Twitter reveals how Higgs gossip reached fever pitch

Jacob Aron, reporter

Anyone who fondly remembers the heady days in early July 2012 when the discovery of the Higgs boson was hotly anticipated, and eventually announced, can now relive the thrilling experience thanks to an analysis of Higgs-related traffic on Twitter.

The traffic - amounting to more than 1 million tweets - provides a neat reflection of real-world excitement, starting with rumours of the elusive particle, and eventually erupting into a buzz of Higgsteria with global reach. The data might even help marketers predict how news about their products will spread on Twitter.

This video shows how the rate of tweets changed per hour over the key period, in various locations around the world.

The discovery in July of the long-sought Higgs boson, or at least something very much like it, was easily the biggest science story of 2012. Manlio De Domenico of the University of Birmingham, UK, and colleagues, who study the relationships between social and geographic networks, saw it as a unique opportunity to gather data.

Rumour watch

Normally such Twitter data sets are gathered retrospectively, but as a former physicist, De Domenico had an advantage. "I was aware something big about the Higgs was being presented, so I proposed to monitor the progress of the rumours."

Using software to monitor for the words "lhc", "cern", "boson" and "higgs", the group began collecting tweets on 1 July, when rumours of a particle discovery were already beginning and anticipation was mounting. The researchers continued their monitoring beyond the particle announcement at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland, on 4 July, right up until the 7th.

The rate of tweets per hour on 1 July was just 36. This grew in the following days and spiked on 4 July when it reached a peak of about 36,000 an hour (see below).

To help make sense of their data, the researchers split the tweets into four time periods. The first covered the initial Higgs rumours, the second included the final release of Higgs data from the already-defunct Tevatron collider in Batavia, Illinois, which once hoped to beat the LHC to the Higgs discovery, the third covered further rumours and the fourth spanned the actual announcement of the Higgs and the aftermath.

The number of users joining the Higgs conversation changed dramatically over these four periods. In the graph below, you can see that although it looks as if there is just a small jump following CERN's announcement, the graph uses a logarithmic scale, which means that only 10 per cent of users who tweeted about the Higgs were doing so before the announcement.

Analysing Twitter users' locations revealed how the Higgs conversation changed over the seven monitored days. Initially, the conversation seemed localised, with consecutive Higgs tweets most likely to be sent by users living 20 kilometres apart. However, by the time of the announcement, consecutive tweets were equally likely to come from anywhere in the world.

Unsurprisingly, the official CERN Twitter account got the most retweets during the monitored period. Second place was less predictable, however, going to Colin Eberhardt, a software consultant who still has relatively few followers.

Eberhardt managed to strike a nerve with one of his tweets - winning the prize for the single most-shared tweet. It read: "Possibly the biggest scientific discovery of our time, the #Higgs Boson, announced in glorious MS Comic Sans Font", making reference to the odd choice of font used in the presentation from ATLAS, one of the two LHC experiments that discovered the Higgs.

No hard feelings

The New Scientist account @newscientist was beaten to third place by just one retweet by University of Manchester physicist and TV presenter Brian Cox.

As well as providing a neat anatomy of a historical event, the work helps us understand how other topics spread on Twitter, say De Domenico and his team. They used the data to create a mathematical model that uses the number of newly active Higgs tweeters at any given moment to predict the number that will emerge at future points in time.

Such information could be useful for people who want to keep a message spreading, such as marketers. "If you want to keep interest for a certain product going, you might want to estimate where and when to tweet," he says.

In some ways, it seems the announcement of a new particle isn't very different from the launch of a new product.

Reference: arxiv.org/abs/1301.2952

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Football: Cardiff sign Sunderland's Campbell

LONDON: Championship leaders Cardiff have signed striker Fraizer Campbell on a three-and-a-half-year deal from Premier League club Sunderland, the Welsh club announced Monday.

The 25-year-old England international scored just 10 goals in 72 appearances for Sunderland after joining the north-east side from Manchester United.

Campbell came through the Old Trafford youth system before signing professional forms with English giants United in 2006.

