this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2024
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[–] [email protected] 105 points 2 months ago (3 children)

new physics dlc about to drop?? poggers

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It ain't cheap but it's worth every penny

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago

I assume the scientists got a sense of pride and accomplishment from this.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

Announcing the Horace-Armour particle!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

Yeah but how much is it? Is it only for premium members?

[–] [email protected] 57 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I haven't even caught up with old physics, slow down, people.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

irately:

physics is physics!!!

[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Science 2: Electroweak Boogaloo

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I REALLY need to finally sit down and watch this damn movie.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Just a warning: the first Breakin' is waaaaaayyy better than Electric Boogaloo

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Huh.

I thought it started with the Pikachu thing. TIL.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 months ago

Science journalism try to be accurate and non-clickbait mission impossible

[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 months ago (4 children)

The number of kaon to pion and neutrino/antineutrino decays the team observed is higher than the 8.4 per 100 billion predicted by the Standard Model, but it's still within the uncertainty parameters.

So then how the fuck does that hint at new physics? Idiots.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Whatever particle physicists are, idiots they’re not

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

I think that was directed at the journalists coming up with clickbait, not the scientists.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

“One could not be a successful scientist without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of scientists, a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid.” ― James D. Watson, The Double Helix

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There’s many things in which we shouldn’t take scientists at their word indeed, but in their own field there’s a good chance they have something useful to say

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (5 children)

They demonstrated the event to five sigma certainty, which is significant, but it's within the uncertainty in the standard model. If they can demonstrate the same or similar things to greater exactness, it could guide research that changes the standard model

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's a HINT, not a certainty 😘

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The basic procedure at CERN is that in order to be certain about something that's super random is to conduct the experiment trillions of times until you get a couple thousand events and you get to beat down your error. If they startseeing something, it'll still take them a couple of years of data to prove it past their uncertainty requirements.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago

So the Sophons have finally arrived.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I tried reading, then simply skimming, but this is over my head and I didn’t think I could get through it comfortably. I was hoping for a paragraph that summed up a simple explanation, but if there was one, it was further in than I got. Can anyone summarize for dummies what this means for our understanding of physics?

[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

There's a particular particle, the kaon, which can be created. This particle is highly unstable, and so, decays rapidly into other particles. Ever so often, it doesn't decay down the normal route but instead decays into a pion. This is extremely rare (6 in a billion).

In physics, we have what's called the "standard model". It's our best guess as to how physics works at the fundamental level. It's incomplete, however, with multiple slight variations. This decay pathway is interesting because it is quite sensitive to differences between these models. By measuring the energy and ratio of the resulting mess, we can disguard some variants of the model (their predicted energy is too high or too low).

By using a large number of little measurements, like this, scientists can home in on the most accurate "standard model" variant. This, in turn, informs work on a deeper understanding of physics.

Basically, a decade's work to put a single new point onto a graph. A point that only theoretical physicists care about, and might, or might not be useful down the line. Welcome to modern physics.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

To be fair those single points are important, they've led to things like nuclear energy and modern computers... come to think of it a lot of our modern technology is rather like the physics equivelent of exploiting an extreme edge case in a game physics engine.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

I fully agree. It's more the frustration that it now takes so much time and resources to make even a tiny bit of headway.

My favourite example of why pure research is useful, however, is the laser. When it was invented, they had no clue what it could be useful for. It was the classic "solution looking for a problem". It was a fun quirk of quantum mechanics that allowed thek to function. Now, they are critical in multiple areas, but for business and research.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Thanks for this detailed explainer!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's just the creation of particles with an ultra-short lifespan, which then decay into other particles. Only there are more of this type than expected, but still within the tolerance of what the theory predicts. Additional tests are needed to say anything conclusive. That's just what they normally like to do at CERN, they're quite good at it. They also started the world wide web, back in the day.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Are we heading toward spicy physics or extra crispy physics?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

D E E P - F R I E D

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago

"Ultra-rare" means

The number of kaon to pion and neutrino/antineutrino decays the team observed is higher than the 8.4 per 100 billion predicted by the Standard Model, but it's still within the uncertainty parameters.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Is this a physics 2.0 kind of thing? Or just a small patch?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's nothing that would upend the Standard Model, but would define some new interactions and processes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Phew, I feared I had to learn new physics. I already struggled with the old one.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

CERN confirms ultra-rare particle transformation.

Three Body Problem:
Scientists commit suicide.

IRL:
Scientists get super stoked about "new physics".

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Wasn't the whole thing about the scientists in the Three Body Problem that they recognised that their work was being sabotaged by something enormously more powerful?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (3 children)

No. The scientists do not figure out that things are being meddled with until much later. The scientist suicides, especially the daughter of the woman who invites the aliens, committed suicide because everything they knew about physics had been "proven incorrect". It was all a lie, but they didn't know that.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

will this discovery make it easier for me to get isekai'd into another world where I'm the hero that's going to save the world with my big d magic skillz?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Do these things actually exist or are they the best matching set of equations

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Well they observed them, so........yeah, they exist.

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