Latest LHC experiments show early universe behaved like a liquid

Physicists from the ALICE detector team have been colliding lead nuclei together at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in an attempt to recreate the conditions in the first few microseconds after the Big Bang. Early results have shown that the quark-gluon plasma created at these energies does not form a gas as predicted, but instead suggest that the very early universe behaved like a hot liquid.
The Large Hadron Collider enables physicists to smash together sub-atomic particles at incredibly high-energies, providing new insights into the conditions present at the beginning of the universe.

ALICE (an acronym for A Large Ion Collider Experiment) researchers have been colliding lead nuclei to generate incredibly dense sub-atomic fireballs – mini Big Bangs at temperatures of over ten million degrees.
Previous research at lower energies had suggested the hot fire balls produced in nuclei collisions behaved like a liquid, yet many still expected the quark-gluon plasma to behave like a gas at these much higher energies.
Additionally, it has been found that more sub-atomic particles are produced in the collision than some theoretical models suggested.
“Although it is very early days we are already learning more about the early Universe,” said Dr David Evans, from the University of Birmingham’s School of Physics and Astronomy, and UK lead investigator at ALICE experiment. “These first results would seem to suggest that the Universe would have behaved like a super-hot liquid immediately after the Big Bang.”

The ALICE experiment aims to study the properties of the state of matter called a quark-gluon plasma. The ALICE Collaboration comprises around 1,000 physicists and engineers from around 100 institutes in 30 countries. During collisions of lead nuclei, ALICE will record data to disk at a rate of 1.2 gigabytes (GB), equivalent to two CDs every second, and will write over two petabytes (two million GB) of data to disk. This is equivalent to more than three million CDs, or a stack of CDs without boxes several miles high!
To process this data, ALICE will need 50,000 top-of-the-range PCs, from all over the world, running 24 hours a day.

Dynamic Eye sunglasses use moving LCD spot to reduce glare

Chris Mullin from Pittsburgh has designed a pair of smart electronic sunglasses that pinpoint and reduce glare using a moving liquid crystal display spot inside the lens. Dubbed "Dynamic Eye", the sunglasses dim direct sunlight or other hot spots without dimming everything else in view, so you no longer have to worry about driving home with the sun streaming directly into your line of vision.
Mullin came up with the electronic sunglasses after completing his PhD in physics from the University of California at Berkeley. The idea behind the design sprung from the general lack of functionality from most sunglasses, including polarized lenses, to cut out direct sunlight glare whilst keeping a clear picture of everything thing else.
Using the two polarizers in the liquid crystal display, the glasses are able to darken the area between your pupil and the glare source. Half the light passes through the first polarizer and the liquid crystal in the middle determines whether the light will be absorbed by, or pass through, the second polarizer. If the sun moves, then so does this crystal liquid spot and if there is no glare, there is no spot.
 
“The problem with the sun is that it’s ten thousand times brighter than everything else you’re looking at, and your eyes can’t handle the difference. You squint, pull down the shade, put your hand, or do anything to get rid of the sun,” explained Mullin on Kickstarter.com. “With our glasses, you can relax, because the sun is dimmed down to an acceptable level. You can still see it, as well as any silhouettes that come in front, and because the glare is blocked, you can see a lot more of what’s near the sun.”
Glare reducing night glasses which use a special transparent LCD developed by researchers at Kent State University is also in development.