He had loan spells with Antwerp and Tottenham Hotspur but made his mark at Hull, scoring 15 goals in 32 starts and helping them reach English football's top flight.

After recovering from injury, he made his full England debut against the Netherlands 11 months ago but has scored just once in 15 appearances this season for the Black Cats.

Despite Cardiff sitting 10 points clear at the top of the Championship and leading the charge for promotion to the lucrative Premier League, none of their strikers have been in the goals this term.

Heidar Helgusson is Cardiff's top scorer with just seven goals in 24 starts.

-AFP/ac

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RIM CEO says licensing of BlackBerry 10 'conceivable'

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET)

Research In Motion will launch devices running BlackBerry 10 at the end of the month, but the handset maker is still playing with the idea of licensing its new operating system to other manufacturers.

When asked whether RIM might license the new platform as Microsoft did with Windows Phone, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins told German newspaper Die Welt that it's not out of the realm of possibility.

"Before you licensed the software, you must show that the platform has a large potential," he said, "First we have to fulfill our promises. If such proof, a licensing is conceivable."

Licensing would allow third-party hardware makers to put the new OS on non-RIM devices. RIM has a lot riding on BlackBerry 10, which the company hopes will reinvigorate the brand. After some delay, RIM is expected to unveil handsets fort the new platform next week in a multiple-city debut.

When asked about the delay, Heins said the company's goal was to create a solid platform that would last a decade.

"We have taken the time to build a platform that is future-proof for the next ten years," he said. "Our aim is not only to smartphones, but also to the use, for example, in
cars that will be in the future increasingly networked. We see with BlackBerry 10 completely new areas of growth."

The company has been struggling to bring back lost market share and sales for its once popular BlackBerry devices, but it's not having much luck in an industry ruled by Apple and
Android, which Google has had great success licensing to third-party hardware makers. The company announced a broad restructuring last year and is rumored to be considering a plan to split in two, separating its handset division from its messaging network and selling off the struggling BlackBerry hardware business

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Attack at Algeria Gas Plant Heralds New Risks for Energy Development

The siege by Islamic militants at a remote Sahara desert natural gas plant in Algeria this week signaled heightened dangers in the region for international oil companies, at a time when they have been expanding operations in Africa as one of the world's last energy frontiers. (See related story: "Pictures: Four New Offshore Drilling Frontiers.")

As BP, Norway's Statoil, Italy's Eni, and other companies evacuated personnel from Algeria, it was not immediately clear how widely the peril would spread in the wake of the hostage-taking at the sprawling In Amenas gas complex near the Libyan border.

Map by National Geographic

Algeria, the fourth-largest crude oil producer on the continent and a major exporter of natural gas and refined fuels, may not have been viewed as the most hospitable climate for foreign energy companies, but that was due to unfavorable financial terms, bureaucracy, and corruption. The energy facilities themselves appeared to be safe, with multiple layers of security provided both by the companies and by government forces, several experts said. (See related photos: "Oil States: Are They Stable? Why It Matters.")

"It is particularly striking not only because it hasn't happened before, but because it happened in Algeria, one of the stronger states in the region," says Hanan Amin-Salem, a senior manager at the industry consulting firm PFC Energy, who specializes in country risk. She noted that in the long civil war that gripped the country throughout the 1990s, there had never been an attack on Algeria's energy complex. But now, hazard has spread from weak surrounding states, as the assault on In Amenas was carried out in an apparent retaliation for a move by French forces against the Islamists who had taken over Timbuktu and other towns in neighboring Mali. (See related story: "Timbuktu Falls.")

"What you're really seeing is an intensification of the fundamental problem of weak states, and empowerment of heavily armed groups that are really well motivated and want to pursue a set of aims," said Amin-Salem. In PFC Energy's view, she says, risk has increased in Mauritania, Chad, and Niger—indeed, throughout Sahel, the belt that bisects North Africa, separating the Sahara in the north from the tropical forests further south.

