Is all this work on string theory and multiple dimensions and extra universes still science? Thats the question physicist Sean Carroll and writer John Horgan recently debated. Carroll, of the California Institute of Technology, also blogs regularly for Cosmic Variance, and he wrote out a detailed post explaining his position. Obviously, as a cosmologist who works full-time on these seemingly preposterous ideas, he is a bit biased. Hes not the guy youd expect to stop and say it isnt real science. But his piece on the subject does effectively explain why he and, one assumes, other theoretical physicists working on these problems think this way.

Just finished a great article from today's New York Times science section on the race to find evidence of the Higgs Boson, or "God particle" as it is often called. PPX players will want to take note—it's mandatory reading if you're following our BOSON proposition (check it out here for the current market price) which seeks to predict who will win the race to find the elusive particle.

In (incredibly) simplified terms, some physicists believe the Higgs boson is the key to understanding several mysteries of the universe's formation that current theoretical models have failed to define—namely, the origin of matter. Heavy stuff, for sure, requiring some equally heavy machinery to study—the likes of which can only be found at the world's top physics labs such as Fermilab in Illinois and CERN's Large Hadron Collider, a powerful particle accelerator currently under construction at CERN's laboratory facilities near Geneva, Switzerland (check out more amazing VR photos like the one at the top of this post).

The article also does a great job in illustrating just how competitive these physicists can get, and the role of their personal blogs, where rumors of findings are posted, re-posted and commented on—taking data previously familiar to only a few dozen hardcore particle physicists in a laboratory lunch room and hurling it into whirlwind of science blogs accessibly to anyone, scientist or not. The article points to Cosmic Variance, a blog maintained by several leading physicists that lives in many a PopSci staffer's favorites list, as well as countless others. Check them out for some delightfully geeky gossip. Oh, and watch that PPX prop! —John Mahoney

NYTimes: "At Fermilab, the Race Is on For the God Particle"PPX: BOSON

Courtesy Radicalgraphics.org

Lots of people in the media—myself included—are getting really hyped up about global warming these days. All this talk about carbon-dioxide this and fuel-efficiency that. The level of collective anxiety is enough to make me go on a (locally grown, organic) potato-chip binge. Or something. But recently, the cheeky monkeys over at Cosmic Variance advanced a fascinating new theory: that feminism, not greenhouse gas, is destroying the planet. To support their tongue-in-cheek hypothesis, they used a cool new Google tool to build a helpful graph showing tons per capita of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere as a function of the ratio of girls-to-boys attending school in different countries. Where women are educated, they suggest, environmental destruction inevitably follows. Read it and weep. —Megan Miller

Related:It's Pretty Easy Being GreenThe Life Aquatic