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Physicists Confirm a Pear-Shaped Nucleus, and It Could Ruin Time Travel Forever (sciencealert.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via ScienceAlert: Physicists have confirmed the existence of pear-shaped nuclei, which challenges the fundamental theories of physics that explain our Universe. "We've found these nuclei literally point towards a direction in space. This relates to a direction in time, providing there's a well-defined direction in time and we will always travel from past to present," Marcus Scheck from the University of the West of Scotland told Kenneth MacDonald at BBC News. Until recently, it was generally accepted that nuclei of atoms could only be one of three shapes: spherical, discus, or rugby ball. The first discovery of a pear-shaped nucleus was back in 2013, when physicists at CERN discovered isotope Radium-224. Now, that find has been confirmed by a second study, which shows that the nucleus of the isotope Barium-144 is also asymmetrical and pear-shaped. In regard to time travel, Scheck says that this uneven distribution of mass and charge caused Barium-144's nucleus to "point" in a certain direction in spacetime, and this bias could explain why time seems to only want to go from past to present, and not backwards, even if the laws of physics don't care which way it goes.
Can you backup that statement? Oh wait... never mind.
the whole thing has gone pear-shaped.
Ideology: A tool used primarily to avoid the bother of thinking.
It's like the sysops are say, well, they're going to discover they're living in a simulation. Change the parameters so nuclei are pear shaped, and that ought to distract them for a little while.
--Jim (me)
My DeLorean stocks just took a bigger hit than Brexit.
Table-ized A.I.
My body certainly has. Maybe the atoms examined simply reached middle-age. Time* to put the universe on a diet of neutrino shakes; but they are so bland and often just pass right through ya.
* No pun intended
Table-ized A.I.
If they point toward Mecca, I will be fully freaked out.
And, dammit, I just bought a bunch of Xmas decorations last year.
Table-ized A.I.
Points to direction of next quest.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Before the new particle, past travel could be not impossible. Now they discovered a new particle that makes it impossible. So when they discover yet another particle in the future that invalidates this no-past one, will we be back to "maybe possible"?
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
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