On Thursday, the London-based corporate consulting firm Exclusive Analysis, which was recently acquired by the global consultancy IHS, sent an alert to clients warning that oil and gas facilities near the Libyan and Mauritanian borders and in Mauritania's Hodh Ech Chargui province were at "high risk" of attack by jihadis.

"A Hot Place to Drill"

The attack at In Amenas comes at a time of unprecedented growth for the oil industry in Africa. (See related gallery: "Pictures: The Year's Most Overlooked Energy Stories.") Forecasters expect that oil output throughout Africa will double by 2025, says Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of the energy and sustainability program at the University of California, Davis, who has counted 20 rounds of bidding for new exploration at sites in Africa's six largest oil-producing states.

Oil and natural gas are a large part of the Algerian economy, accounting for 60 percent of government budget revenues, more than a third of GDP and more than 97 percent of its export earnings. But the nation's resources are seen as largely undeveloped, and Algeria has tried to attract new investment. Over the past year, the government has sought to reform the law to boost foreign companies' interests in their investments, although those efforts have foundered.

Technology has been one of the factors driving the opening up of Africa to deeper energy exploration. Offshore and deepwater drilling success in the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil led to prospecting now under way offshore in Ghana, Mozambique, and elsewhere. (See related story: "New Oil—And a Huge Challenge—for Ghana.") Jaffe says the Houston-based company Anadarko Petroleum has sought to transfer its success in "subsalt seismic" exploration technology, surveying reserves hidden beneath the hard salt layer at the bottom of the sea, to the equally challenging seismic exploration beneath the sands of the Sahara in Algeria, where it now has three oil and gas operations.

Africa also is seen as one of the few remaining oil-rich regions of the world where foreign oil companies can obtain production-sharing agreements with governments, contracts that allow them a share of the revenue from the barrels they produce, instead of more limited service contracts for work performed.

"You now have the technology to tap the resources more effectively, and the fiscal terms are going to be more attractive than elsewhere—you put these things together and it's been a hot place to drill," says Jaffe, who doesn't see the energy industry's interest in Africa waning, despite the increased terrorism risk. "What I think will happen in some of these countries is that the companies are going to reveal new securities systems and procedures they have to keep workers safe," she says. "I don't think they will abandon these countries."

This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.

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President Obama Calls for 'Collective Action'

Invoking the nation's founding values, President Obama marked the start of his second term today with a sweeping call for "collective action" to confront the economic and social challenges of America's present and future.

"That is our generation's task, to make these words, these rights, these values -- of life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- real for every American," Obama said in an inaugural address delivered from the west front of the U.S. Capitol.

"Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life; it does not mean we will all define liberty in exactly the same way, or follow the same precise path to happiness. Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time," he said, giving nod to the yawning partisan divide.

"But it does require us to act in our time."

The call to action, on the eve of what's shaping up to be another contentious term with Republicans and Congress, aimed to reset the tone of debate in Washington and turn the page on the political battles of the past.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo

Inauguration 2013: President Obama's Opportunities Watch Video

Official Oath of Office 2013: President Obama Watch Video

"For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate," Obama said. "We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect."

The address, lasting a little less than 20 minutes, laid out in broad terms Obama's vision for the next four years, alluding to looming policy debates on the war in Afghanistan, deficit reduction, immigration, and overhaul of Social Security and Medicare.

Obama also became the first president, at least in recent inaugural history, to make explicit mention of equality for gay and lesbian Americans. He made repeated mentions of "climate change," something no president has said from such a platform before.

The president stuck closely to his campaign themes, offering few new details of his policy proposals, however. Those are expected to come next month in the State of the Union address Feb. 12.

Hundreds of thousands packed the National Mall in chilly 40-degree temperatures and brisk wind to hear Obama's remarks and witness the ceremonial swearing-in. While the crowds were smaller than four years ago, the U.S. Park Police said the Mall reached capacity and was closed shortly before Obama took the podium.

Shortly before the address, Obama placed his left hand on the stacked personal Bibles belonging to President Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and raised his right to repeat the oath administered by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

"I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States," he said, "and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Obama and Biden were both officially sworn in during private ceremonies Sunday, Jan. 20, the date mandated by the Constitution for presidents to begin their terms.

