Running state-of-the-art particle physics research on Steem - a status report after 3 months
There are many developers and people with programming skills hanging around on Steem and in particular around Utopian.io. Three months ago, I asked these people a very simple question. Would they be interested in contributing to state-of-the-art research in particle physics?
[image credits: Roxaneweb (CC BY-SA 4.0)]
This idea was received very positively, and about 10 people answered that they want to try and come on board.
This was sufficient to me to start a project of allowing Steem contributions to my own research work.
The main topic is utilizing the results found by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in the best possible way through the development of an open source platform for the reinterpretation of LHC results.
We are now three months later and I'm here to summarize what has been accomplished so far. I will briefly review the grand goal of this project, the material on particle physics I provided (to help understanding the context) and how to tackle this with programming.
The amazing fact is that a public platform that I am co-developing, used by particle physicists from all over the world, now includes contributions from Steem.
UTILIZING THE RESULTS OF THE LARGE HADRON COLLIDER
This is an exciting time for particle physics. Its Standard Model is now complete (in terms of particle discoveries), and data seems to confirm it very strongly.
[image credits: Pixabay (CC0)]
However, it is clear that the Standard Model is not the end of the story. There must be something behind it.
The LHC experimental collaborations are therefore undertaking many searches for the new phenomena predicted by the various theories proposed to extend the Standard Model.
The only problem is that there is a plethora of possible variants of a large number of theories, and not all of them can be tested experimentally due to limited human resources.
For this reason, platforms on which anyone can test the model of physics of his/her dream are very important. Some collaborators and myself started to develop an open source platform (named MadAnalysis 5) to do just that several years ago. The problem is that, in order to use it for the reinterpretation of the results of the LHC, experimental analyses must be reimplemented one by one (at least for now).
This is where Steem and Utopian.io come into the game!
PARTICLE PHYSICS ON STEEM AND UTOPIAN.IO
[image credits: Pcharito (CC BY-SA 3.0)]
Using Steem and Utopian to contribute to state-of-the-art research is not easy, for the simple reason that even if one is skilled in programming, one needs to understand what to program.
This, of course, is where I can help.
Through a series of posts accompanied by exercises (that have been rewarded when done), I reviewed the objects that are observed in a typical LHC detector, how analyses make use of them, and how this is implemented in the MadAnalysis 5 framework.
In detail, we have:
Installation instructions with generalities on the MadAnalysis 5 framework and its installation procedure from GitHub.
Information on some of the objects observed in a detector (photons, electron and muons) along with a basic programming exercise in the MadAnalysis 5 framework.
Information on the properties of the reconstructed objects and introduction of the concept of jets of strongly-interacting particles. All of this with an exercise addressing a real ATLAS search for a theory called supersymmetry.
Histogramming and object isolation. Or, in other words, how to focus solely on quality objects reconstructed in a detector and make useful plots. Here, the exercise focused on a real CMS search for dark matter.
Last but not least, I have focused on analysis strategies, and the concepts of selection cuts and signal regions.
Now, everyone is correctly equipped to tackle the real deal!
CURRENT OUTCOME OF THE PROJECT
Although task requests have not been posted yet, five Steemians (@crokkon, @effofex, @irelandscape and @mactro) strongly contributed to the project so far and solved most of the exercises.
Three histogramming modules (here, here. and there) have been developed as external tools to be used with MadAnalysis 5, by @crokkon, @effofex and @irelandscape. All of these modules are now officially endorsed by the MadAnalysis 5 team.
[image credits: Pixabay (CC0)]
One tutorial explaining how to run MadAnalysis 5 on windows 10 has been released. This tutorial is now an official MadAnalysis 5 tutorial.
Moreover, @irelandscape wrote varied posts explaining his understanding of particle physics, which I took a lot of pleasure in reading (and clarifying where necessary).
Very importantly, it is not too late to join the project and get rewarded for it!
THE FUTURE
[image credits: geralt (CC0)]
It is now time to make explicit task requests for reimplementing varied ATLAS and CMS searches for new phenomena at the LHC. In other words, it is time for Steemians to start contributing actively to particle physics research, and be rewarded for it.
While more details will be posted in the next couple of weeks, please do not hesitate to re-read the posts mentioned above for help on how to do.
Moreover, on Friday I released a freely available comprehensive and pedagogical introduction to MadAnalysis 5. Appendix B should be useful, as well as sections 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4. The rest will be important too, but for the next phases of this project.
I am now about to leave for two weeks of offline life. I wish everyone a very nice summer break and thank everyone for helping make use of Steem for scientific research.
See you all by the end of the month!
Thanks for the contribution.
Very nice to see how to project grows here, and very clear state of the art report.
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Thank you for your review, @kit.andres!
So far this week you've reviewed 1 contributions. Keep up the good work!
It is good to see serious research efforts on steem. At least from this perspective, there seems to be nothing more valuable to share on steem than research.
It simply does not make sense to produce research in secluded non-feedback environments with research money being wasted in non-transparent ways.
Upvoted!
Thanks for the feedback. Note that transparency is a very field dependent statement. In particle physics, we are a kind of example: all our major journals are open access, most our codes are open source and public, etc... I am very happy to be part of such a field :)
Hello @lemouth sir
Only the blind will not recognize your numerous contribution to the growth of this community. From @steemstem to utopian.io to now great alliance with @utopian-io to develop a community of particles physicists. This is awesome. Steemit is happy to have someone like you.
Enjoy your break richly. All the best sir.
