1259
hours. Today some years ago a human being set foot on the Moon; then he took a
short walk. Wow.
You have been busy. Earlier, late morning,
you and Carol mowed the yard in eighty-nine degree weather. You are both still
tired from the ordeal. You are feeling better after a shower and you assume
Carol is resting upstairs. Doug sent you an interesting and quite apropos
article that we can use to vindicate a concept. You sent a thank you note back
saying to the effect that 'shape-shifting' exists in nature. This is not
exactly true but it need not be for a fiction, for a discussion between Robert
and Richard. Here is the article:
**
**
CERN Scientists Observe Rare
Particle Decay That Helps Confirm Theory About Universe's Birth
By JOHN
HEILPRIN 07/19/13 03:59 PM ET EDT
GENEVA — After a
quarter-century of searching, scientists have nailed down how one particularly
rare subatomic particle decays into something else – a discovery that adds
certainty to our thinking about how the universe began and keeps running.
The world's top particle
physics lab said Friday it had measured the decay time of a particle known as a
Bs (B sub s) meson into two other fundamental particles called muons, which are
much heavier than but similar to electrons. It was observed as part of the
reams of data coming from CERN's $10 billion Large Hadron Collider, the world's
largest atom smasher, on the Swiss-French border near Geneva.
The rare sighting at the
European Center for Nuclear Research, known by its French acronym CERN, shows
that the so-called standard model of particle physics is "coming through
with flying colors," though it describes only 5 percent of the universe,
said Pierluigi Campana, who leads one of the two main teams at CERN involved in
the research.
Campana called the results an
important development that helps confirm the standard model, a theory developed
over the past half century to explain the basic building blocks of matter.
It applies to everything from
galaxies and stars to the smallest microcosms, showing how they are thought to
have come into being and continue to function. The results were formally
unveiled at a major physics conference in Stockholm.
Also at the conference, an
international team of scientists based at Japan's Proton Accelerator Research
Complex announced they have documented muon neutrinos transforming into
electron neutrinos – a previously unknown third way that neutrinos can
spontaneously change identity. Neutrinos are subatomic particles that are very
hard to detect because they have extremely low mass and rarely interact with
matter.
That breakthrough is "a
big deal," said one of the neutrino collaboration leaders, University of
California at Irvine physicist Henry Sobel, because explaining the
matter-antimatter asymmetry in neutrinos may shed light on why everything from
tiny forms of life to stars are made of matter, but there is almost no
antimatter left in the universe. That remains one of the biggest mysteries of
the universe – since the Big Bang nearly 14 billion years ago should have
created equal amounts of matter and antimatter.
But researchers also have
been looking for this particular rare decay from the Bs particle for a long
time.
"This is a process that
particle physicists have been trying to find for 25 years," said Joe
Incandela, leader of the second CERN team involved in the subatomic particle
research. He called it a "rare process involving a particle with a mass
that is roughly 1,000 times smaller than the masses of the heaviest particles
we are searching for now."
The standard model also
predicted a new subatomic particle discovered last summer. The long-sought
Higgs boson creates what scientists call a "sticky" energy field that
acts as a drag on other particles and gives them mass, without which particles
wouldn't hold together – and there would be no matter.
The newest research shows
that only a few Bs particles per billion decay into pairs of muons, which was
along the lines of what was predicted under the standard model. But because the
Bs particle's decay helps confirm an old theory, some scientists also expressed
a bit of disappointment they had not found something completely unexpected or
new.
"This
is a victory for the standard model," said Joel Butler of the United
States' Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, near Chicago. "But we know
the standard model is incomplete, so we keep trying to find things that
disagree with it."
From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/19/cern-scientists-rare-particle-decay-theory-universe-birth_n_3622595.html?ref=topbar
**
The focus here is two fold for argument.
**
. . . an international team
of scientists based at Japan's Proton Accelerator Research Complex announced
they have documented muon neutrinos transforming into electron neutrinos – a
previously unknown third way that neutrinos can spontaneously change identity. .
. .
. . . explaining the
matter-antimatter asymmetry in neutrinos may shed light on why everything from
tiny forms of life to stars are made of matter, but there is almost no
antimatter left in the universe. . . .
". . . a "rare
process involving a particle with a mass that is roughly 1,000 times smaller
than the masses of the heaviest particles we are searching for now."
The standard model also
predicted a new subatomic particle discovered last summer. The long-sought
Higgs boson creates what scientists call a "sticky" energy field that
acts as a drag on other particles and gives them mass, without which particles
wouldn't hold together – and there would be no matter.
The newest
research shows that only a few Bs particles per billion decay into pairs of
muons, which was along the lines of what was predicted under the standard
model.
** **
If
neutrinos can spontaneously change identity then why could not a soul without
heartsanminds change its identity by 'absorbing' a heartanmind? Souls
are not mass so the 'sticky energy' that makes them more than less empty is a
heartanmind. The
laws of physics are not that much different between less than matter and
matter. What
do you think? - Amorella
1328
hours. I will have to ask Doug. I assume it may have plausibility in a fiction
but really, I have no idea.
