Today’s physics news: Friday, 23 July 2010

Science exam too easy, says regulator
GCSE science exam sat last summer did not test students adequately, Ofqual reports
Guardian
Telegraph  

Web-crawling computers will soon be calling the shots in science
Within a decade, computers will be able to plough through scientific data looking for patterns and connections – then tell scientists what they should do next
Guardian 
 
Stars reveal carbon ‘spaceballs’
Scientists have detected the largest molecules ever seen in space, in a cloud of cosmic dust surrounding a distant star.
BBC 
 
US lab eyes more time to hunt Higgs boson particle
The Tevatron accelerator could remain operational until 2014, as physicists there now think the Higgs boson is within their reach.
BBC 
 
Quantum time machine ‘allows paradox-free time travel’
Quantum physicists at MIT believe it is possible to create a time machine which could affect the past without creating a “grandfather paradox”.
Telegraph 
 
Quantum mechanics flummoxes physicists again
Triple slit experiment fails to crack quantum gravity
Physics World
Nature