After noon. Earlier you and Carol both
walked in the park which, let’s say, constitutes thirty minutes of exercise for
you. Once home you sat on the deck relaxing. You were reading about the techs
of Doug’s drone on Amazon. Further online you saw this interesting article on
neutrinos. - Amorella
** **
BBC - Science & Environment
Neutrinos: 'Superheroes' of the particle world
By Paul Rincon
Science editor, BBC
News website 6 October 2015
The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded for the
discovery that neutrinos switch between different "flavours". So why
has the work been deemed worthy of the highest award in science?
First proposed by the Austrian Wolfgang Pauli in 1930, neutrinos
are among the 17-odd irreducible building blocks of the world around us.
They're also wallflowers in the world of sub-atomic particles,
rarely interacting with the other matter around them.
Scientists estimate that a neutrino is capable of passing
through a light-year (about 10 trillion km) of lead without hitting a single
atom.
Yet these
ghostly particles are ubiquitous. Though we may not be aware of them, many
billions of them flow through our bodies every second.
There was a quarter of a century between Pauli's original
proposal and the actual discovery of neutrinos by the American physicists
Frederick Reines and Clyde Cowan.
But in another demonstration of the adage that good things come
to those who wait, neutrinos appear to be absolutely vital to understanding
many other mysteries in modern physics - perhaps even why the Universe looks
the way it does today.
This year's Nobel was awarded for the solution to a
long-standing puzzle in neutrino physics.
Costume changes
In the 1960s, theoreticians calculated the number of neutrinos
that should be created in the nuclear reactions powering the Sun.
But subsequent measurements of these solar neutrinos suggested
that up to two-thirds of the calculated quantity was missing.
The calculations might be wrong, scientists reasoned. But there
might be another answer: what if neutrinos were able to change their
identities?
Much as Bruce Wayne dons a kevlar-plated suit to become Batman,
neutrinos can flip between different personas.
But unlike the Dark Knight, neutrinos have three identities
rather than two: the electron-neutrino, the muon-neutrino and the tau-neutrino.
They are thought to be able to flip between any of these three
"flavours" or types.
"It's like someone throws an apple into the air, and they
catch an orange on the way down," Prof Alfons Weber, a particle physicist
at the University of Oxford, told the BBC.
The Sun only produces electron-neutrinos. But if they were
transformed to muon-neutrinos or tau-neutrinos on their way to Earth, it could
reconcile the experimental observations with theory.
Two science facilities were used to make the discovery honoured
by the Nobel Committee: The Super-Kamiokande detector in Japan and the Sudbury
Neutrino Observatory in Canada.
The detectors are both built deep underground, to filter out
extraneous noise that would interfere with their detection of neutrino signals.
Using different approaches to tackle the problem, both
experiments observed discrepancies that led to the eventual confirmation of
chameleon-like behaviour by neutrinos.
Massive question
"[The Nobel Prize] is a great recognition for these two
physicists and their experiment," Prof Weber told the BBC.
"It should maybe have not been such a big surprise because
finding those neutrino transitions was for me something that was in the same
category as finding the Higgs boson."
That finding - startling enough on its own - was a gateway to
other revelations.
The prevailing theory of particle physics, known as the Standard
Model, assumes that neutrinos, like photons, are massless. But "flavour
flipping" depends on the particles having mass.
Prof Stefan Soldner-Rembold, from the University of Manchester,
told BBC News: "The discovery of neutrino masses and of neutrino
oscillations are the first cracks in the Standard Model of particle
physics."
The ability to change stripes may also be the key to
understanding why the Universe is predominantly made of matter and not its
shadowy counterpart antimatter.
The Big Bang is thought to have generated equal amounts of
matter and antimatter. But when a matter particle meets its antiparticle, they
disappear in a flash of energy.
If antimatter and matter had kept on colliding, the Universe
might consist of photons and little else.
But the shape-shifting behaviour of neutrinos and anti-neutrinos
might have tipped the scales in favour of matter.