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Quadruple DNA helix discovered in human cells

Sixty years after James Watson and Francis Crick established that DNA forms a double helix, a quadruple-stranded DNA helix has turned up.

Quadruple helices that intertwine four, rather than two, DNA strands had been made in the laboratory, but were regarded as curiosities as there was no evidence that they existed in nature. Now, they have been identified in a range of human cancer cells.

The four-stranded packages of DNA, dubbed G-quadruplexes, are formed by the interaction of four guanine bases that together form a square. They appear to be transitory structures, and were most abundant when cells were poised to divide. They appeared in the core of chromosomes and also in telomeres, the caps on the tips of chromosomes that protect them from damage.

Because cancer cells divide so rapidly, and often have defects in their telomeres, the quadruple helix might be a feature unique to cancer cells. If so, any treatments that target them will not harm healthy cells.

"I hope our discovery challenges the dogma that we really understand DNA structure because Watson and Crick solved it in 1953," says Shankar Balasubramanian of the University of Cambridge, UK.

Tagged with antibodies

Balasubramanian's team identified the four-stranded structures in cancer cells with the help of an antibody that attaches exclusively to G-quadruplexes. To stop them from unravelling into the ordinary DNA, they exposed the cells to pyridostatin, a molecule that traps quadruple helices wherever they form.

This enabled the researchers to count how many formed at each stage of cell multiplication. The G-quadruplexes were most abundant in the "S-phase" – when cells replicate their DNA just prior to dividing.

"I expect they will also exist in normal cells, but I predict that there will be differences with cancer cells," says Balasubramanian. His hunch is that the G-quadruplexes are triggered into action by chaotic genomic mutations and reorganisations typical of cancerous or precancerous cells.

"This research further highlights the potential for exploiting these unusual DNA structures to beat cancer, and the next part of this is to figure out how to target them in tumour cells," says Julie Sharp of Cancer Research UK, which funded the research.

Another important question that Balasubramanian's and other teams will try to answer is whether G-quadruplexes play a role in embryo development, and whether such a role is mistakenly reactivated in cancer cells. "We plan to find out whether the quaduplexes are a natural nuisance, or there by design," he says.

Journal reference: Nature Chemistry, DOI: 10.1038/NCHEM.1548

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Japan govt says no confirmation on nine dead in Algeria

TOKYO: Japan's government said Monday it was aware of reports that nine Japanese had died in the desert standoff in Algeria, but had no confirmation of the fate of 10 of its nationals who remain unaccounted for.

In a midnight press conference, chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters vice foreign minister Minoru Kiuchi had arrived at an airport near the gas facility that was over-run by Islamist gunmen last week.

He said Kiuchi would go into the complex and to a hospital in the town of In Amenas in an effort to determine what had happened.

The press conference came after a witness in In Amenas told AFP he knew of nine Japanese people killed during the 72-hour hostage crisis.

"We are aware of such information, but we have not confirmed any such numbers," Suga told reporters.

He said Kiuchi was with the president of contracting firm JGC, which employed 17 Japanese nationals in the area, and would be joined by another team from Japan who would work to confirm what had happened to hostages.

Suga said those known to have made it to safety would be flown back to Japan.

"To help the seven Japanese whose safety was confirmed return home, we plan to dispatch a government aircraft there," he said.

The bodies of 25 hostages have been found in and around the gas plant by Algerian forces as they mopped up at what appeared to be the end of the three-day stand-off.

Thirty-two kidnappers were also killed and the army freed 685 Algerian workers and 107 foreigners, said Algeria's interior ministry. The government in Algiers has warned the death toll could rise.

-AFP/ac

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Texting newscaster falls into freezing canal

Here's one of Birmingham's picturesque canals.

(Credit:
Voxley19/YouTube Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

Let's try and make some excuses.

She's a newscaster, so she's so used to focusing on words written down that she loses track of everything else.

She was texting her boyfriend, who is so astoundingly gorgeous that she would have walked through morning traffic in Manhattan just to send him an "LOL."

No, it's no good.

