Has Higgs been really discovered?

by Scientific American

Top physicists have recently reached a frenzy over the announcement that the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva is planning to release what is widely expected to be tantalizing - although no conclusive - evidence for the existence of the Higgs boson, the elementary particle hypothesized to be the origin of the mass of all matter.

Many physicists have already swung into action, swapping rumors about the contents of the announcement and proposing grand ideas about what those rumors would mean, if true. “It’s impossible to be excited enough,” says Gordon Kane, a theoretical physicist at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

The spokespeople of the collaborations using the cathedral-size ATLAS and CMS detectors to search for the Higgs boson and other phenomena at the 27-kilometer-circumference proton accelerator of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are scheduled to present updates based on analyses of the data collected to date. “There won’t be a discovery announcement, but it does promise to be interesting, since there are rumors that scientists have seen hints of the elusive Higgs boson” says James Gillies, spokesperson for CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), which hosts the LHC.

Joe Lykken, a theoretical physicist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill, and a member of the CMS collaboration, says: “Whatever happens eventually with the Higgs, I think we’ll look back on this meeting and say. ‘This was the beginning of something.’” (As a CMS member, Lykken says he is not yet sure himself what results ATLAS would unveil; he is bound by his collaboration’s rules not to reveal what CMS has in hand.)

Available at: <http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57341543-76/has-higgs-been-discovered-rumors--of-watershed-news-build/?tag=mncol;topStories>. Retrieved on: 11 Dec. 2011. Adapted.

The excerpt “Many physicists have already swung into action” could be properly completed in

Has Higgs been really discovered?

by Scientific American

Top physicists have recently reached a frenzy over the announcement that the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva is planning to release what is widely expected to be tantalizing - although no conclusive - evidence for the existence of the Higgs boson, the elementary particle hypothesized to be the origin of the mass of all matter.

Many physicists have already swung into action, swapping rumors about the contents of the announcement and proposing grand ideas about what those rumors would mean, if true. “It’s impossible to be excited enough,” says Gordon Kane, a theoretical physicist at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

The spokespeople of the collaborations using the cathedral-size ATLAS and CMS detectors to search for the Higgs boson and other phenomena at the 27-kilometer-circumference proton accelerator of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are scheduled to present updates based on analyses of the data collected to date. “There won’t be a discovery announcement, but it does promise to be interesting, since there are rumors that scientists have seen hints of the elusive Higgs boson” says James Gillies, spokesperson for CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), which hosts the LHC.

Joe Lykken, a theoretical physicist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill, and a member of the CMS collaboration, says: “Whatever happens eventually with the Higgs, I think we’ll look back on this meeting and say. ‘This was the beginning of something.’” (As a CMS member, Lykken says he is not yet sure himself what results ATLAS would unveil; he is bound by his collaboration’s rules not to reveal what CMS has in hand.)

Available at: <http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57341543-76/has-higgs-been-discovered-rumors--of-watershed-news-build/?tag=mncol;topStories>. Retrieved on: 11 Dec. 2011. Adapted.

Text reports that

The Microbial Puppet-Master

by Valerie Ross
from Discover Magazine:
Mind & Brain / Memory, Emotions & Decisions

When Timothy Lu was in medical school, he treated a veteran whose multiple sclerosis was so severe that she had to use a urinary catheter. As often happens with invasive medical devices, the catheters became infected with biofilms: gooey, antibioticresistant layers of bacteria. Now the 30-year-old MIT professor, who first trained as an engineer, designs viruses that destroy biofilms, which cause everything from staph infections to cholera outbreaks and that account for 65 percent of human infections overall.

Discover: You started as an electrical engineer. Was it a difficult transition becoming a biologist?

Lu: I came into the lab not really understanding how to do biology experiments and deal with chemicals. I’m not a great experimentalist with my hands, and one night I set the lab on fire.

Discover: How does a biofilm work, from an engineering perspective?

Lu: A biofilm is essentially a three-dimensional community of bacteria that live together, kind of like a bacterial apartment building or city. Biofilms are made up of the bacterial cells as well as all sorts of other material — carbohydrates, proteins, and so on — that the bacteria build to protect themselves.

Discover: And those communities make bacteria especially dangerous?

Lu: Before I started medical school, I didn’t think bacterial infections were a big deal, because I assumed antibiotics had taken care of them, but then I started seeing patients with significant biofilm infections that couldn’t be cured.

