ICEINSPACE
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Moon Phase
CURRENT MOON
Waxing Crescent 6.3%
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21-11-2009, 10:07 PM
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Fast Scope & Fast Engine
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Broken Hill N.S.W
Posts: 3,305
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Kick start the thing and lets see what happens.
Cheers Kev.
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22-11-2009, 12:03 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Blue Mountains, Australia
Posts: 1,338
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The Sun-Herald had a few articles about the "atom smasher" today. Wrote about its cost (over 6 billion dollars Australian), the problems getting it up and running, "the God particle" (Higgs boson) and, of course, the conjecture the project is being sabotaged from the future. The potential for disaster (e.g. the Earth being sucked into a man-made black hole) makes it popular reading. Apparently, some of the project scientists have received threatening emails demanding they stop the "doomsday machine" experiments. All rather intriguing and an interesting commentary on human psychology (rational or irrational).
Rob.
Last edited by Robh; 22-11-2009 at 01:28 PM.
Reason: Spelling
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22-11-2009, 01:17 PM
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Waiting for next electron
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 2,427
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Crikey, all this crud over a particle accellerator  .
Mark
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22-11-2009, 01:26 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Monto
Posts: 16,741
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Some people forget that this is Science Fact, not Science Fiction.
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23-11-2009, 04:30 PM
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Support your local RFS
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Join Date: May 2006
Location: Wamboin NSW
Posts: 12,405
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 I like the idea of being sabotaged from the future.
Quick have security check the car park for De Lorean's. 
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23-11-2009, 04:40 PM
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No More Infinities
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Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Townsville
Posts: 9,698
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23-11-2009, 04:44 PM
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Support your local RFS
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Join Date: May 2006
Location: Wamboin NSW
Posts: 12,405
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Carl, you've probably just described most of the scientist's working there.
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23-11-2009, 04:48 PM
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ze frogginator
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Sydney
Posts: 22,080
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Quote:
Originally Posted by renormalised
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Yeah we saw all those dudes dancing on that video...  ... insanity?... from their old days... from the future?  
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23-11-2009, 06:04 PM
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No More Infinities
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Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Townsville
Posts: 9,698
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23-11-2009, 06:15 PM
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Like to learn
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: melbourne
Posts: 4,835
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When I drive my 280zx (looks a little like a De lorian ) and my longish white hair a lot of people asked where my flux capacitor was and all other jokes
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23-11-2009, 10:04 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Wollongong
Posts: 3,820
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[QUOTE=renormalised;526003
And young sidekicks looking bewildered   [/QUOTE]
First year postgrads!!
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25-11-2009, 07:48 AM
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Spam Hunter
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Oberon NSW
Posts: 14,438
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25-11-2009, 09:03 AM
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Space Cadet
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Sydney
Posts: 1,411
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Can you imagine if they find the Higgs the first time the fire her up at full capacity. Were going to have a lot of bored people standing around doing nothing for a long time. lol.
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25-11-2009, 09:31 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Wollongong
Posts: 3,820
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Quote:
Originally Posted by White Rabbit
Can you imagine if they find the Higgs the first time the fire her up at full capacity. Were going to have a lot of bored people standing around doing nothing for a long time. lol.
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Bored?? Not for quite a while. After the discovery of the Hobbit was announced we had more film crews around here than Fox studios. Bert was doing several interviews a day and Mike (who was still at UNE at that time) must have been similarly busy. Then they had to do (or arrange for others to do) more research to silence the detractors. Can you imagine the scene at CERN if they announce that they have found the Higgs??
That raises an interesting problem. I knew about the Hobbit 12 months before the public announcement but we were sworn to secrecy because Nature would not publish the paper if there was any advance publicity. So if they find the Higgs and announce it they may have trouble publishing but if they stay mum there will be claims that the LHC is a dud. (They might go to PNAS or Science but I expect they would have similar rules.)
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25-11-2009, 10:31 AM
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No More Infinities
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Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Townsville
Posts: 9,698
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Quote:
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we were sworn to secrecy because Nature would not publish the paper if there was any advance publicity.
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This is precisely what's wrong with a lot of journals these days. They should stop acting like newspapers and start acting like what they're supposed to be, scientific journals. Once the information is ready to be disseminated, then it should be. Not withheld until some editor decides to "scoop" the "news". The only people who should have the sole rights to withhold anything to be published are the ones doing the research themselves.
In any case, even if they do find the Higgs early on, they won't publish until they're dead certain it's the Higgs they've found. They may find something else completely unexpected that may point them in all sorts of new directions. Or they may find nothing at all.
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25-11-2009, 10:39 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Monto
Posts: 16,741
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Even if they do find it early on, to be a valid, as you know, it has to be repeatable. So they'll be spending a fair amount of time going over it again and again.
During that time there's sure to be other discoveries made that will instigate even more research.
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25-11-2009, 10:08 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: Para Hills, South Australia
Posts: 3,622
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Quote:
Originally Posted by renormalised
This is precisely what's wrong with a lot of journals these days. They should stop acting like newspapers and start acting like what they're supposed to be, scientific journals. Once the information is ready to be disseminated, then it should be. Not withheld until some editor decides to "scoop" the "news". The only people who should have the sole rights to withhold anything to be published are the ones doing the research themselves.
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I think you made an error, newspapers get the infomration and run on the same day, newspaper never hold back and the consequence is they make error and usually cause more problems than to begin with and upset as many people as possible.
They do need to hold back to make sure the evdence is verified.
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26-11-2009, 12:02 AM
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No More Infinities
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Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Townsville
Posts: 9,698
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mswhin63
I think you made an error, newspapers get the infomration and run on the same day, newspaper never hold back and the consequence is they make error and usually cause more problems than to begin with and upset as many people as possible.
They do need to hold back to make sure the evdence is verified.
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No I didn't...paper (and TV) proprietors will put a clamp on people going to other organisations/papers, just in order to "scoop" a story. Nature is doing the same, for the same reason...to grab the monopoly on the story. That's not what a journal is supposed to do. A journal is supposed to disseminate information without prejudice or favour. Not fight for the right to publish information which should be public domain (or at least academic domain) anyway. Or restrict the publishing of that information in order to gain some perceived advantage.
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