Do you think readers will have any idea
either? - Amorella
Good question, Amorella, good question.
Mid-afternoon. You are facing west at the
northernmost lot at Pine Hill Lakes Park. Carol is reading the morning paper.
After Carol showered and washed her hair you headed over to OutBack with a five
dollar off coupon for steak lunches, a shared salad and shared dessert. Just
before you left for lunch Doug replied to your earlier note:
** **
Dick, A spirit may not
have mass but it probably has energy. As Einstein says E= mc2 so energy has
an equivalent mass and thus it is possible that a soul has a little too. If
not, the soul may live in elsewhere where it can go as fast as it wants. Your ideas
should make good fiction.
Doug
** **
1637
hours. This is quite exciting. I don't know how you come up with this stuff,
Amorella, but so far it's a go for fiction. I feel like I should give Doug a
title when he is noted in the book.
I agree. We will work something out that he
will appreciate. He has not only been quite helpful both he and Nancy are
confidence builders for you as far as the thought, logic, science and physics of
Great Merlyn's Ghost is concerned. - Amorella
I feel like there ought to be enough here to set up a discussion between
Robert and Richard.
We need to include Connie and Cyndi in on
this too. What's the matter, cat got your tongue, boy? Some concern on your
part that these two characters don't have the wherewithal to discuss such an
abstract and deep subject as you see here? - Amorella
You
take ever little passing thought and put it out in the open.
People need to know your prejudices? -
Amorella
It was just a passing thought. 'How can we do this?' came to mind. 'I can't
have a discussion with four people on this topic; I barely have enough for two.
Plus, I don't know.
As nurses they have a profession lifetime
with sickness, health, life and death, plus they have their own thoughts on a
spiritual world. The 'boys' may be agnostics but the 'girls' need not be. You
don't even know what religious backgrounds are do you? - Amorella
I assume they are Methodists as John Knox College is Presbyterian.
Do not erase. You and Carol were married at
a Methodist Church. Bob and Patti were married in a Methodist Church too; you
were his best man. John Knox College sounds Presbyterian enough that you
reluctantly concluded with it. - Amorella
I have no idea how to put this together now. I have been thinking about
two brothers debating not their wives. Who is going to say what? How is this
conversation going to come up naturally?
You feel you have to make each of these
segments parallel to your real experiences to add the authenticity. I do not.
Think of a conversation, a bull session of sorts, where a few guys if you can't
think of girls sat around discussing theology and the like. Pick to likely
female suspects from your old mythology class, or those women who did well on
your "Explain Light to a Always Totally Blind Person of your Age"
expository essay. You need to think more about this boy, are you playing the schlemiel here? Post. - Amorella
Four people in this extemporaneous debate makes my head hurt, Amorella.
1724 hours. I just noted today's post title as it reads*. Very funny, Amorella.
*[the original title was: "Notes - a good question / are you playing the schlemiel?]
You are sometimes slow on the uptake, boy. - Amorella
You make me laugh even when I'm angry.
If you were angry you would not be pleasurably smiling. Post this boy and be done with it.
2120 hours.
The four are going to Columbus to a
matinee at the Drexel on Main to see last year's "Quartet" directed
by Dustin Hoffman. They saw it before when it first opened in January.
Grilling Bill's would be a good setting for the
discussion -- Uptown Riverton, table for four by the west window facing State
Street and the Riverdale Bank on the other side of the street. Eleven-thirty
lunch. The Menu: Cyndi has a Caesar salad (romaine lettuce, Aslago-Parmesan
cheese,, cheese croutons, and Caesar dressing) buttered wheat roll and ice tea;
Connie also has ice tea with a
classic salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions and a vinaigrette) and a side of
sweet potato fries which the sisters are sharing. Robert has an Italian Combo
sandwich (beef, turkey, ham, salami, Swiss cheese lettuce, tomatoes, red onions
on Ciabatta) chips and a ice tea; and Richard has a Cuban panini (chicken ham,
Swiss cheese, chipotle sauce on Focaccia) chips and Coke Zero.
You are ready for the discussion. First the
discussion is on Dustin Hoffman and everyone remembers The Graduate and reminds
everyone that he was born in 1937. Someone will bring up Maggie Smith as Jean
Horton and her former husband , Reg, who is played by Tom Courtnay. Someone
else will say Maggie isn't really acting, she is just like she is in Downton
Abbey playing Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham. Maggie Smith puts her heart and
soul into her parts. Then, what is the soul? - Amorella
2204 hours. Amazing. I spend time setting up the purpose, time, place and the
menu and you whip through the dialogue to get to the meat of the discussion.
It is the dessert not the main course, boy.
Do you think you can handle it? - Amorella
I certainly have a better idea than I did a few hours ago
Good. Post. That's it for the night. -
Amorella
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