Galaxy Observations Show No Change In Fundamental Physical Constant

Science Daily ^ | 4/18/05 | University of California - Berkeley

[doc30]

This is very interesting work and it builds on the fact that the fundamental constants in science (e.g. speed of light, electron charge and Plank's Constant) have not changed significantly over the times cale of billions of years. My only issue is that whoever wrote this article didn't proof read it. One Angstrom is equal to 1/10 of a nanometer, not 10 nanometers. The precision and accuracy of these measurements is very, very high. Most lab spectrophotometers do not have 0.001 nm precision. Those measurements are from some seriously high end instruments. I also like the researcher's choice of using emission lines.

[doc30]

Interested in doing a cosmology ping?

[starfish923]

Whew, I feel much better.
I was so worried. :o)

Interesting article.

[Drammach]

Something for your SpacePing list, Kevin..

Thanks, Doc30.. Very Interesting..

[doc30]

Thanks, I like to do some morning digging before getting down to serious work at work :)

[DManA]

Seems so natural to us that physical laws are the same everywhere, but it wasn't so many generations ago that just the opposite seemed natural.

[SlowBoat407]

I'm fascinated by the notion that all of our constants might be shifting over time, and we'd never know it because their determining factors are shifting as well.

'Scuse me while I unbend my mind.

[Red Badger]

I am SOOOO relieved. I was losing sleep............

[PatrickHenry]

Science Ping!

An elite subset of the Evolution list.

See list's description in my freeper homepage. Then FReepmail to be added/dropped.

[Verginius Rufus]

Fine structure constant unchanged for billions of years.

All Bush's fault, for not accepting the Kyoto Protocol.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[PatrickHenry]

Thanks for the ping. We had a recent (and opposite) thread on this topic: Sacred constant might be changing.

[VadeRetro]

This would be a blow to the cDK weenies if they could notice. However, there is no bad news for unscientific theories.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Death, Taxes, the Fine Structure Constant. Some things just don't change.

[PatrickHenry]

"Were you there?"

"Get your own dirt!"

"You'll learn the truth but then it will be too late."

[js1138]

...but another method (looking at absorption lines) that gives more precise results involves systematic errors that cause different people using the method to come up with different results...

Did someone sleep throught the class on significant digits?

[djf]

Interesting. I would suggest the jury is still out on this question.

Alot of people are seeming to jump on the Sakharov bandwagon, myself included. I think the end result will be relegating Einstein to having come up with the geometry but not the causality.

If Newton is the first order, Einstein is the second order, we might not be able to see any variations from Einsteins predictions until we get very, very close to the speed of light, at fantastically large energies.

All we need is one good way to measure or calculate the ZPE.. then all the infinities will be normalized.

Free energy would be a bonus!

[furball4paws]

Never let a fact get in your way :)

[jennyp]

Never let a fact get in your way :)

It's easy if you can assert that all the other confounding facts must be adjusting themselves to compensate.

[RadioAstronomer]

BTTT!