Big News in Physics

[OldPhysics]

Well ... it's not about knives. At least not directly.

My colleagues at CERN have finally had some big-time success with their OPERA experiment (a proton collider). After banging extremely high energy/high speed protons together for 3+ years it finally happened.

Yes.

They caught a muon neutrino changing into a tau neutrino.

Muon neutrinos are famously shy little buggers. In fact, if they had no mass ... which was a distinct possibility ... then they would never, ever transform into tau neutrinos. And yet, the physicists at CERN snapped a picture of just this over the week-end.

Why does this matter? Because we, your scientists, have been anxiously looking for about 80% of the matter in the universe for decades now, without finding it (ye olde "dark matter" controversy). This is the first clear indication that we may find a reasonable way ahead. A big, honking chunk of that missing matter may be wandering about in the form of neutrinos, thanks to all those solar furnaces littering known space.

More work will need to be done, but raise a glass or perhaps say a prayer for those European physicists. They have lots of work ahead of them, and the results will be fascinating and will, eventually, lead to a far deeper understanding of how (and maybe why) things are ... as they are.

The search for truth. Gotta love it.

[protourist]

I'm not really sure what you just said but still find it fascinating. I need to educate myself, thanks for giving me a direction.

[Cougar Allen]

[Lycosa]

Thanks Jamie.
Stuff like that makes work fun.

[Alvaro Candanedo]

To me is just like saying that after they collide, something that was not before, is now¡¡¿¿??!!
(never understood much of Physics, anyway, with things like particles with "charm" and such).

Anyway, congrats.

[JCavSD]

All very cool, and perhaps a little ahead of my own work in the field. I'm still trying to get a chicken and a duck to collide. It makes my arms tired.

[Ren the devils trailboss]

Uhhh ok........ is it gonna mess up the reception on my dish? There is a Dukes of Hazzard marathon on and I don wanna miss it. It aint gonna mess with tequila is it?

[DennisStrickland]

i certainly want to welcome the little fellows as long as they do'nt pollute.

[steelnut]

Really amazing stuff

[me2]

Keep it to yourselves or someone will try to shut this thing down again.

[untamed]

My colleagues at CERN have finally had some big-time success with their OPERA experiment (a proton collider). . .

Muon neutrinos are famously shy little buggers. In fact, if they had no mass ... which was a distinct possibility ... then they would never, ever transform into tau neutrinos. And yet, the physicists at CERN snapped a picture of just this over the week-end.

While I'm no physicist I must admit I've been a total geek when it comes to studying the ultimate stuff of matter and reality. Heck, my best bud even gave me Hawking's Brief History of Time on my 18th B-day!

Humanity from all cultures have been pre-occupied with this since ancient times (i.e. - looking for the "urstoff"). Apparently, if you're a Daoist, the "nothing" from which everything came from isn't really nothing at all which we are seeing now from all those colliding sub-atomic particles. "God" apparently is musically inclined and plays different melodies from "strings". Interestingly Tolkien had a similar version of this in his "Ainulindalë".

[Minnesota]

Man, is always seems like scientists are finding something that will help us better understand something...I get tired of it. I just want to know it. All of it. Anyways...good stuff. Yay for physics!

[Gollnick]

Astonished Cat is not the only one astonished by this. Whether or neutrinos have mass has been a matter of debate for decades. Some hold that they have none. Other hold that they have some... not much, but some. A lot more than the mass of the universe depends on the answer. And now comes strong evidence that they do.

[glockman99]

This reminds me of Monty Python's "The Meaning Of Life"...

[dttomcat]

They caught a muon neutrino changing into a tau neutrino.

Muon neutrinos are famously shy little buggers. In fact, if they had no mass ... which was a distinct possibility ... then they would never, ever transform into tau neutrinos. And yet, the physicists at CERN snapped a picture of just this over the week-end.

Those friggin' muons and taus have been throwin' me for a loop for years. I'm glad we've got em' pinned down.

They have lots of work ahead of them, and the results will be fascinating and will, eventually, lead to a far deeper understanding of how (and maybe why) things are ... as they are.

The search for truth. Gotta love it.:thumbup

Go to it physicists!!! I love the search for truth.! : But NONE of the women I've dated seem to understand the concept.

[Acolyte2]

Well, this doesn't prove that the universe is 90% dark matter. It just proves that one of them things did exist briefly in the lab. There is still no evidence to suggest that the universe has any substantial amoun of dark matter.

[Cougar Allen]

There is still no evidence to suggest that the universe has any substantial amoun of dark matter.

Boy, are you confused....

[dttomcat]

But NONE of the women I've dated seem to understand the concept.

OOoohh, the plight of the psyhicist. FacePalm!

[Alberta Ed]

Can you forge tau neutrinos or would you do stock removal? What kind of an edge would they take? Are they (it?) stainless?

[cj65]

Dark Matter is Buzz Lightyear's arch nemesis. It is good they found him, at least now they can do a biometrics profile on him. He will not escape justice! To infinity, and beyond!

Actually, physics blow my mind, great post! I loved firing a .22 round into a wooden block in physics lab. The rifle was mounted to a wall and so was the target. Force=Massxacceleration was the lab.