According to the CERN website, on Mar 30, two high-energy proton beams collided in the 17-mile-long underground tunnel after two previous failed attempts. The collider broke its own energy record with the protons reaching 3.5 trillion-electron-volts (TeV) to create a 7-TeV collision.

There were concerns as to whether the experiment could proceed at the LHC’s full potential according to National Geographic due to a 2008 electrical glitch that resulted in a large helium leek inside the machine’s tunnels. However, these concerns were refuted with the success of the test.

Currently, CERN scientists plan to create a collision with double this amount of energy in the near future.

Scientists at CERN hope that the collision will answer questions as to why Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity doesn’t apply to quantum mechanics, the study of particles infinitely too small for the human eye to see. With the data collected from the experiments, CERN scientists will attempt to understand why matter and antimatter weren’t created in equal amounts during the Big Bang, thus causing both to react and destroy the universe.

After more studies with the LHC, scientists hope to ultimately understand the events that occurred in the first fractions of a second after the Big Bang that CERN scientists theorize was the start of the universe.

In the past, scientists assumed that during rest, the brain was inactive, “turning on” only when a novel simulation presents itself. However, a new model has been introduced.

According to the new model, the brain is actually a whirlwind of activity during rest; certain parts become more active during activity, while other parts become less active during activity.

The brain’s “dark energy,” or the energy related to events that are not external, accounts for 60 to 80 percent of all brain energy. The existence of the brain’s dark energy is proven by the small amount of information that actually reaches the brain.  Although one billion bits of information arrive on the retina, only one hundred bits constitute a conscious perception of what the eye is seeing.

The brain has a complex intrinsic processing power that often predicts and anticipates information more than it receives it.

One important factor of the intrinsic power is the default mode network (DMN). DMN, or the baseline activity of the brain during inactivity, is often characterized as “noise,” like the white fuzz of an offline T.V. station. This DMN was ignored by neuroscientists looking for specific brain activity in specific experiments, due to the assumption that DMN was part of the constant control.

However, new studies found that DMN patterns appeared during sleep and under general anesthetic, meaning that DMN is a critical part of the brain’s intrinsic power. Using imaging and advanced regulating machinery to observe the DMN, neuroscientists showed that there is a constant stream of activity in the brain during rest until the brain focuses on a task, at which time intrinsic activity actually decreases.

It’s like the brain is a circuit and switches are being turned on during rest, and turned off during activity. The DMN is like the conductor that coordinates the signals from the different aspects of the brain so it can function properly.

As a key part of intrinsic activity and the conductor of the brain, the DMN has a critical role. Because the major hubs of the DMN are the medial parietal cortex (involved with memories of personal events) and the medial prefrontal cortex (involved with imagining what other people are thinking and emotional state), the DMN might provide a way to understand Alzheimer’s.

When connections in the DMN are wired wrong, diseases such as Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia might occur. The DMN might also be the key to the nature of attention and conscious activity, since it balances the signals between the different functions of the brain. It could provide the answer to understanding how different frequency signals within the brain interacts.

As the master organizer of dark energy, the brain’s default mode network could contain the answer to the human brain.

CHS students Elle Jacobs, Matthew Millett, Richard Millett, Henry Myers, and Daniel Peipert all participated in the Missouri All State Orchestra.

After an hours-long trek to Tan Tar A Resort in Osage Beach, the students rehearsed and performed three pieces over their stay at Tan Tar A. The pieces were Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien, and Kirt Mosier’s Run.

Run, written by Missouri composer Mosier, was a commissioned piece for the event.

Junior Elle Jacobs greatly enjoyed the pieces, particularly with a group of such talented student musicians.

“They were really fun to play because they sounded really good and really pretty,” Jacobs said. “I was happy to be playing them.”

Playing the pieces with such skill and achieving the honor of performing in the All State Orchestra was no easy task, however. The audition process involved different stages and required a great deal of practice.

“We went to Mizzou and we auditioned there,” Myers said. “That determined whether you got in. A few days ago, we actually went to All State and that’s where we re-auditioned with what we would actually be playing.”

In addition to performing in the more serious aspects of the event and the difficult audition process, Jacobs also found the experience to be very fun for her and fellow students.

“I thought it was really fun and I got close to people that I knew from earlier,” Jacobs said. “I’m really good friends with them now.”