Well, as far as I can tell from what I have seen of the Belfast long Chronology, there is no immediatly obvious environmental effect in growth indices of the trees in the 770's, though looking at the BLC data there, there is a small reduction in growth index lasting about 2 years from 774, but it is small and could just be coincidental noise, and is no where near as strong as the signal at 5
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
This is replicated in the Irish Oak chronology in Belfast. If I remember correctly a Masters student had been working on it, but the data has not been published. I seen a graph of the data in February showing a 14C enrichment.
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
Yep, that's the one as I had a little noesy at it earlier. It was really bugging me that I could not find the source of it. I would still like to know what the two cuneiform inscriptions are though, but as it states here
QuoteThe meaning of the symbols on either side is not clear but that on the right (the star-spade) is closely associated with the Sun-god.
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Ancient History
Hi Hermione,
Thanks for the links, i shall have a proper browse through them later. From posting on GHMB it appears to be in the British mueseum with the number No. 89,110.
The E in DINGER was a bit of a typo, and you are correct it is DINGIR and means god (at least thats what I have been lead to believe).
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Ancient History
Hi Guys,
I have been looking for background information on the image below, but cannot find much about it.
I know it depicts the sumerian sun god UTU rising from mount mashu, but can anyone tell me more information about where this image is located (in situ, or a museum) or what it is known by, or when it was approximately created. In particular is there a translation of the cuneiform
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JonnyMcA
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Ancient History
Hi Rick
You can read the PNAS article here
Its a safe bet that if you cant read an article concerned with the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis, you will find a copy of it at cosmictusk.com. Also, If i remember correctly PNAS papers become free to read about 6 months after they have been published.
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
From a Physicsworld article Exotic explanation for Pioneer anomaly ruled out
QuoteThe unusual trajectories of the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft as they leave the solar system are not caused by any exotic new physics but by mundane thermal emissions powered by radioactive decay. That is the verdict of researchers in the US and Canada, who have compared the results of an extremely detailed comput
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
Yes, the time of year must be considered in this
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
Its just another form of fruit loopery. It will never work, as the physicists have not factored in the reduced cross section of the poloMINT detector
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
Unfortunately real science is not a clean cut affair. It is a messy business, particularly when under the scrutinaly of the popular science media. This is most likely why some of the OPERA group did not want to publish their results. With teh internet and the modern day phenomena of instant information, these affairs will seem even more messy.
While this may all make scientists look incom
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
I love the guys name; Dr Centro! Sounds like some mad scientist supervillan.
Though I dont like his statement
Quote"Now we are 100% sure that the speed of light is the speed of neutrinos."
There are no certainties in science, and the results of the paper indicate an uncertainty that and having any uncertainty is NOT the same as saying it is 100% certain.
The CERN press rele
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
There was no hurry to publish the original OPERA results. When the OPERA group first got their results of faster than light neutrinos, they didnt believe it and tried to find the error. After wuite an extended period of time (if i recall correctly it was a couple of years) and further testing, they could find no fault with their methodology or equipment. The decision was then made to publish t
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
A free "webinar" of the Life of Ricard Feynman can be viewed on the 6th March 4pm GMT/11am EST by regisering for the event here (details in link).
The lecture is given by Lawrence M Krauss and lasts approximately 45 minutes.
Abstract
QuoteIt took a man who was willing to break all the rules to tame a theory that breaks all the rules. This lecture will be based on Lawrence M K
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
And the one I have been waiting for, from PhysicsWorld
QuoteThe problem relates to the way that data are transmitted within the experiment. Neutrino speeds are estimated by dividing the baseline distance travelled (as calculated using GPS measurements) by the time-of-flight (as calculated using an atomic clock). The researchers have now realized that an optical fibre connecting the GPS signal
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
In more detail
Looks like there are two issues, which can potentially compete with each other in the measurements.
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
I know what you mean, we worked with vacuum in our deposition, an dthe sound of it collapsing was rather loud, though if I remember correctly we had an emergency gate valve that helped prevent anything rather bad happening. At least this is to my understanding as I didnt build the thing and just did "monkey see, monkey do" when using it.
On the subject of vacuums, you have probably
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
If in doubt, check it is plugged in......
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
Similar thing happened to me a few times when changing gas bottles for the KrF laser. Its terrifying when you accidentally vent Flourine gas into the room. Even though the bottl is in a gas cabinate, the swimming pool smell is really unsettling. Still, as the lab saying went, if you cant smell it, then your worries are over.
To explain this, Flourine is a really nasty gas. When it combin
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
This is indeed the case. The approximate concentration of C14 in the atmosphere is about 1 part per trillion of all carbon. This means that for every trillion (or 1,000,000,000,000) carbon 12 atom, there will be 1 C14 atom. After 10 half-lives the concentration will have reduced by a factor of 1024, meaning it becomes approximately 1 part in 1,000,000,000,000,000.
In principle, with a large
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
Also see article here for a discussion about the "Search for SUSY (pdf format). All copyrights belong to IOP publishing.
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
The information in the article you link to is a bit strange. What it appears to be saying is that if you raise the value for the speed of light in vacuum to a certain power you get the Planck mass. this is not true, the planck mass is 2.17651 x10^-8 kg, whereas the speed of light raised to the 7th power is 2.1764 x10^67 m^7/s^7. Ignoring the minor deviation in the4th decimal place, there is a
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
The hundred or so people on the paper is nothing more than the result of "big Science". A vast majority of them probably have nothing to do with the the analysis of the final result, but rather are included because they were the ones who may have gathered some of the data, or who built a detector, or maintained a particular source, or were the ones who coded the software that analysed
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
You can watch live streaming of the Ig-Nobel prize ceremony tonight at 7.30 EDT (which I guess is 12.30 BST for the UK). Link can be found here
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
The result may or may not be real, but first the experiment must be scrutinised for problems. As Tommi notes above, the biggest issue comes down to the timing of the production of the source neutrinos. While the detector has a resolution of +/- 2 nanoseconds (or something like that), the resolution on the emitted neutrinos is much more uncertain, as is exactly where along the source they are pr
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
QuoteThat's why I'm not getting the least bit excited about it. As everybody knows systematic errors can be the most subtle kind to detect
And you can get a statistically significant result but it can be systematically wrong. If I randomly measure the length of fly wings, but the scale of my ruler is off, then I can find a statistically significant result (with enough measurements),
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
This is an interesting result, especially given its 6 sigma signal. Like many I am skeptical about the result, given the amount of experimental verification of relativity in the past, based upon the absolute speed limit of light. But a 6 sigma result cannot be easily ignored, though one can still get a 6-sigma result with a systematic error in it.
I think some things need to remembered befor
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
Many are jumping upon this news as a sign that the idea that dark matter is dead as a hypothesis. However, this news article appears only on the BBC, since this is a statement given by a scientist during a science festival aimed at kids. There has not (to my knowledge) been a press release by the research group, nor a pre-print of a paper presenting their data, least of all a peer reviewed pape
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
Its not likely to be now at all since it disintegrated last month before reaching perihelion
jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
How do you know that the researchers did not say something similar to your expression? Remember that this link, and hence expression, is a news article, written by reporters who may or may not have scientific backgrounds. One cannot criticise the scientists because of the wording used (or indeed edited) by a journalist or third party.
When reading these articles you should always put in the
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
It does seem like it is a viable method of nuclear power. Im not an expert in this field though, and only going by other things I have read. I have no idea why it is not implemented more though. I also wonder whether or not it would be useful to the medical physics business, as many of the diagnostic isotopes are obtained from nuclear reactors. For example technetium –99 is sourced from its paren
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory