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Supercomputer Adds Credence to Standard Model

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the start-watching-for-vogons dept.

ScienceDaily is reporting that researchers at the University of Edinburgh and Southampton in cooperation with partners from Japan and the US have shed some light on the Standard Model of physics using a new computer model. "The project's enormously complex calculations relate to the behavior of tiny particles found in the nuclei of atoms, known as quarks. In order to carry out these calculations, the researchers first designed and built a supercomputer that was among the fastest in the world, capable of tens of trillions of calculations per second. The computations themselves have taken a further three years to complete. Their result shows that the Standard Model's claim to be the best theory invented holds firm. It raises the stakes for the riddle to be solved by experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, which will switch on later this year. Physicists' efforts to confront Standard Model predictions using the most powerful computers available with the most precise experiments offer no clues about what to expect."

11 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Wow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Why does the number 42 come to mind?

    1. Re:Wow! by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well, the word "supercomputer" has 13 characters. 14, if you count the terminating '\0'. The supercomputer was running for 3 years. Now 3*14=42. That should explain it. :-)

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  2. Uncertainty by Sorthum · · Score: 5, Funny

    So they talk about how fast this new supercomputer is.

    I presume that means they have absolutely no idea where it is?

  3. No 42 by smittyoneeach · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...but a Clearwater Revival does.

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
    1. Re:No 42 by pete-classic · · Score: 2, Funny

      Wouldn't hold out much hope for the tape deck though.

      -Peter

  4. Re:The answer to life, the universe and everything by lawn.ninja · · Score: 2, Funny

    There is also the slight possiblity that we asked the wrong question.

  5. It has to be said... by Toe,+The · · Score: 2, Funny

    Supermodel Adds Credence to Standard Computer

    Did Dell get Gisele Bündchen as a spokesmodel or something?

  6. after three years ... by BenBoy · · Score: 2, Funny
    the researchers first designed and built a supercomputer that was among the fastest in the world, capable of tens of trillions of calculations per second. The computations themselves have taken a further three years to complete.

    If my own purchases are any indication, three years out the damned thing's now completely outmoded, and a pocket calculator will do the same thing ...

  7. No! by TheWanderingHermit · · Score: 3, Funny

    I am Vroomfondle and that is not a demand, it is a solid fact.

    We are philosophers (though we may not be). We are here as representatives of Amalgamated Union of Philosophers, Sages, Luminaries, and Other Professional Thinking Persons and we want this machine off and we want off now.

    What's the use of our sitting up all night saying there may (or may not be) a God if this machine comes along next morning and gives you his telephone number?

    We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!

    You'll have a National Philosopher's Strike on your hands!

  8. I asked my supercomputer... by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 4, Funny
    "Is the Standard Model correct?"

    I only had to wait a few seconds for the answer: "Reply hazy, try again".

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
  9. Actually, yes. I can. by symbolset · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm just trying to think of how I would react, knowing that a computer was going to take 3 years to finish a task. Can you imagine staring at the status bar for that?

    I'm copying 2GB of photos from a share to my pen drive under Vista right now, so I don't have to imagine it.

    --
    Help stamp out iliturcy.