Author Archives: lilyasquith

About lilyasquith

I am a particle physicist working on sonification of the data output from the ATLAS detector at CERN. The project I'm working on is called LHCsound and is funded by the STFC. It is based at University College London where I have just finished my PhD on the search prospects for a low mass standard model Higgs Boson. I have now moved to Chicago to start an ATLAS postdoc with Argonne National Laboratory.

Why does the Higgs decay?

Posted on 22/06/2012

Higgs bosons might be being produced at CERN right now, but we can’t keep them. Lily Asquith explains… here.

Posted in Particle Physics, Physics, Science | Tagged

My three least favourite quarks

Posted on 17/05/2011

Also at The Guardian. Quarks are what dragged me into this mess. I’ve done about 50 hours work in the last 4 days and have run out of clean cutlery. My fridge contains only an empty tub of hummus and … Continue reading →

Posted in Particle Physics, Physics, Science | Tagged , ,

My favourite particle: the muon

Posted on 14/05/2011

Post by Mark Lancaster. Also at The Guardian. In 1900, shortly after the electron and radioactivity were discovered, Lord Kelvin famously remarked: “There is nothing new to be discovered in physics. All that remains is more and more precise measurement” … Continue reading →

Posted in Particle Physics, Physics, Science | Tagged

Having the Higgs in the room

Posted on 22/04/2011

Also at The Guardian It is a beautiful thing that Peter Higgs did. He took a very complicated description of reality that explained some things so well it could not be ignored, and utterly failed to explain other things, things … Continue reading →

Posted in Particle Physics, Philosophy of Science, Physics, Science | Tagged ,

My favourite particle: the neutrino

Posted on 02/04/2011

Also at The Guardian. I started writing about neutrinos because I love them. They are quite magical really; the Universe is completely swarming with them (they are the second most abundant particle after photons) but we know practically nothing about … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged

“He completely lost me on gravity”

Posted on 23/03/2011

At The Guardian. I got a typically hilarious email from my wonderful mother this morning. Tempted as I am to copy and pasted the email into this blog, it would ruin my retirement plan to publish a compendium of every … Continue reading →

Posted in Cosmology, Physics, Physics Stories, Science | Tagged ,

My favourite particle: the electron.

Posted on 17/03/2011

(Also at The Guardian.) This week my favorite particle is the electron (one of the best things about working in particle physics is that it accommodates my fickle heart and mood swings perfectly). Electrons occupy every atom in the universe. … Continue reading →

Posted in Particle Physics, Physics, Science | Tagged

My favourite particle: the photon

Posted on 28/02/2011

At The Guardian. I was talking to my daughter about a star she saw out of her bedroom window the other morning. Actually it was Venus. She had learned at school that some of the stars we see aren’t there … Continue reading →

Posted in Particle Physics, Rambling | Tagged

The sound of science

Posted on 07/02/2011

For some reason it has taken me about 3000 years to get around to writing this post. Seeing Jon last week at CERN has finally collapsed me into the right state to do so. Paddington station has pink and yellow … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized

Boredom: symmetry, god and x-factor

Posted on 27/11/2010

Also at The Guardian. I gather that my last post wasn’t very popular- I emailed it to my mother and she emailed me back with a story about Benedict Cumberbatch (it was a good one) and thanks for the advent … Continue reading →

Posted in Particle Physics, Philosophy of Science, Physics, Science | Tagged ,