[URL="http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/01/12/261939210/the-ghosts-of-physics"]NPR Link[/URL]
[quote=NPR]Neutrinos, it turns out, have shaped the universe and their remarkable story has now been expertly told in a new book by astrophysicist Ray Jayawardhana. It's called Neutrino Hunters.
Neutrinos rarely get the press they deserve. Writers love to wax breathless about Higgs Bosons, antimatter, hypothetical thingies like tachyons (faster-than-light particles) and, of course, whatever makes up Dark Matter. But the ghostly neutrino turns out to be essential to everything from the physics of the early universe to the fusion reactions that keep the sun burning to the supernovas that light up the cosmos.
More importantly, the story of their discovery constitutes a tour of the last century's most interesting ideas and people in physics. Professor Jayawardhana, with skills as both a story teller and explicator of difficult science, is more than up to the task as a tour guide. (Full disclosure: I have met Jayawardhana a number of times in professional settings; we both work in the domains of star and planet formation.)
The story of the neutrino begins with scientists in the first decades of the 20th century studying beta decay, where a radioactive element spits out an electron (or an anti-electron) changing into another element in the process (i.e., an atom of carbon turns into one of nitrogen).
This nuclear transmogrification was freaky enough by itself. But detailed studies soon showed that energy did not seem to be conserved in the process. Since physicists consider the conservation of energy to be an untouchable principle, this aspect of beta decay had researchers panicking.[/quote]
They got plenty of attention back when we thought they might be travelling faster than light! Then we realized they weren't and neutrinos became boring again.
[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;43540308]They got plenty of attention back when we thought they might be travelling faster than light! Then we realized they weren't and neutrinos became boring again.[/QUOTE]
then we found neutrinos come in different flavors
[QUOTE=Sableye;43542257]then we found neutrinos come in different flavors[/QUOTE]
We've known that. It's old news.
[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;43540308]They got plenty of attention back when we thought they might be travelling faster than light! Then we realized they weren't and neutrinos became boring again.[/QUOTE]
Then give me an interesting particle. Except that new Higgs Boson; I already know about that.
[QUOTE=nerdster409;43542643]Then give me an interesting particle. Except that new Higgs Boson; I already know about that.[/QUOTE]
Photon.
My least favourite particle is cardamom I hate those
Wait so what about Quantum entanglement that happens faster than light, right?
[QUOTE=Shreddinger;43543511]Wait so what about Quantum entanglement that happens faster than light, right?[/QUOTE]
Doesn't allow transmitting information though, so it might as well not.
[editline]15th January 2014[/editline]
We don't even know if it actually has a speed atm though.
[QUOTE=Tamschi;43543570]Doesn't allow transmitting information though, so it might as well not.[/QUOTE]
Well you totally can, but for each quantum bit you transmit you must also send a classical bit... which is limited to the speed of light.
[QUOTE=nerdster409;43542643]Then give me an interesting particle. Except that new Higgs Boson; I already know about that.[/QUOTE]
Graviton.
[QUOTE=Kazumi;43544109]Graviton.[/QUOTE]
Graviton*
*Pending confirmation of existence.
[QUOTE=Bradyns;43544492]Graviton*
*Pending confirmation of existence.[/QUOTE]
Existance or inexistance of gravitons is more or less a matter of convention. Relativity says that space itself is bendy, so there is no need for gravity to exist as a field on it's own. If, on the other hand, you assumed that space is perfectly flat everywhere, then you would get a bunch of weird forces, gravity included, and their respective messenger particles, hence gravitons.
[QUOTE=Nikita;43544564]Existance or inexistance of gravitons is more or less a matter of convention.[/QUOTE]
I'd say your whole post is accurate except this is very misleading. It's really not a matter of convention, because we expect a working quantum gravity to explain physics better than GR does. It will just reproduce the equations of GR in the classical limit.
[URL="http://what-if.xkcd.com/73/"]Here's an interesting thought experiment about neutrinos.[/URL]
[QUOTE=Bradyns;43544492]Graviton*
*Pending confirmation of existence.[/QUOTE]
Doesn't that make it slightly more interesting to you?
[QUOTE=Kazumi;43550642]Doesn't that make it slightly more interesting to you?[/QUOTE]
Touché..
[QUOTE=IrishBandit;43550120][URL="http://what-if.xkcd.com/73/"]Here's an interesting thought experiment about neutrinos.[/URL][/QUOTE]
"Which of the following would be brighter, in terms of the amount of energy delivered to your retina:
A supernova, seen from as far away as the Sun is from the Earth, or
The detonation of a hydrogen bomb [I]pressed against your eyeball[/I]?"
Surprising answer: the supernova. Never knew supernovae were [i]that[/i] powerful.
Gravitons are finnicky but everyone knows the existence of Graviolis
I've always found neutrino oscillations fascinating, or in general any flavor conversion for subatomic particles.
Also, neutrinos can initiate very fissile material without much notice, unlike neutrinos.
[QUOTE]The story of the neutrino begins with scientists in the first decades of the 20th century studying beta decay, where a radioactive element spits out an electron (or an anti-electron) changing into another element in the process (i.e., an atom of carbon turns into one of nitrogen).
[/QUOTE]
Forgive me if I'm completely wrong
But this sounds close to what Alchemy was trying to achieve
[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;43547555]I'd say your whole post is accurate except this is very misleading. It's really not a matter of convention, because we expect a working quantum gravity to explain physics better than GR does. It will just reproduce the equations of GR in the classical limit.[/QUOTE]
I need to write a script that crawls the forums and rates all of your posts as informative.
[QUOTE=Liem;43563027]Forgive me if I'm completely wrong
But this sounds close to what Alchemy was trying to achieve[/QUOTE]
We have the capability to turn any element into (almost) any other element using nuclear transmutation.
Unfortunately the energy to do so costs several orders of magnitude more than whatever you end up with :v:
[QUOTE=Bradyns;43544492]Graviton*
*Pending confirmation of existence.[/QUOTE]
[IMG]http://facepunch.com/image.php?u=244899&dateline=1389450037[/IMG]
[I]"Gravitons and Graviolis"[/I]
[QUOTE=Nikita;43563250]We have the capability to turn any element into (almost) any other element using nuclear transmutation.
Unfortunately the energy to do so costs several orders of magnitude more than whatever you end up with :v:[/QUOTE]
It's still really cool
[QUOTE=Shreddinger;43543511]Wait so what about Quantum entanglement that happens faster than light, right?[/QUOTE]
it'd be like trying to send a message with a synchronized but superluminal random number generator that you can't pick the seed of.
[QUOTE=Mamok Zalku;43562421]Gravitons are finnicky but everyone knows the existence of Graviolis[/QUOTE]
It's said that the theory behind graviolis was discovered by Edward Witten who, in a fit of desperation one evening, shouted "Gravioli, gravioli, give me the formuoli!" The formula describing the gravioli interaction appeared on the blank page before him. Scientists agree it was mostly likely caused by a miracle.
[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;43564043]It's said that the theory behind graviolis was discovered by Edward Witten who, in a fit of desperation one evening, shouted "Gravioli, gravioli, give me the formuoli!" The formula describing the gravioli interaction appeared on the blank page before him. Scientists agree it was mostly likely caused by a miracle.[/QUOTE]
Science in action, gentlemen.
[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;43564043]It's said that the theory behind graviolis was discovered by Edward Witten who, in a fit of desperation one evening, shouted "Gravioli, gravioli, give me the formuoli!" The formula describing the gravioli interaction appeared on the blank page before him. Scientists agree it was mostly likely caused by a miracle.[/QUOTE]
HA!
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