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Follow Up On Solar Neutrinos and Radioactive Decay

Posted by timothy on from the blaming-xenu-for-their-misperception dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A few days ago, Slashdot carried a story that was making the rounds: a team of physicists claimed to have detected a strange variation in radioactive decay rates, which they attributed to the mysterious influence of solar neutrinos. The findings attracted immediate attention because they seemed to upend two tenets of physics: that radioactive decay is constant, and that neutrinos very, very rarely interact with matter (trillions of the particles are zinging through your body right now). So Discover Magazine's news blog 80beats followed up on the initial burst of news and interviewed several physicists who work on neutrinos. They are decidedly skeptical."

6 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Head asplodes by mcgrew · · Score: 5, Funny

    'What we're suggesting is that something that doesn't really interact with anything is changing something that can't be changed.'"

    --
    Free Martian Whores!
  2. The Neutrino and Radioactivity Source Is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    UVB-76, posing as a radio broadcast.

    Anxiously awaiting Slashbot editors new post about Update On The Follow-Up To The Update On The Solar Neutrinos and so on and so forth.

    Yours In Barrow,
    Kilgore Trout.

  3. Re:Wait till the religion fanatics hear this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Luckily the detected difference is somewhere around .0001% so I don't think we'll be rewriting history even if their observation is confirmed.

    So the the Earth is "around" 4,500,000,000 years old and the difference is "around" .0001%? 0.00013% of 4,500,000,000 years is 6000 years! That can't be a coincidence! Earth is 6000 years old!

  4. Re:at least we know the answer by harlows_monkeys · · Score: 2, Funny

    A friend from college got into considerable trouble as a kid when he asked that question in Catholic school, although he rephrased it slightly. His form was "Can Jesus make a dildo so big He can't shove it up His ass?" The Nuns showed no interest in discussing the philosophical aspects of that question.

  5. Re:Occam's Razor by Red+Flayer · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sturrock got old, went crackpot. Happens all the time, even to Nobel-prize winners. Check out Josephson or Weber.

    I think what you mean to say is that you have observed an unexplained increase in the rate of mental decay in those scientists, and that further study is warranted.

    --
    "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  6. Re:Kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    A first post that isn't a troll or a racist joke or a sad attempt at cookie-cutter humor would be a drastic improvement.

    It would still get modded down.