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Nuclear Decay May Vary With Earth-Sun Distance

KentuckyFC writes "We've long thought that nuclear decay rates are constant regardless of ambient conditions (except in a few special cases where beta decay can be influenced by powerful electric fields). So that makes it hard to explain two puzzling experiments from the 1980s that found periodic variations over many years in the decay rates of silicon-32 and radium-226. Now a new analysis of the raw data says that changes in the decay rate are synchronized with each other and with Earth's distance from the sun. The physicists behind this work offer two theories to explain why this might be happening (abstract). First, some theorists think the sun produces a field that changes the value of the fine structure constant on Earth as its distance from the sun varies. That would certainly affect the rate of nuclear decay. Another idea is that the effect is caused by some kind of interaction with the neutrino flux from the sun's interior which also varies with distance. Take your pick. What makes the whole story even more intriguing is that for years physicists have disagreed over the decay rates of several isotopes such as titanium-44, silicon-32, and cesium-137. Perhaps they took their data at different times of the year?"

7 of 418 comments (clear)

  1. I dunno much.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    but couldn't this seriously affect carbon dating?

    More worring is that the bible bashes could be right and the earth is only 10000 years old and there is a god after all..

    ***Goes off t pray***

  2. Homosexuality and racism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Faggots and niggers.

  3. Neutrinos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    The amount of neutrinos as the distance from Earth to Sun decreases is high!

  4. creators' newclear power will never decay/fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

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    the bleeding must be stopped before any healing can begin. jailing a couple of corepirate nazi hired goons would send a clear message to the rest of the world from US. any truthful look at the 'scorecard' would reveal that we are a society in decline/deep doo-doo, despite all of the scriptdead pr ?firm? generated drum beating & flag waving propaganda that we are constantly bombarded with. is it time to get real

  5. Re:Carbon Dating by Nimey · · Score: 1, Troll

    Oh, lordy. Another misunderstood bit of science for creationists to throw up as "evidence" for an online argument.

    goddidit

    --
    Hail Eris, full of mischief...

    E pluribus sanguinem
  6. Re:Carbon Dating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Regardless of whether or not this actually impacts on carbon dating, some of our ID friends are going to jump all over this. I remember some guy trying to give a faux-scientific explination of why carbon dating doesn't work. Of course, I was at the bar, drunk, and when I realized he was full of shit my internal translator switched on. His words turned into "blah blah blah blah blah blah".

  7. Re:Carbon Dating by grub · · Score: 0, Troll


    Is that you, Jesus?

    --
    Trolling is a art,