#anomalies
Which ‘Hints’ Of New Physics Should We Be Paying Attention To?
“7.) Does the Muon g-2 experiment break the Standard Model? This one is both highly contentious and also brand new. Years ago, physicists attempted to measure the magnetic moment of the muon to incredible precision, and got a value. As theory raced to catch up, they calculated (and, where calculations were impossible, inferred based on other experimental data) what that value ought to be. A tension emerged, and Fermilab’s Muon g-2 experiment returned their first major results, showing a strong discrepancy between theory and experiment. As always, “new physics” and a broken Standard Model were all over the headlines.
The experiment was sound, their errors were well-quantified, and the discrepancy appears to be real. But this time, it appears that the theory might be the problem. Without the ability to calculate the expected value, the theory team relied on indirect data from other experiments. Meanwhile, a different theoretical technique has recently emerged, and their calculations match the experimental values (within the errors), not the mainstream theory calculation. Better experimental data is coming, but the theoretical discrepancy is rightfully at the center of this latest controversy.
Verdict: Undecided; the biggest uncertainties are theoretical and must be resolved independent of experiment.
Most likely explanation: Error with the theoretical calculations, but new physics remains a possibility.”
Colour anomalies in the Short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis)
As some of you may know I’ve a bit of a weak spot for everything weird with cetaceans: hybrids, deformities, colour anomalies - I love it all. And Short-beaked common dolphins are a gold mine in that last department. I don’t think any other species displays quite so many different anomalies, and with such frequency, as this one. Some, like the melanistic form, are almost ‘normal’ and quite stereotypical in their presentation. Others, like the dolphins in row 4, are highly unique. So earlier this year I made this poster documenting all know anomalies - initially just for fun but I ended up quite liking it! I hope you’ll have fun perusing the oddities of Delphinus delphis too.
Most of these are based on several animals with similar anomalies. However, since the animals in row 4 are all so unique, here’s specific credits to their spotters: 4A was an individual stranded in the UK; 4B, D and E are all photographed by Lisa Steiner of Whale Watch Azores; 4C by Capt. Dave’s Dolphin Safari, 4F by Marilia Olio, and 4G was published in this article here.
Post link
From “Appellation”
I can make a house like a poem
words are nothing but poems
but I can’t pay rent with a name
sometimes words all together
are rhetoric and sometimes
that pays the rent
but I’m tired of anomalies
what are role models
but anomalies
From “Aquifer”
ashamed of this but
my uncle logged and loved
the owls and another knew the fish
levels in the river …I am not ready to abandon
what I have not learned
A century of temperature change in 191 countries
Graphic by Antti Lipponen
An albino Galapagos tortoise recently hatched at a zoo in Switzerland.
Conjoined baby panther chameleons.
Conjoined twins’ skeletons, 1692.
X-ray of conjoined monkeys, Museum Vrolik.
She’s been so popular, I had to share. I have my own Dolly postcard, with a photo of her as a calf.
Head of a Roebuck with Monstrous Horns, Hans Hoffmann ca. 1570.
Albino baby jaguarundi recently discovered in Colombia.