Laura Safe (this is, indeed, her real name) is the latest in the annals of people who almost did themselves permanent damage because they were too busy texting to see where they were going.

While one of the previous surviving wet texters fell into Lake Michigan, Safe merely fell into a canal in Birmingham, England.

This happens to be my home town, so may I tell you that it's like Venice without the beauty or the wonderful literature written about its detectives.

Safe, being a newscaster for Capital FM radio there, must have known there was a canal or two sprinkled about. (Birmingham has 114 miles of them.)

However, as she wandered down the steps of a shopping mall, she was busily staring into her phone, texting her man.

More Technically Incorrect

As the Daily Mail tells it, another man, property company founder Neil Edgington, watched her heading down the steps and inexorably toward the freezing canal and shouted for her to stop.

It appears she didn't listen. It appears Edgington may have ruined his suit in saving her.

After being rescued by Edgington from the wet and cold, Safe told the Mail: "I was there on the edge, teetering on the edge, moving my arms around, trying to save myself from falling into this horrendous canal which is most probably full of, well I don't know what's in there."

But we know what was in there: an engrossed texting newscaster by the name of Safe.

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Attack at Algeria Gas Plant Heralds New Risks for Energy Development

The siege by Islamic militants at a remote Sahara desert natural gas plant in Algeria this week signaled heightened dangers in the region for international oil companies, at a time when they have been expanding operations in Africa as one of the world's last energy frontiers. (See related story: "Pictures: Four New Offshore Drilling Frontiers.")

As BP, Norway's Statoil, Italy's Eni, and other companies evacuated personnel from Algeria, it was not immediately clear how widely the peril would spread in the wake of the hostage-taking at the sprawling In Amenas gas complex near the Libyan border.

Map by National Geographic

Algeria, the fourth-largest crude oil producer on the continent and a major exporter of natural gas and refined fuels, may not have been viewed as the most hospitable climate for foreign energy companies, but that was due to unfavorable financial terms, bureaucracy, and corruption. The energy facilities themselves appeared to be safe, with multiple layers of security provided both by the companies and by government forces, several experts said. (See related photos: "Oil States: Are They Stable? Why It Matters.")

"It is particularly striking not only because it hasn't happened before, but because it happened in Algeria, one of the stronger states in the region," says Hanan Amin-Salem, a senior manager at the industry consulting firm PFC Energy, who specializes in country risk. She noted that in the long civil war that gripped the country throughout the 1990s, there had never been an attack on Algeria's energy complex. But now, hazard has spread from weak surrounding states, as the assault on In Amenas was carried out in an apparent retaliation for a move by French forces against the Islamists who had taken over Timbuktu and other towns in neighboring Mali. (See related story: "Timbuktu Falls.")

"What you're really seeing is an intensification of the fundamental problem of weak states, and empowerment of heavily armed groups that are really well motivated and want to pursue a set of aims," said Amin-Salem. In PFC Energy's view, she says, risk has increased in Mauritania, Chad, and Niger—indeed, throughout Sahel, the belt that bisects North Africa, separating the Sahara in the north from the tropical forests further south.

On Thursday, the London-based corporate consulting firm Exclusive Analysis, which was recently acquired by the global consultancy IHS, sent an alert to clients warning that oil and gas facilities near the Libyan and Mauritanian borders and in Mauritania's Hodh Ech Chargui province were at "high risk" of attack by jihadis.

"A Hot Place to Drill"

The attack at In Amenas comes at a time of unprecedented growth for the oil industry in Africa. (See related gallery: "Pictures: The Year's Most Overlooked Energy Stories.") Forecasters expect that oil output throughout Africa will double by 2025, says Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of the energy and sustainability program at the University of California, Davis, who has counted 20 rounds of bidding for new exploration at sites in Africa's six largest oil-producing states.

Oil and natural gas are a large part of the Algerian economy, accounting for 60 percent of government budget revenues, more than a third of GDP and more than 97 percent of its export earnings. But the nation's resources are seen as largely undeveloped, and Algeria has tried to attract new investment. Over the past year, the government has sought to reform the law to boost foreign companies' interests in their investments, although those efforts have foundered.