"It's not well understood. But if neutrinos oscillate in a
different way to antineutrinos, under certain conditions in the early Universe,
the different transitions of neutrinos into one type and then another type and
antineutrinos into one type and then another might lead to more matter being
present than antimatter," says Prof Weber.
Perhaps, just
like a comic book superhero, the humble neutrino saved us from certain
annihilation.
Selected and
edited from - http://www.bbcDOTcom/news/science-environment-34454831
** **
You filled up the Avalon (just because); it
only took six gallons but you are going towards Dave and Marsha’s on Friday
then babysitting Saturday and Sunday. Monday the roof repairers are scheduled
and on Tuesday you have an appointment to get the thirty-thousand mile oil
change, tire rotation and computer analysis on the engine and motors on the
hybrid. – Amorella
1416
hours. Tomorrow I have lunch with Rich (and colleagues) at either Chinese or
Indian. I always look forward to lunch with my hard and software engineering
friends.
Before returning to Chapter Ten I have some
things to say about where we are in terms of the remaining writing in these GMG
novels. – Amorella
1439
hours. Wow. Amorella, this ‘tone in my head’ sounds like when Carol (or any
woman) says, “We have to talk.” It always makes me anxious because my defenses,
my armor if you will, automatically goes up. Why? Because I know that I will
automatically have to change my ways or attitudes about something for who knows
what reasons (but the reasons are not mine, though they are reasoned and
I usually come around because Carol is most always correct in her observations).
What it comes down to is that I don’t like anyone telling me what I have to do.
– rho
It is interesting that Milton’s Paradise
Lost float through your head presently because your comment is similar to
Satan’s reason for defying God. It sounds like Milton humanizes an Arch Angel
no less, a little too much; this is your thought, boy. It seems, to you, like an
Angelic rebellion against God sounds unreasonable to the point of being highly
unlikely, that the story could not be known in any case because it takes place
in Heaven and not on Earth. This is your thinking is it not? – Amorella
1454
hours. It is. I cannot help my thoughts, they just come out but I try to keep
them to myself because basically I don’t want any harm to come to my family.
There are too many crazy people in the world. I question all sorts of things,
which are basically none of my business.
You had another rather long nap trying to
ward off a cold or flu. – Amorella
1842
hours. I don’t know what the problem is but extra sleep for a couple of days
usually helps for a better outcome. Carol is ironing. I took some clothes
upstairs, Rich G. says we are meeting at the Indian restaurant on Rt. 42 near
Skyline. This is fine with me. I sent a note to Paul and Rich about the Jay
Leno’s ‘Automobiles’ series that begins tonight at ten on CNBC. Glad Carol
pointed it out this morning; it is supposed to run for six episodes. I assume
they are all his cars – he is a massive collector.
Orndorff, you are right not to have a sense
that your books are anything but imagination that has nothing else to do. –
Amorella
1855
hours. Did I translate this (above) correctly? It seems confused.
The translation is correct enough. Time for
supper and some television. (You are not as confused as you sometimes think.)
Later, dude. Post. – Amorella
1858
hours. It is better to know next to nothing. Otherwise, I get caught up with a
lot of ‘static’.
Static is your middle name, boy. Oddly,
consciousness can glean a lot of static and not realize what is important and
what is not. This may seem strange to say when I just commented on your
watching television, but then there is more to it, and less, than you can
imagine. Keep calm and carry on. – Amorella
1902
hours. I sense your humor filtering through.
You
both had snack (light) suppers, Carol with fruit, wheat crackers and fat free
cottage cheese and you with half a crunchy peanut butter sandwich on wheat with
raisins embedded in the pb as well as a few chips on the side. You watched NBC
News, “NCIS” and “Madam Secretary”. Carol is finishing up her ironing and you
are not sleepy.
2201
hours. I like the subtlety of “keep” calm rather than the Brit “Be” calm. I am
calm and you nicely noted as such.
Let’s go to Chapter Ten. – Amorella
2244
hours. The draft for Pouch Ten is completed. Even though it is just a draft I
want it included in this posting as a backup.
