GLOBAL TEAM OF PHYSICISTS UPENDS STANDARD MODEL WITH DISCOVERY OF NEUTRINO OSCILLATION, MASS

Boston University ^ | 08 July 2004 | News release staff

[PatrickHenry]

This is unlikely to be a long thread, but anything that affects the Standard Model is probably important.

[PatrickHenry]

Science list Ping! This is an elite subset of the Evolution list.
See the list's description in my freeper homepage. Then FReepmail me to be added or dropped.

[ken5050]

I skimmed the headline, saw the "Bostob" dateline, and saw the "Super-K" term in the article, and figured it was a "Physicists for Kerry" press release..

[headsonpikes]

Neutrinos have mass?

I'm burning my books.

[talleyman]

“These findings show that the Standard Model needs to be modified

To the Deluxe Model?

[Doctor Stochastic]

If the neutrino has mass, that would explain why 2/3 seem to be missing in some of the experiments. (I'll go give "Herr Auge" a pat on the way out today.)

[mattdono]

I have been telling these people this for years!

Tau-Neutrino BUMP!

[Flightdeck]

Good. I always thought it was bogus. Too complicated; the truth has to be simple. I'm betting within our lifetimes electromagnetism will be shown to be the same thing as gravity.

[brownsfan]

"I've always believed neutrinos and even photons have some level of mass, if planck levels.. Probably means that even they don't truly travel at the speed of 'light', but just under the absolute."

Ok... and if photons have mass and don't travel at the speed of light, and a lightwave is comprised of photons, then light doesn't travel at the speed of light? :)

[razorback-bert]

Version 3.01 coming soon.

[tractorman]

Re: Your tag line.

Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day.
Teach a man to fish and he’ll sit in the boat all day drinking beer.

[Big Giant Head]

Strange things ar afoot at the Super-K.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Faraday]

The findings...give the most precise measurement yet of neutrino mass....In addition, the recent analysis finds that the location of the dip in the oscillatory pattern shows the mass difference between the neutrinos. It is the most precise measurement yet of that difference in mass....

It would be nice if the press release writer could have put some number to these "precise" measurements. It is my understanding that prior work has set a very low value for any possible neutrino mass. Also, IIUC, any mass attributed to neutrinos cannot contribute appreciably to the "dark" matter deficit.

[jennyp]

Um, OK, but, then ... what is the mass of a neutrino?

[Shryke]

. This discovery shows that it is likely that the Standard Model, proposed in the 1970s to describe the fundamental forces and particles that make up all matter, is incomplete.

HAH! Changing the goal posts again, EH evil scientists?!?! Did you ever stop to wonder, that maybe, just MAYBE, if you weren't such heathen sinning swine, that the real souce of all forces and particles would be obvious?!?!

ALL the way down, fools!

[PatrickHenry]

It would be nice if the press release writer could have put some number to these "precise" measurements. It is my understanding that prior work has set a very low value for any possible neutrino mass. Also, IIUC, any mass attributed to neutrinos cannot contribute appreciably to the "dark" matter deficit.

That omission bothers me too. I'd like to know the cosmological implications of neutrion mass.

[PatrickHenry]

neutrion mass.

Fumble. I meant neutrino mass.

[RightWhale]

Big changes are coming. Yesterday it was that the galaxies near the beginning were already too mature for the time they had to evolve. What a great time to be an undergrad studying physics!