Technology has been one of the factors driving the opening up of Africa to deeper energy exploration. Offshore and deepwater drilling success in the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil led to prospecting now under way offshore in Ghana, Mozambique, and elsewhere. (See related story: "New Oil—And a Huge Challenge—for Ghana.") Jaffe says the Houston-based company Anadarko Petroleum has sought to transfer its success in "subsalt seismic" exploration technology, surveying reserves hidden beneath the hard salt layer at the bottom of the sea, to the equally challenging seismic exploration beneath the sands of the Sahara in Algeria, where it now has three oil and gas operations.

Africa also is seen as one of the few remaining oil-rich regions of the world where foreign oil companies can obtain production-sharing agreements with governments, contracts that allow them a share of the revenue from the barrels they produce, instead of more limited service contracts for work performed.

"You now have the technology to tap the resources more effectively, and the fiscal terms are going to be more attractive than elsewhere—you put these things together and it's been a hot place to drill," says Jaffe, who doesn't see the energy industry's interest in Africa waning, despite the increased terrorism risk. "What I think will happen in some of these countries is that the companies are going to reveal new securities systems and procedures they have to keep workers safe," she says. "I don't think they will abandon these countries."

This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.

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Obama, Biden Sworn In for Second Term

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden today officially embarked on their second term, taking the Constitutionally mandated oath of office in two separate private ceremonies inside their homes.

Shortly before noon in the Blue Room of the White House, Obama raised his right hand, with his left on a family Bible, reciting the oath administrated by Chief Justice John Roberts. He was surrounded by immediate family members, including first lady Michelle Obama and daughters, Malia and Sasha.

"I did it," he said to his daughters after taking the oath.

Biden was sworn in earlier today by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic to administer a presidential oath, in a ceremony at his official residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory. He was joined by more than 120 guests, including cabinet members, extended family and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden.

Because Jan. 20 -- the official date for a new presidential term -- falls on a Sunday this year, organizers delayed by one day the traditional public inauguration ceremony and parade down Pennsylvania Avenue.

Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images

Vice President Joe Biden Sworn in for 2nd Term Watch Video

President Obama's 2nd Inauguration: Hundreds of Thousands to Attend Watch Video

Obama and Biden will each repeat the oath on Monday on the west front of the Capitol, surrounded by hundreds of dignitaries and members of Congress. An estimated 800,000 people are expected to gather on the National Mall to witness the moment and inaugural parade to follow.

The dual ceremonies in 2013 means Obama will become the second president in U.S. history to take the presidential oath four times. He was sworn in twice in 2008 out of an abundance of caution after Roberts flubbed the oath of office during the public administration. This year Roberts read from a script.

Franklin Roosevelt was also sworn in four times but, unlike Obama, he was elected four times.

This year will mark the seventh time a president has taken the oath on a Sunday and then again on Monday for ceremonial purposes. Reagan last took the oath on a Sunday in 1985.

Both Obama and Biden took the oath using a special family Bible. Obama used a text that belonged to Michelle Obama's grandmother LaVaughn Delores Robinson. Biden placed his hand on a 120-year-old book with a Celtic cross on the cover that has been passed down through Biden clan.

The official inaugural activities today also included moments of prayer and remembrance that marked the solemnity of the day.

Obama and Biden met at Arlington National Cemetery for a brief morning ceremony to place a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns, honoring military service members who served and sacrificed. The men stood shoulder to shoulder, bowing their heads as a bugler played "Taps."

Biden, who is Catholic, began the day with a private family mass at his residence. The president and first family attended church services at Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historically black church and site of two pre-inaugural prayer services for former President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore and their families.

The Obamas and Bidens plan to participate in a church service on Monday morning at St. John's Episcopal, across Lafayette Park from the White House. They will also attend a National Prayer Service on Tuesday at the National Cathedral.

Later on Sunday evening, the newly-inaugurated leaders will attend a candlelight reception at the National Building Museum. The president and vice president are expected to deliver brief remarks to their supporters.

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