Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 08/25/2010 8:59:18 AM PDT by decimon
When researchers found an unusual linkage between solar flares and the inner life of radioactive elements on Earth, it touched off a scientific detective investigation that could end up protecting the lives of space-walking astronauts and maybe rewriting some of the assumptions of physics.
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Checking data collected at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island and the Federal Physical and Technical Institute in Germany, they came across something even more surprising: long-term observation of the decay rate of silicon-32 and radium-226 seemed to show a small seasonal variation. The decay rate was ever so slightly faster in winter than in summer.
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On Dec 13, 2006, the sun itself provided a crucial clue, when a solar flare sent a stream of particles and radiation toward Earth. Purdue nuclear engineer Jere Jenkins, while measuring the decay rate of manganese-54, a short-lived isotope used in medical diagnostics, noticed that the rate dropped slightly during the flare, a decrease that started about a day and a half before the flare.
If this apparent relationship between flares and decay rates proves true, it could lead to a method of predicting solar flares prior to their occurrence, which could help prevent damage to satellites and electric grids, as well as save the lives of astronauts in space.
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(Excerpt) Read more at news.stanford.edu ...
Cut rate ping.
That is interesting. Seems to indicate the possibility of something happening faster than light speed.
It’s cool when science changes. That’s how we know it’s real science.
From the correlation-does-not-prove-causation dept.
Also has ramifications in nuclear bomb and bomb making detection.
Interesting. Did I understand this correctly? Are they saying that solar flare activity can possibly affect the half-life of an isotope?
Huh. That smacks of SOMETHING heretofore unexplored...
The flare matter takes about 48 hours to reach earth. A change in neutrino flux (or whatever the heck is causing this) could be travelling at light or near-light speeds.
Something effecting decay rates - THAT's the story here. It may for all I know be old news to particle physicists, but it's new to me!
True. It might not be solar flares themselves, but if you graph it, and it is constant and repeatable with the decay rate falling and rising as solar flare activity rises and falls, then there is an interesting correlation to be explored.
Since there were changes before the flare, what was happening before?
I’m going to get real technical here-is a flare like a sneeze as opposed to a fart?
I love science. :)
I have a degree in Nuclear Medicine, so I am more familiar with decay concepts than many people, and this is news to me too.
I find this utterly fascinating. (Where’s that picture of Spock, now?)
Well said. The article focuses on flare-detection, while one of the unwritten laws of physics is stood on its head.
How do you figure that?
Good point. The neutrinos may be reaching the surface of the sun well before the actual flare. More than anything it could be a great means of predicting flares and protecting astronauts.
Physics gets weird below the surface of the sun.
Would this raise questions on the use of carbon dating?
“...in classrooms around the world, where students are taught that the rate of decay of a specific radioactive material is a constant. This concept is relied upon, for example, when anthropologists use carbon-14 to date ancient artifacts....”
If it’s not a constant than maybe they will consider that carbon dating can be unreliable.
Upon further thought, I don’t.
The decay rate prior to the flare would be due to neutrinos leaving the sun before the flare.
And exactly what’s dhat doing to the accuracy of the atomic clock?
as i was saying in another thread, trying to comprehend and master deep time (or even real time) is a useless pursuit.
we did not know this yesterday, what may we know tomorrow.
what does it matter anyhow?
intellect is better spent on useful pursuits. anyone who pays a person to mess with a decaying proton should go to africa and watch the children of savages die from diarrhea or malaria. they dont expire faster than those particles, and it is in no way more elegant.
at least studying atomic decay rates keeps your suit clean and allows the arrogance of pretend intellect.
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