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17-Year-Old Corrects NASA Mistake In Data From The ISS (bbc.com)

"A British teenager has contacted scientists at NASA to point out an error in a set of their own data," writes the BBC. An anonymous reader quotes their report. A-level student Miles Soloman found that radiation sensors on the International Space Station (ISS) were recording false data... The correction was said to be "appreciated" by NASA, which invited him to help analyse the problem... The research was part of the TimPix project from the Institute for Research in Schools (IRIS), which gives students across the UK the chance to work on data from the space station, looking for anomalies and patterns that might lead to further discoveries. What Miles had noticed was that when nothing hit the detector, a negative reading was being recorded. But you cannot get negative energy... It turned out that Miles had noticed something no-one else had -- including the NASA experts. NASA said it was aware of the error, but believed it was only happening once or twice a year. Miles had found it was actually happening multiple times a day.
There's a video of the student -- and his teacher -- describing the discovery, a story which Miles says his friends at high school listen to with "a mixture of jealousy and boredom"

35 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Can we get the kid to correct their climate data? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Un-"correct" it I mean.

  2. Re:PERSECUTION by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The moderators are persecuting me for being a Christian. Modding my posts down is blatant persecution.

    If someone walks into your church during a service and starts shouting, is it persecution to escort them out? Of course not! It doesn't matter what they believe, you're simply removing them for being disruptive.

    Same here with you. You've entered a space for nerds to talk about news for nerds, then started shouting about something completely unrelated. As such, they're modding you down for interrupting the discussion with talk about something that's grossly off-topic. Mind you, I say all of this as someone who agrees with much of what you've said regarding the topic you raised, but that topic simply has no place in this conversation.

    If you want to get your message out, you should find more effective ways, like speaking with people in a loving, patient manner on a personal level, rather than shouting at them in a public forum. When I talk about that topic with others, more often than not, I have to spend the first half of the discussion explaining that we're not all crazies who hate them, because they've had a bad taste left in their mouths after encounters with people like you.

  3. Not just at NASA by Anubis+IV · · Score: 5, Funny

    Interestingly, all of the comments up to this point have a negative reading (-1) as well.

  4. Re:PERSECUTION by sky_khan72 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Do we come to your church and tell latest scientific or technological findings after every sentence of priest ? Your posts are and will always be -1, because your rubbish off-topic posts are not belong here. Now go away and dont turn back.

  5. Re:PERSECUTION by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    They're persecuting you for being a tool.

  6. Re:in B4 by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Did the solar wind stop blowing in space? That could explain the negative sensor readings.

  7. How is this Newsworthy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Many types of radiation sensor have an average count they pick up in their sampling window. This is then subtracted to get an reading which, on average, is zero but which for any given reading could be negative if the count fluctuates low when there is no particle incident. It might be that they had an issue with the pedestal fluctuating.

    All this guy did was look at a column in an Excel spreadsheet, saw that there were negative numbers for the energy and contacted NASA to ask about it. Has the standard of A' level science fallen so far in the UK that this is now newsworthy or is this just an indication of the appallingly low level of science at the BBC?

    1. Re:How is this Newsworthy? by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      Mod parent up. Kudos to the kid for finding this, but it's just a measurement-calibration issue, not news.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    2. Re:How is this Newsworthy? by coofercat · · Score: 2

      I suspect it's as much a comment about the skillz at Nasa as it is about this kids abilities.

      The reason it's news is because of its incredible rarity. It's almost never that a British kid gets to do anything cool, let alone find something no one else did. We're a pretty small place, and we don't have a space agency of our own, so usually by the time we get to look at anything it's already been washed out by plenty of other people. As I say, it's as much comment about others as it is about us.

  8. Re:in B4 by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    I think you're half an hour late...

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  9. Everybody benefits... by retrosurf · · Score: 5, Informative

    Student saw an in-band indication that the detector was in a non-radiation reporting state, and asked NASA about it.

    NASA says, huh, that's weird. It's not supposed to happen that often. Hey kid, wanna do us a solid (in more ways than one)?

    Hell yes, says kid.

    BBC, realizing that story is too complicated, bowdlerizes title to get people to read it.

    Slashdot talks about something else entirely.

    1. Re:Everybody benefits... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If you rewrite this in MadLibs style it'll cover 80% of the stories here.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  10. There are moments in every business by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    when a young and aspiring person notices something wrong, but doesn't realize that the reason grownups didn't bother looking into it is because they have more important shit to do. It's good if you can let the youngster fix it. It'll be a crappy fix, but who cares? Too bad if you have to do it yourself, and then come up with some stupid story about how noone ever tought this could be not functioning properly. Being young is awesome. It's easy to get the impression that you're a total badass and be happy because of this.

    1. Re:There are moments in every business by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Reaction on Slashdot: 50% jealous, 40% offtopic ranting, 10% insightful.

      Parent qualifies as "jealous". Sheesh, the boy noticed something NASA - by their own account - didn't. That doesn't make him a total badass, but it's more of a contribution than you or I have made. Give him some credit.

  11. Re:in B4 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Shit, I guess we can't rely on our space windmills anymore. Back to burning space coal.

  12. Re:Breakdown by telchine · · Score: 1

    A-level students are 17, 18 years old. They're at the age where school is no longer compulsory and they've decided to stay on anyway.

    Since 2015, it's been compulsory to stay at school until 18...

    https://www.gov.uk/know-when-y...