@eurogee of @euronation and @steemstem communities
+1 couldn't say it better :)
Thanks! :)
Thanks for your nice message and encouraging words. Strictly speaking, I don't want to develop a community of particle physicists on Steem, but instead offering those already on Steem to contribute to particle physics research. There is a slight difference ;)
Anyways, see you very soon, in two weeks!
Oh thanks for the clarification. Do enjoy your holidays
Many thanks. I will! This is probably my last message before two weeks ^^
This is absolutely amazing. I was not aware that such a project existed. I find the idea particularly interesting in the context of funding independent scientific work. With numerous scientific scandals of faking results, corruption and bribery, this could become an interesting way to face those problems. Keep on rockin @lemouth!
Interesting comment! I really appreciate it and I am tempted to follow you in a debate. Please allow me for bringing my two cents. :)
Maybe in some future (and I am really looking forward to this future), research will be fundable with Steem or cryptos in general. However, we are not there yet. For instance, a PhD student costs about 40.000 EUR per year, and one needs to pay him during three years. So, in short, we can't really fund personal costs. However, travel costs for a small group (a few thousands per year) is probably achievable.
Here, with my small project, the scale is even more different. With a few hundreds of dollars in upvotes, we indeed can make a difference already today. We indeed don't need dozens of thousands of dollars. With this amount, we can open the doors of the world of scientific research to anyone who has time and who wants to help.
And this is what I find amazing. I tried to give this option to Steemians, and it fully works!
Interesting project! Thank you for coming back at the comment :)
Your comment sent me on a little google-research concerning the funding of independent scientific research. I ended up reading this article (downloadable pdf).
"All of these observations speak to the ways in which the lack of diversification
in science funding, its restriction primarily to corporate and governmental interests, erects
obstacles to the sustained production of scientific knowledge."
The article shines a light on the very topic you and me are talking about. A community which funds independent scientific research and development might sound like a utopian dream (no pun intended). But it is totally reachable! Really looking forward to see projects like this grow :)
Check out the article, quite interesting.
Let's just say that the world is neither white nor black, but rather grey instead. For instance, I am allowed to do research on what I want, but what I miss consists in students and postdocs. And here, it is indeed super hard to find funding (this is even true for theoretical physics in general). So yes, we are back to the sentence, and to the article in fact :)
I am not against it, just to be clear. But in order to fund PhD students or postdoc position, we need an certain amount of money that cannot be found that easily in the crypto-world... for now (which is also what state this article somehow: there are potential ways).
I cannot talk about the future, and I hope the crypto-world will be able to help scientific research in the future. It is not that expensive at the end of the day and the investment often pays off.
However, in the meantime of seeing the emergence of these new developments, I decided to focus on something that could work on Steem at a much smaller scale. Baby step by baby step, somehow.
PS: thanks for the article.
Several interesting comments here... I think you're stressing the 'PhD' factor too much. Taking it in smaller parcels, like you're doing with the project, is more feasible. It's more like a single class, done online via steem, so something like a steeMOOC, where people can learn how to program for physics, let's say. That's perfectly manageable with the money available.
I agree with you, of course. When people discuss funding research with external money, they usually think about funding a team, which is not possible without government money at the moment (because the scale of the costs). However, if we omit human resources, it is clear that great things can be done with little money.
This is quite impressive. You've definitely earned your summer break!
Thanks a lot! The break is actually very necessary, not only on the Steem aspects but also related to my IRL job. I am exhausted this year :)
It is incredible how through Steem you can propel such large and ingenious projects of this kind, I hope you can achieve your goals, I definitely think that the understanding and development of science, as well as the functioning of nanoparticles or macroparticles are the basis for human development, even will surely be the initiative of many medical projects that are currently being developed.
I really hope it will work as well. This, we will know in a few weeks/months (I am not in a hurry). I am also looking forward to see more of such initiative in other fields (like you, somehow).
Thanks for passing by.
Hey @lemouth
Thanks for contributing on Utopian.
We’re already looking forward to your next contribution!
Want to chat? Join us on Discord https://discord.gg/h52nFrV.
Vote for Utopian Witness!
👍👍
Will this ever cease to be the case? Will we ever reach the end of the story? Do you think we'll ever reach a place where there's no more 'behind'?
A truly wonderful project. I'm currently attempting to learn python, but it'll be a long way (if ever) till I can contribute anything to any worthwhile project :D
Have a cool summer break!
Who knows? We may imagine ending up with a more general theory (embedding the Standard Model in some limit) that works at all energies. The point is that the current paradigm works well but has limitations. It is thus clear there is something beyond.
Here the python part is not needed to be understood. Only the C++ one ^^
It is amazing what steem and utopian are capable of doing... actually helping with researching physics!
I wish you the best of luck in this journey @lemouth! And enjoy your 2 weeks of offline time :)
Cheers!
Thanks for the nice wishes. I would not have believed myself running such a project on Steem three months ago, and I was so pleased to see it working. The future is bright!
See you very soon in two weeks! :)
This is an awesome achievement (to say the least). I mean, propagating particle physics research on the steem blockchain is really a milestone achievement. And I believe the best is yet to come.
I salute your contributions sir.
Enjoy your Vacay
I am not sure it propagates yet. It is clear that the seeds have been planted, but we are only at the beginning. I am however very confident for the future! :)
Thanks for the nice wishes and see you in two weeks (I know I already told you that elsewhere... or at least I think I have :p )
Yes you told me. We hope to see the pictures and stories of the vacation in @lesmouths-travel :p
As we will be traveling offline, you will have to wait a little bit :)
But this is a good idea!