The Top Ten Physics Highlights of 2002 183
Ocelot Wreak writes "Physics Web has a cool summary of The Top Ten Physics Highlights of 2002. These include anti-atoms, neutrino oscillation - a finding that requires new physics beyond the Standard Model, defying the second law of thermodynamics, and using neutrons to measure quantum gravitational effects, amongst others. For some reason, the Slashdot Effect and the latest research on iPod-based Beowulf clusters were not included..."
Re:But the best news... QWZX (Score:1, Interesting)
People always talk about striving to eliminate stereotypes & groupings, but always feel the need to keep reminding everyone about it anyway bringing us back to the same problem.
Re:But the best news... QWZX (Score:1, Interesting)
We need more physicists. This is an important first step.
Re:Core memory is back! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:But the best news... QWZX (Score:3, Interesting)
USA not a player any more? (Score:1, Interesting)
Tetraneutrons may be bogus. (Score:4, Interesting)
One big problem is that a random coincidence between four neutrons from unrelated events could masquerade as a tetraneutron. The paper [arxiv.org] says they have the random-coincidence rate all figured out, but it's the kind of thing that is notoriously hard to be sure about.
With any other exotic nuclear species, you can catch it in a metal foil, and then find out stuff about it, e.g., what particles it emits when it decays. The tetraneutron, if it exists, can only be detected by destroying it, which makes it hard to measure any of its properties. If you can't measure any of its properties, it's pretty hard to be sure it's real.