CERN is hunting for dark matter

Plus: Elon Musk rolls out his plan to nab Twitter with $21 billion of his own money Apr 22, 2022 [View in browser]( Deep underground in the snowy Alps, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is about to wake up after a three-year nap. That should get you really excited. More than a decade after discovering the Higgs boson, it’s now set to resolve the mystery of a puzzling anomaly that could point to the presence of a fifth fundamental force of nature. But, before we dive into the darkness of nature, let’s take a moment to reflect on our small blue dot drifting in the infinite vastness of space. The climate crisis is a colossal, tangled mess that will require all of our intelligence and ingenuity to unravel. Only by working together to phase out fossil fuels and reverse the destruction of nature will we genuinely have something to celebrate in the future. Good morning. This is Derya, an editor at IE, wishing you a happy Earth Day. This is The Blueprint. Let’s make the change. [Video]VIDEO OF THE DAY [Here's how CO2 Is removed from the atmosphere]( It's all about direct air capture. [Here's how CO2 Is removed from the atmosphere]( SCIENCE [Scientists will restart the Large Hadron Collider to uncover dark matter]( [LHC.]( ​​Scientists from CERN [will fire up the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)]( once again this week after a long shutdown caused by maintenance, upgrades, and COVID-19 delays. - The LHC was shut down after its successful second run finished in December of 2018. Scheduled maintenance and upgrade work followed, but its third run was also delayed by the pandemic. Concentrated particles. Now, three years later, the restart will be a complex procedure, and it isn't guaranteed to go off without a hitch on the first attempt. Materials inside the LHC will face a massive temperature swing, and the thousands of magnets used to concentrate particles into a tight beam will have to be carefully calibrated for everything to work. Physicists hope the LHC will now continue to help the scientific community in its [investigation of "ghost particles"]( and other mysterious phenomena. Many scientists at CERN are turning their attention to uncovering dark matter, and, so far, the LHC has provided evidence for which particles do not account for dark matter. [Read More]( CULTURE [Elon Musk rolls out his plan to nab Twitter with $21 billion of his own money]( [Elon Musk (left), and a Twitter logo (right).]( Elon Musk has organized the funding required for him to buy Twitter. All of it. - As of writing, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO already owns 9 percent of Twitter in stocks — collectively valued at roughly $2.9 billion. On Wednesday, Musk [rolled out his plan of action]( for the $46.5 billion in loans that will enable him to muster the total buyout of Twitter, in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Game on. Musk himself is covering only $21 billion of the prospective buy — with the remaining $25.5 billion covered by a series of loans from Morgan Stanley Senior Funding. But it seems Musk hasn't listed any equity partners to help him carry the financial load of not only his $21 billion, or even the greater $25.5-billion loan. While no official reply has been given so far, a Twitter spokesperson said that it had received Musk's proposed buyout, and is making a "careful, comprehensive" review. But regardless, Musk is resolute in his ambition to take over Twitter and [alter the fabric of social reality](. [Read More]( SCIENCE [New "bacteria bricks" could be the building blocks for future Mars habitats]( [Mars.]( Scientists working with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) [proposed a method for building habitats]( on Mars using "bacteria bricks”. - The researchers outline their plan for combining Martian soil with a gel-like material called guar gum, urea, nickel chloride, and a bacteria strain called Sporosarcina pasteurii. All of that would form the building blocks for habitats on the Red Planet. The bricks of life. The proposal joins a list of odd building material proposals for Mars that reflect the scarcity of materials, and the requirement to make the most of any and every resource available. Last year, for example, the University of Manchester proposed building Mars habitats [with astronaut blood and pee](. Yuck! Next, the ISRO team aims to send some of their "bacteria bricks" into space on a future ISRO mission. By doing so, they will be able to study the properties of their material in microgravity to see if it’s fit to make the long journey with future astronauts as they make their way to Mars. [Read More]( MAIL & MUSINGS Elon Musk has frequently spoken of his ambition to travel to Mars in his lifetime and turn humanity into a multi-planetary species. Would you like to be one of the first people living on Mars? Be sure you check back tomorrow for the results! [Yes! What an honor.]( [Nope. I like to be comfortable.]( [I’d go only after a few generations. Better be careful.]( [It’s MINE. Musk can’t have it.]( Yesterday’s Results We asked which renewable energy is the most promising for you. Nuclear energy, we're looking at you. It’s time to stop ignoring nuclear power. 43% Solar. The sun is right there. 34% Water. It just makes more sense. 17% Wind, obviously. 6% INNOVATION [High-flying kites could power your home with wind energy]( [Kitekraft's kite-powered system.]( In a special feature for PLANET SOLVERS, IE’s Earth Day 2022 edition, senior writer Deena Theresa interviews Florian Bauer, who is [building autonomous high-flying kites]( that could power your home with wind energy one day. - "For Florian Bauer, co-CEO and chief technology officer of Kitekraft, a Munich-based company developing a flying wind turbine power system, tackling climate change is personal,” writes Theresa. “It all started during my school days when I read Al Gore's book and saw his documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth'. It triggered me and encouraged my decision to study renewable energies because I felt I could help solve the problem by being an engineer," he tells IE in a video interview. [Read More]( QUOTE OF THE DAY “ It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living. ” David Attenborough to BBC in 2015 AND ANOTHER THING... - Today is Earth Day. Here are [six things you can do today]( and hopefully every day, to help the planet. - Alan Turing was a pioneer of machine learning, whose work continues to shape the crucial question: [can machines think]( (Aeon) - A defunct U.S. Defense Program [proposed nuking the moon]( to mine lightweight metals. Yes, you read that right. - Scientists [have discovered a new species of crown jellyfish]( that looks like a scarlet alien saucer in the sunless "midnight zone" of California's Monterey Bay. (Live Science) - An architect [has designed semi-floating buildings]( that can help cool the planet. - The brain-reading devices [are becoming more sophisticated]( — and are attracting commercial interest. (Nature) - Here's [everything we know about the next-gen Apple Car](. Prepared by Derya Ozdemir and Brad Bergan Enjoy reading? Don't forget to forward to a friend! Was this email forwarded to you? [Subscribe]( [About Us]( | [Advertise]( | [Contact Us]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Youtube]( [Linkedin]( [Instagram]( You are receiving this email because you have subscribed to our newsletter. Manage your email preferences or unsubscribe [here.]( © Copyright 2021 | The Blueprint is by Interesting Engineering, Inc. 201 Spear Street, Suite 1100 San Francisco, CA 94105 | All Rights Reserved [Interesting Engineering]