Dark Matter Particles May Have Been Detected 156
During two seminars at Stanford and Fermilab on Thursday, researchers described signals for two events detected deep in an old iron mine in Minnesota that might mark the first detection of dark matter — or not. The presenters said the chances that the signals they detected were caused by something other than "neutralino" dark matter particles was 23 percent. "One source indicates that we'd need less than 10 total detections within the CDMS' range in order to have a high degree of confidence in the results." The NY Times describes the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search methodology: "The cryogenic experiment is nearly half a mile underground in an old iron mine in Soudan, Minn., to shield it from cosmic rays. It consists of a stack of germanium and silicon detectors, cooled to one-hundredth of a degree Kelvin. When a particle hits one of the detectors, it produces an electrical charge and deposits a small bit of energy in the form of heat, each of which are independently measured. By comparing the amounts of charge and heat left behind, the collaboration’s physicists can tell so-called wimps from more mundane particles like neutrons, which are expected to flood the underground chamber from radioactivity in the rocks around it." Here are the research team's summary notes of the latest results (PDF).
White male science (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's the lack of energy, stupid! (Score:5, Funny)
Something with no energy means it has no movement. No movement means it must radiate all of its energy as gravitation.
So, what you're saying is that something with no energy must lose all of its energy as gravitation. Anybody else see a problem with this explanation?
Re:1:4? (Score:3, Funny)
Solar activity (Score:4, Funny)
All detected particles are due to abnormal solar activity.
The detected particles will melt the crust within the next three years. Buy tickets for the arch from me now! Just 1.000.000 Euro each... No checks
CU, Martin
P.S. Guess which movie i watched yesterday :-)
Re:White male science (Score:3, Funny)
Marie Jo, I told you to dust of my PC, not to surf the web.
Re:Solar activity (Score:5, Funny)
Re:White male science (Score:5, Funny)
White male science has been looking in the wrong place for dark matter. They should try looking between the ears of politicians. Mod away... :p
How to tell? (Score:3, Funny)
I watched maybe too many star trek episodes, but I thought this dark matter stuff was in outer space and that any item touching it would implode (sort of). I am not a science expert, but would not finding dark matter inside earth's core insinuate that it was partially made of the stuff and that what we know about dark matter makes no sense??? I am sure there are no real dark matter exerts per se, as it is something we never really had contact with, however, what science knows about it to me seems very limited, and for what I do know ....dark matter should not be something we can just mine and tap into, it should be something that has a lot more involvement environmentally then I see here.
Re:How to tell? (Score:5, Funny)
> I watched maybe too many star trek episodes...
You did.
One in two (Score:3, Funny)
I don't understand where they got 23% from. There are two possibilities: either it is dark matter or it isn't. Therefore the probability is 50%.
1 Hundredth of a Degree Kevin (Score:3, Funny)
That's dangerously low!
My home town nearly went to zero Kevins back in 1978.
It was a particularly cold winter, and we were already down to 3 Kevins (due to their low popularity at the time).
Kevin Thomas had flown out to be with his son's family for a wedding and got stuck in Boston for a whole week due to the weather. 2 Kevins left.
Kevin Lemmer was rushed to the hospital during my shift. I still remember the call from the EMTs as the ambulance was rushing toward us. "It's Lemmer. He's in bad shape. Drove right into the fucking ditch." We called the time of death at 6:15 PM.
At 6:16, all eyes turned to room 2217. Kevin Spencer was 82 and on his death bed with leukemia. His family being Catholic, he had already been given his last rights. If he couldn't hold out until Kevin Thomas returned, we would be at zero Kevins. Sure, we had 4 perfectly healthy Calvins, but they're just not the same.
It was 7:15 when Carla Brooks and her husband James burst through the main entrance. "She's not due for 2 weeks!", James exclaimed. As the staff bustled around getting the Brookses settled, they exchanged darting glances with each other. This was their first child, and they wanted to keep the baby's sex a secret. Of course, in a small town, secrets don't get kept. Nearly all of the hospital staff new that the child about to rip open Mrs. Brooks was indeed a boy.
The delivery was routine, and Kevin Brooks was born healthy, if a tad underweight, at 10:52 PM. Kevin Spencer was pronounced dead at 10:54.
It was, as they say, a close one. Kevin Thomas arrived two days later, the weather having finally cleared up. To this day, we still rib him about it.
Cedar Falls is currently at 5 Kevins.
Re:It must be true! (Score:1, Funny)
This is slashdot. Everyone else is stupid.
Re:It must be true! (Score:5, Funny)
Exactly! I keep telling people; Einstein was wrong! An absolute speed limit makes no sense because there's no way I can understand how that would work!
Do you have the email of the president of physics?
Re:It must be true! (Score:5, Funny)
That's because your logic is fundamentally flawed. If you were really questioning, and not just accepting everything at face value, you would say this:
Characterization: Isn't that where we are finding that galaxies aren't behaving as we expect them to, and that behavior is in the form of gravitational interactions which shouldn't happen given the amount of mass which we can see.