Discover: What is your strategy to destroy biofilms?

Lu: We use viruses called phages that infect bacteria but not human cells. We cut the phages’ DNA and insert a synthetic gene into the phage genome. That gene produces enzymes that can go out into the biofilm and chew it up.

Discover: If you had just $10 for entertainment, how would you spend your day?

Lu: What can you even buy with $10? Maybe I would buy a magnifying glass and just peer around in the soil to see what other life was going on down there. That would actually be fun.

Available at: <http://discovermagazine.com/2011/sep/05-questions-for-microbial-puppet-master>.Retrieved on: 11 Sep. 2011. Adapted.

The Microbial Puppet-Master

by Valerie Ross
from Discover Magazine:
Mind & Brain / Memory, Emotions & Decisions

When Timothy Lu was in medical school, he treated a veteran whose multiple sclerosis was so severe that she had to use a urinary catheter. As often happens with invasive medical devices, the catheters became infected with biofilms: gooey, antibioticresistant layers of bacteria. Now the 30-year-old MIT professor, who first trained as an engineer, designs viruses that destroy biofilms, which cause everything from staph infections to cholera outbreaks and that account for 65 percent of human infections overall.

Discover: You started as an electrical engineer. Was it a difficult transition becoming a biologist?

Lu: I came into the lab not really understanding how to do biology experiments and deal with chemicals. I’m not a great experimentalist with my hands, and one night I set the lab on fire.

Discover: How does a biofilm work, from an engineering perspective?

Lu: A biofilm is essentially a three-dimensional community of bacteria that live together, kind of like a bacterial apartment building or city. Biofilms are made up of the bacterial cells as well as all sorts of other material — carbohydrates, proteins, and so on — that the bacteria build to protect themselves.

Discover: And those communities make bacteria especially dangerous?

Lu: Before I started medical school, I didn’t think bacterial infections were a big deal, because I assumed antibiotics had taken care of them, but then I started seeing patients with significant biofilm infections that couldn’t be cured.

Discover: What is your strategy to destroy biofilms?

Lu: We use viruses called phages that infect bacteria but not human cells. We cut the phages’ DNA and insert a synthetic gene into the phage genome. That gene produces enzymes that can go out into the biofilm and chew it up.

Discover: If you had just $10 for entertainment, how would you spend your day?

Lu: What can you even buy with $10? Maybe I would buy a magnifying glass and just peer around in the soil to see what other life was going on down there. That would actually be fun.

Available at: <http://discovermagazine.com/2011/sep/05-questions-for-microbial-puppet-master>.Retrieved on: 11 Sep. 2011. Adapted.

The Microbial Puppet-Master

by Valerie Ross
from Discover Magazine:
Mind & Brain / Memory, Emotions & Decisions

When Timothy Lu was in medical school, he treated a veteran whose multiple sclerosis was so severe that she had to use a urinary catheter. As often happens with invasive medical devices, the catheters became infected with biofilms: gooey, antibioticresistant layers of bacteria. Now the 30-year-old MIT professor, who first trained as an engineer, designs viruses that destroy biofilms, which cause everything from staph infections to cholera outbreaks and that account for 65 percent of human infections overall.

Discover: You started as an electrical engineer. Was it a difficult transition becoming a biologist?

Lu: I came into the lab not really understanding how to do biology experiments and deal with chemicals. I’m not a great experimentalist with my hands, and one night I set the lab on fire.

Discover: How does a biofilm work, from an engineering perspective?

Lu: A biofilm is essentially a three-dimensional community of bacteria that live together, kind of like a bacterial apartment building or city. Biofilms are made up of the bacterial cells as well as all sorts of other material — carbohydrates, proteins, and so on — that the bacteria build to protect themselves.

Discover: And those communities make bacteria especially dangerous?

Lu: Before I started medical school, I didn’t think bacterial infections were a big deal, because I assumed antibiotics had taken care of them, but then I started seeing patients with significant biofilm infections that couldn’t be cured.

Discover: What is your strategy to destroy biofilms?

Lu: We use viruses called phages that infect bacteria but not human cells. We cut the phages’ DNA and insert a synthetic gene into the phage genome. That gene produces enzymes that can go out into the biofilm and chew it up.

Discover: If you had just $10 for entertainment, how would you spend your day?

