Link Round-Up 15th September 2014

It's September so, it's a time of fresh starts for a lot of people. However, some things aren't changing, like how it's time for a link round-up!

1. The Rosetta probe has a landing site!
   The European Space Agency (ESA) have selected a landing site for the robotic comet lander Philae from the Rosetta probe! The landing area, catchily named Site J, is far from a perfect place to land the robot, but it's the best available option. All being well Philae will land on the comet on 11th November, where it will hopefully make the first ever measurements of a comet, from a comet. To follow Rosetta's progress, pop over to the ESA's dedicated Rosetta blog at http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta .
2. Scotland and Science Funding
   With the Scottish independence vote to be held later this week, the BBC has reported on the discussion about how Scotland leaving the union may effect scientific research. It has previously been reported that a 'yes' vote would end existing funding arrangements, so an independent Scotland will need set up their own funding bodies. As a result it seems scientists aren't very certain that independence is a good thing, with 69% telling Times Higher Education that they will vote 'no'. 
3. After some debate, it looks like the Higgs boson is decaying as predicted.
   Scientists at the LHC can't directly detect the Higgs boson, instead they look at the particles it becomes when it decays. The Higgs decays into photon (light particle) pairs, but the LHC has detected more photons than expected. This has prompted speculation of a second Higgs or other particles being involved in Higgs decay. However, after crunching more and more of the Higgs data, researchers at CERN now think that the Higgs is behaving as current theories would predict after all. 

And finally... if you've not heard of the Lego Academic twitter feed, check out this article on the New Scientist website.
Also, I'm launching a new blog! Overly Excited Opinions is a review blog, so if you want to know what I think about media and literature, rather than science, head on over and check it out.

Currently Reading The Broken Eye by Brent Weeks, the next volume in the Lightbringer series. I'm not very far in yet, but the fall out after the events of the last book is still being felt and it's shaping up to be a great read. I just hope my favourite characters survive!
Currently Listening to The Awesome Mix Volume 1 aka the soundtrack to one of the best films of the summer, Guardians of the Galaxy. Will it make me want to dance around the lab? Why yes, of course it will, and I don't think I'll be able to resist.