Hypothe- err, fuck that, I mean PROOF:
It's God. Literally God!! He's got his hand in that galaxy like it was a Jeff Dunham puppet.
Deduction: If God is weakly interacting with the galaxies, all you heathen sciency evolution types are fucked! Richard Dawkins won't be able to save you from getting cornholed by fire demons for the rest of eternity.
Experimentation:
Invoke the spirit of Charles Darwin. Ask him how hot Hell is. Fall on your knees, and hear the Angels sing. Never question God or me again. Now I will call you saved, please deposit $200 into the jar.
That's how you really fight the dogma of science.
Re:It must be true! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:It must be true! (Score:3, Funny)
Science only feels like a religion because in both people with full knowledge of the arcana speak to the rest of us as though we are children.
The difference is in the veracity of the arcana.
So Science sometimes feels like a religion, while religion proves to be religion.
Re:How to tell? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:One in two (Score:3, Funny)
And what about the events that they DIDN'T detect ? Just because they weren't detected doesn't mean they didn't happen, the scientists might have had their backs turned, or were looking the other way, or trying to find the spare detector batteries etc.
Perhaps dark matter deliberately avoids being detected, and the 23% that were could have been the one who didn't get the memo about "being dark", and were wearing spotted ties and green dinner jackets. Oh, and riding Segways.
In a universe of infinite possibilities, only one thing is certain. You need to get your anger issues sorted out, and drink less coffee. No, make that two things. I need to learn to stop posting at 3.22am when I should be asleep.
Mod up (Score:2, Funny)
It's MY copypasta.
I wrote it.
I'll copypasta it whenever I see "sexconker" used.
Although I generally believe that the less said about sexconker, the better, I do feel obligated to say a few things about sexconker's scabrous maneuvers. First off, sexconker is the embodiment of everything petty in our lives. Every grievance, every envy, every tasteless ideology finds expression in sexconker. While you or I might find it natural to want to deliver him from his appalling ignorance, we must fight for what is right. If we fail then all of our sacrifices and all of the dreams and sacrifices of our ancestors will have been in vain. The key is to realize that even if one isn't completely conversant with current events, the evidence overwhelmingly indicates that sexconker's prognoses are silly to the core. If you don't believe me, see for yourself.
It is as if we were safely on the bank of a raging river, enjoying a picnic with our friends and family, when a bunch of lewd vulgarians came along and threw us into the river. Not only must we struggle to avoid drowning in the raging torrent of sexconker-sponsored mysticism, but we must crawl out of the river before we can call your attention to the problem of bumptious thieves. He is completely mistaken if he believes that all it takes to start a rabbit farm is a magician's magic hat. I would undoubtedly not have thought it possible that we must act against injustice, whether it concerns drunk driving, domestic violence, or even cannibalism, in such a way that there is nothing he can do about it except learn to live with the fait accompli, but it's true. Right is right and wrong is wrong. However true that is, people used to think I was exaggerating whenever I said that sexconker's love of demagogism and irrationalism gives a new, perverse dimension to the old adage, De gustibus non est disputandum. After seeing sexconker toss sops to the egos of the aberrant these same people now realize that I wasn't exaggerating at all. In fact, they even realize that if we set the record straight then the sea of sadism, on which sexconker so heavily relies, will begin to dry up.
Okay, I admit that sexconker's equivocations are made of the same spirit that accounts for the majority of the problems we face in this world. But sexconker says that all any child needs is a big dose of television every day. Yet he also wants to condone universal oppression. Am I the only one who sees the irony there? I ask because he is known for walking into crowded rooms and telling everyone there that superstition is no less credible than proven scientific principles. Try, if you can, to concoct a statement better calculated to show how lawless sexconker is. You can't do it. Not only that, but I am tired of hearing or reading that everything is happy and fine and good. You know that that is simply not true.
Who is sexconker to say that censorship could benefit us? Imagine people everywhere embracing his claim that he values our perspectives. The idea defies the imagination. In order to look at our situation realistically and from a viewpoint that takes in the whole picture we must put to rest the animosities that have kept various groups of people from enjoying anything other than superficial unity. And that's just the first step. Remember, if sexconker would abandon his name-calling and false dichotomies it would be much easier for me to force sexconker into early retirement.
This is not wild speculation. This is not a conspiracy theory. This is documented fact. The tone of sexconker's statements is so far removed from reality I find myself questioning what color the sky must be in sexconker's world. sexconker's irresponsible bons mots oppose the visceral views of 98 percent of the nation's citizens. News of this deviousness must spread like wildfire if we are ever to rally good-hearted people to the side of our cause. Does anybody else feel the way I do, or am I alone in my disgust with sexconker?
Re:It must be true! (Score:3, Funny)
<aha>So, you really can prove things with religion! I've been wrong all these years.</aha>