No problem. Drop it in and post. – Amorella
2245
hours. I understand more than I did at the beginning of the hour.
Good. – Amorella
***
Draft Pouch 10, ©2015, rho GMG.2
Blake
Williams sits uncomfortably in an easy chair in the small workstation at the
StoneHouse site waiting for Friendly to return to the secret dig on Planet One
with medical information about Pyl and Justin. His mind ruminates on the event an
hour earlier. The two were at the northwest corner of StoneHouse dig at the
bottom of the ten-foot deep, three foot wide ditch between the ancient
foundation and the thin outer safety wall when a black and red squirrel-like
animal appeared to jump or fall into the dig, landed on Justin’s right
shoulder, bit him on the forearm as Justin attempted to knock him off. The panicked
rodent’s back claws dug into Justin’s wrist as it then jumped at Pyl who
quickly turned to knock the animal to the dirt floor. The small furry animal
bit her on the right forearm before falling onto the dirt floor. The rodent ran
ahead along the ditch floor where it was nerve stunned when Friendly pulled a
small pen-like instrument from her left sleeve side pocket.
Those
little rodents were trying to protect the purity and sanctity of Elderfelder
from us Earthlings, that’s what these marsupial humanoids are going to say,
thinks Blake quietly. The quick and furry little creatures remind me of
chipmunks more than rats. In packs they appear to have a selective wit to undo
whatever is done except in the stories of Elderfelder where they provide help.
It seems to me that this is a story to bring Nature into helping a baby who is
greatly handicapped. Stories are more powerful than facts. Besides, no one knew
the facts, that what seems reasonable to me. Surely these people know this
Elderfelder was mostly a story, and that it can be very much appreciated as
such, but there is a can of worms in opening the story into a possible or at
least a passable truth by having discovered the truth that a StoneHouse does
indeed exist. How does this fit with we humans being a part of this archeological
find? Why do they want us here? It would seem better if we were not in any way
associated with their find.
With
an easy gait Friendly walks into the sitting room. “Pyl and Justin will be
fine. They just need rest for a couple of days. We can better rest in familiar
territory, on Ship. We will return to him in a few hours.”
“That
puts my mind to rest,” replies Blake who then stands and begins to pace. “Why
did you want us to be a part of this archeological dig in the first place? It
seems to me it would have been better if we were not involved in recreating
your ancient mythology concerning Elderfelder.”
Friendly
decided to sit and face the music. “Elderfelder is a complicated legend. Many
people who would otherwise know better choose to believe it.” She smiles and
raises her arms out. “Ship and Nine? feel it is in our interest to have
Earthlings connected as a sort of ‘good luck’ – bringing a positive reinforcer
to the find. The problem is that now we may have a real Elderfelder, a babe who
is being kept alive even though she has little brain to speak of. This in
itself may raise the probability in peoples’ minds that the legend really was
true, at least parts of it, the Elderfelder was indeed a real person. Most
people are raised enjoying the legend as a story not as a fact. Things are
further complicated with the fact that two Earthlings have been attacked by
those damn rodents. Do you see the problem?”
“I
can certainly foresee one, possibly two or three,” responds Blake, who suddenly
feels the need to sit. After a few minutes of silence, he says, “Thank you for
telling me the truth straightforward.” He lets loose with a nervous laugh, “You
people are no different than us, not at all. Twenty thousand years further
along – but you are set up for all too natural human dilemma. How do you bring
the past up to the present so you can better deal with the future?”
Loosely
in contemplation Friendly rolls out, “We can provide facts. At least the facts
we have a present – about you Earthlings, StoneHouse and a young girl who is,
in real life, like Elderfelder was once described more than twenty-five
thousand years ago, but people relate better to stories than to facts.”
“People
will draw connections, they will make their own, even the facts will become
stories on their own,” suggests Blake. “I have no idea what is best.”
Friendly
comments coolly, “I was not asking you what is best for us, Dr. Williams. I am
explaining our situation.” approx. 790 words
***
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