Lu: What can you even buy with $10? Maybe I would buy a magnifying glass and just peer around in the soil to see what other life was going on down there. That would actually be fun.

Available at: <http://discovermagazine.com/2011/sep/05-questions-for-microbial-puppet-master>.Retrieved on: 11 Sep. 2011. Adapted.

In Text, Lu reports that his method is successful in

The Microbial Puppet-Master

by Valerie Ross
from Discover Magazine:
Mind & Brain / Memory, Emotions & Decisions

When Timothy Lu was in medical school, he treated a veteran whose multiple sclerosis was so severe that she had to use a urinary catheter. As often happens with invasive medical devices, the catheters became infected with biofilms: gooey, antibioticresistant layers of bacteria. Now the 30-year-old MIT professor, who first trained as an engineer, designs viruses that destroy biofilms, which cause everything from staph infections to cholera outbreaks and that account for 65 percent of human infections overall.

Discover: You started as an electrical engineer. Was it a difficult transition becoming a biologist?

Lu: I came into the lab not really understanding how to do biology experiments and deal with chemicals. I’m not a great experimentalist with my hands, and one night I set the lab on fire.

Discover: How does a biofilm work, from an engineering perspective?

Lu: A biofilm is essentially a three-dimensional community of bacteria that live together, kind of like a bacterial apartment building or city. Biofilms are made up of the bacterial cells as well as all sorts of other material — carbohydrates, proteins, and so on — that the bacteria build to protect themselves.

Discover: And those communities make bacteria especially dangerous?

Lu: Before I started medical school, I didn’t think bacterial infections were a big deal, because I assumed antibiotics had taken care of them, but then I started seeing patients with significant biofilm infections that couldn’t be cured.

Discover: What is your strategy to destroy biofilms?

Lu: We use viruses called phages that infect bacteria but not human cells. We cut the phages’ DNA and insert a synthetic gene into the phage genome. That gene produces enzymes that can go out into the biofilm and chew it up.

Discover: If you had just $10 for entertainment, how would you spend your day?

Lu: What can you even buy with $10? Maybe I would buy a magnifying glass and just peer around in the soil to see what other life was going on down there. That would actually be fun.

Available at: <http://discovermagazine.com/2011/sep/05-questions-for-microbial-puppet-master>.Retrieved on: 11 Sep. 2011. Adapted.

The Microbial Puppet-Master

by Valerie Ross
from Discover Magazine:
Mind & Brain / Memory, Emotions & Decisions

When Timothy Lu was in medical school, he treated a veteran whose multiple sclerosis was so severe that she had to use a urinary catheter. As often happens with invasive medical devices, the catheters became infected with biofilms: gooey, antibioticresistant layers of bacteria. Now the 30-year-old MIT professor, who first trained as an engineer, designs viruses that destroy biofilms, which cause everything from staph infections to cholera outbreaks and that account for 65 percent of human infections overall.

Discover: You started as an electrical engineer. Was it a difficult transition becoming a biologist?

Lu: I came into the lab not really understanding how to do biology experiments and deal with chemicals. I’m not a great experimentalist with my hands, and one night I set the lab on fire.

Discover: How does a biofilm work, from an engineering perspective?

Lu: A biofilm is essentially a three-dimensional community of bacteria that live together, kind of like a bacterial apartment building or city. Biofilms are made up of the bacterial cells as well as all sorts of other material — carbohydrates, proteins, and so on — that the bacteria build to protect themselves.

Discover: And those communities make bacteria especially dangerous?

Lu: Before I started medical school, I didn’t think bacterial infections were a big deal, because I assumed antibiotics had taken care of them, but then I started seeing patients with significant biofilm infections that couldn’t be cured.

Discover: What is your strategy to destroy biofilms?

Lu: We use viruses called phages that infect bacteria but not human cells. We cut the phages’ DNA and insert a synthetic gene into the phage genome. That gene produces enzymes that can go out into the biofilm and chew it up.

Discover: If you had just $10 for entertainment, how would you spend your day?

Lu: What can you even buy with $10? Maybe I would buy a magnifying glass and just peer around in the soil to see what other life was going on down there. That would actually be fun.

Available at: <http://discovermagazine.com/2011/sep/05-questions-for-microbial-puppet-master>.Retrieved on: 11 Sep. 2011. Adapted.