  13. "But you cannot get negative energy" by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 1

    Well, that may not be entirely true. The Casimir effect and Hawking radiation are both potential examples of "negative energy". Hawking radiation is still entirely theoretical, and the few (I think maybe singular) experiment that actually measured Casimir forces (as described here makes no mention of negative energy. And, of course, this experiment was not designed to detect anything like this; especially seeing as Hawking radiation would only be right outside the event horizon of a black hole.

    Harold White, working with NASA, theorizes that the Casimer effect may be able to produce the type of negative energy required to create a working Alcubierre warp drive but it's all still highly theoretical. Well, mostly theoretical but there have been some tantalizing results from a few experiments.

    1. Re:"But you cannot get negative energy" by habig · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well, that may not be entirely true. The Casimir effect and Hawking radiation are both potential examples of "negative energy".

      ... and the total potential+kinetic energy of a solar system. Or an atom. Energy is so often a sum game where negative energies happen all the time.

      But, that's not the case here. If an ADC-based sensor is reading a "negative" amount, it's either an error condition (as it sounds like here) or a bad calibration (pedestal subtraction).

      Kudos to the kid for noticing it! Thumbs down to the BBC writer for venturing into negative-energy land in two wrong senses at the same time.

  14. Dark Energy by ChadSmith4920 · · Score: 1

    It still doesn't explain why the best current measurements indicate that dark energy contributes 68.3% of the total energy in the present-day observable universe.

  15. Re:in B4 by reboot246 · · Score: 2

    Your post makes me wonder if IQ scores can be below zero, but it made me smile anyway.

  16. ? not the only time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    the NSIDC has a great website with automated analysis of satellite data on how much ice is in polar regions
    https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

    I look at this every day or so, and about a year ago, noticed the trend line was odd
    I emailed them, hey, maybe you should look at the data
    A day or two later, they put up a notice: sattelite sensor malfunction, data collection suspended

    co incidence ?

  17. Background noise correction? by Zorpheus · · Score: 1

    Would be my first thought when I see negative energy readings. If a sensor produces a signal when no radiation hits it, then the average level of this signal is substracted. Since such a signal normally has a noise it will result in some negative values. Then it would not be an error.
    I don't see any details on what kind of sensor this is though, or what kind of energy it measures. So I can't tell if it is that.

    1. Re: Background noise correction? by Zorpheus · · Score: 1

      This becomes an issue actually if it is not planned for, if the used data type does not support negative values. I have seen quite expensive devices that just set the values zero, which messes up the average of values.

  18. Well, maybe by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    "But you cannot get negative energy.."

    Based on my experience with my first wife, I disagree. That bitch could suck the happiness out of a room at a hundred paces.

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    1. Re:Well, maybe by houghi · · Score: 1

      But she doesn't suck like your current one. She can suck a golf ball through a garden hose,

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    2. Re:Well, maybe by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

      But she doesn't suck like your current one. She can suck a golf ball through a garden hose,

      I think you have her confused with your mom.

      --
      Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  19. Hard to believe ... by Thanatiel · · Score: 1

    Given that "child helps pros" news often turns to be false, I'd wait for some confirmation or a follow-up from NASA.

    --
    Irrelevant news and morons using moderation to mod down what they disagree on. 2018 resolution: so long.
    1. Re:Hard to believe ... by SeaFox · · Score: 1

      So you're prone to negative readings of stories like these?

  20. Re:PERSECUTION by sabri · · Score: 1

    The moderators are persecuting me for being a Christian.

    Keep your Grand Skywizard to yourself until the time that you can provide a peer-reviewed paper which proves the existence of a deity. Trust me, you will have more fame than Einstein.

    --
    I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
  21. Re:PERSECUTION by hyades1 · · Score: 1

    Sorry, we don't feed Christians to the lions anymore. The lions kept throwing up afterwards. Oddly, though, when we started feeding male roosters to Christians, a lot of the male Christians seemed to like it a lot.

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
  22. Special access to scientific data by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    Yeah continue giving access to your select few then when the government says they aren't going to pick winners anymore, decry the horrible state science will fall to now that everyone is on a less inequal footing.

  23. Lucky guy! by RivenAleem · · Score: 1

    Just think of it. He's now famous for correcting NASA! I'd bet he's drowning in pussy right now.

  24. Bit of a Contradiction? by BluPhenix316 · · Score: 2

    Is it just me or is there a bit of a contradiction? From TFA: "It turned out that Miles had noticed something no-one else had - including the Nasa experts." "Nasa said it was aware of the error, but believed it was only happening once or twice a year." So he noticed something no-one else had....then in the very next line state that NASA was aware just they believed it wasn't as common as he pointed out. So NASA did know about the negative readings but didn't quite know the extent of the mistake. I guess, he noticed something they didn't but this seems a little click-baity. I mean good on the kid for noticing a pattern but the wording is just grandiose.

  25. Re:PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

    Homophobia combined with "Once Gay Always Gay" politicis is the direct cause of homosexuality. If it were not for homophobes like you, there would be no homosexuals unable to get therapy for their situation.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  26. Deliberate? by Bandraginus · · Score: 1

    I'll posit a different theory.

    NASA deliberately publishes erroneous data in its Institute for Research in Schools program. Sits back and waits for some smart kid to detect the bad data. Offer kid job (sometime down the track).