In Text, Lu describes himself in a biology lab as

The Microbial Puppet-Master

by Valerie Ross
from Discover Magazine:
Mind & Brain / Memory, Emotions & Decisions

When Timothy Lu was in medical school, he treated a veteran whose multiple sclerosis was so severe that she had to use a urinary catheter. As often happens with invasive medical devices, the catheters became infected with biofilms: gooey, antibioticresistant layers of bacteria. Now the 30-year-old MIT professor, who first trained as an engineer, designs viruses that destroy biofilms, which cause everything from staph infections to cholera outbreaks and that account for 65 percent of human infections overall.

Discover: You started as an electrical engineer. Was it a difficult transition becoming a biologist?

Lu: I came into the lab not really understanding how to do biology experiments and deal with chemicals. I’m not a great experimentalist with my hands, and one night I set the lab on fire.

Discover: How does a biofilm work, from an engineering perspective?

Lu: A biofilm is essentially a three-dimensional community of bacteria that live together, kind of like a bacterial apartment building or city. Biofilms are made up of the bacterial cells as well as all sorts of other material — carbohydrates, proteins, and so on — that the bacteria build to protect themselves.

Discover: And those communities make bacteria especially dangerous?

Lu: Before I started medical school, I didn’t think bacterial infections were a big deal, because I assumed antibiotics had taken care of them, but then I started seeing patients with significant biofilm infections that couldn’t be cured.

Discover: What is your strategy to destroy biofilms?

Lu: We use viruses called phages that infect bacteria but not human cells. We cut the phages’ DNA and insert a synthetic gene into the phage genome. That gene produces enzymes that can go out into the biofilm and chew it up.

Discover: If you had just $10 for entertainment, how would you spend your day?

Lu: What can you even buy with $10? Maybe I would buy a magnifying glass and just peer around in the soil to see what other life was going on down there. That would actually be fun.

Available at: <http://discovermagazine.com/2011/sep/05-questions-for-microbial-puppet-master>.Retrieved on: 11 Sep. 2011. Adapted.

In Text, we understand that Lu

O setor elétrico e as mudanças climáticas

Nosso país tem enorme potencial hidrelétrico, o que nos permite gerar energia elétrica razoavelmente ‘limpa’ e barata. Essa fonte responde, atualmente, por cerca de 70% da energia elétrica consumida no país. Entretanto, para que possamos usufruir dessa energia, precisamos transportá-la a longas distâncias^(a) — muitas vezes, milhares de quilômetros — por meio de linhas de transmissão aéreas, expostas ao tempo e a seus caprichos. E esses caprichos, segundo estudos científicos, tendem a se tornar cada vez mais frequentes em um planeta sujeito a mudanças em um ritmo jamais visto pelos humanos.

A experiência brasileira mostra isso. 50% a 70% das falhas ocorridas no passado em linhas de transmissão brasileiras estavam relacionadas às condições climáticas, mais especificamente, às chamadas tempestades severas, caracterizadas por condições extremas de vento, raios ou precipitação. Com o aquecimento global, o desmatamento e alguns fenômenos atmosféricos, esse número tende a aumentar nas próximas décadas.

Combinados ou de forma isolada, esses fenômenos são capazes de interromper o fluxo de energia ao longo das linhas e interferir, de maneira significativa, no sistema elétrico. Se as alterações do clima podem causar problemas na transmissão de energia, na distribuição a situação não é diferente. 99% da distribuição de energia elétrica no Brasil é aérea e concentra-se em grandes áreas urbanas^(b), onde vive a maioria dos consumidores. Nessas áreas, as edificações, a substituição de vegetação por asfalto, a poluição dos automóveis e das fábricas causam alterações atmosféricas que favorecem a ocorrência de fortes tempestades.

Os danos provocados por raios nas redes de distribuição podem se tornar ainda mais frequentes se levarmos em consideração o novo modelo^(c) que começa a ser adotado no país e no mundo, baseado no uso de equipamentos digitais para monitorar a distribuição em tempo real e na possibilidade de utilizar diferentes fontes de energia. Essa transformação se dará tanto na disponibilização quanto no consumo de energia, levando, inclusive, à economia desse recurso^(d).

No entanto, a busca de maior comodidade para os consumidores, maior controle operacional pelas empresas, maior eficiência e maior flexibilidade da rede (no sentido de utilizar fontes alternativas de energia) tende a tornar a distribuição mais sofisticada e, ao mesmo tempo, mais vulnerável a descargas elétricas, devido à utilização de componentes que contêm semicondutores, mais suscetíveis a danos por raios^(e).

Finalmente, é importante salientar que as redes de energia precisarão contar com o potencial hidrelétrico ainda quase inexplorado da Amazônia no futuro. Segundo as projeções climáticas baseadas em modelos computacionais, essa região sofrerá o maior aumento de temperatura e de tempestades. Outro aspecto relevante está na necessidade, cada vez maior, de adequar tais redes às normas legais de proteção e conservação ambiental, o que poderá ampliar a chance de problemas decorrentes de fatores climáticos.

PINTO JÚNIOR, Osmar. O setor elétrico e as mudanças climáticas. Revista Ciência Hoje. Rio de Janeiro: ICH. n. 280, abr. 2011, p. 68-69. Adaptado.

Um dos aspectos responsáveis por assegurar a coerência textual é a relação lógica que se estabelece entre as ideias do texto.

No que diz respeito ao termo ou expressão destacada, essa relação lógica está explicitada adequadamente em:

O setor elétrico e as mudanças climáticas

Nosso país tem enorme potencial hidrelétrico, o que nos permite gerar energia elétrica razoavelmente ‘limpa’ e barata. Essa fonte responde, atualmente, por cerca de 70% da energia elétrica consumida no país. Entretanto, para que possamos usufruir dessa energia, precisamos transportá-la a longas distâncias — muitas vezes, milhares de quilômetros — por meio de linhas de transmissão aéreas, expostas ao tempo e a seus caprichos. E esses caprichos, segundo estudos científicos, tendem a se tornar cada vez mais frequentes em um planeta sujeito a mudanças em um ritmo jamais visto pelos humanos.

A experiência brasileira mostra isso. 50% a 70% das falhas ocorridas no passado em linhas de transmissão brasileiras estavam relacionadas às condições climáticas, mais especificamente, às chamadas tempestades severas, caracterizadas por condições extremas de vento, raios ou precipitação. Com o aquecimento global, o desmatamento e alguns fenômenos atmosféricos, esse número tende a aumentar nas próximas décadas.

Combinados ou de forma isolada, esses fenômenos são capazes de interromper o fluxo de energia ao longo das linhas e interferir, de maneira significativa, no sistema elétrico. Se as alterações do clima podem causar problemas na transmissão de energia, na distribuição a situação não é diferente. 99% da distribuição de energia elétrica no Brasil é aérea e concentra-se em grandes áreas urbanas, onde vive a maioria dos consumidores. Nessas áreas, as edificações, a substituição de vegetação por asfalto, a poluição dos automóveis e das fábricas causam alterações atmosféricas que favorecem a ocorrência de fortes tempestades.

Os danos provocados por raios nas redes de distribuição podem se tornar ainda mais frequentes se levarmos em consideração o novo modelo que começa a ser adotado no país e no mundo, baseado no uso de equipamentos digitais para monitorar a distribuição em tempo real e na possibilidade de utilizar diferentes fontes de energia. Essa transformação se dará tanto na disponibilização quanto no consumo de energia, levando, inclusive, à economia desse recurso.

No entanto, a busca de maior comodidade para os consumidores, maior controle operacional pelas empresas, maior eficiência e maior flexibilidade da rede (no sentido de utilizar fontes alternativas de energia) tende a tornar a distribuição mais sofisticada e, ao mesmo tempo, mais vulnerável a descargas elétricas, devido à utilização de componentes que contêm semicondutores, mais suscetíveis a danos por raios.

Finalmente, é importante salientar que as redes de energia precisarão contar com o potencial hidrelétrico ainda quase inexplorado da Amazônia no futuro. Segundo as projeções climáticas baseadas em modelos computacionais, essa região sofrerá o maior aumento de temperatura e de tempestades. Outro aspecto relevante está na necessidade, cada vez maior, de adequar tais redes às normas legais de proteção e conservação ambiental, o que poderá ampliar a chance de problemas decorrentes de fatores climáticos.

PINTO JÚNIOR, Osmar. O setor elétrico e as mudanças climáticas. Revista Ciência Hoje. Rio de Janeiro: ICH. n. 280, abr. 2011, p. 68-69. Adaptado.

No texto, as palavras severas e salientar podem ser substituídas, respectivamente, sem prejudicar o conteúdo do texto, por