Universe 'Could Condense Into Jelly'

BBC ^ | 9-6-2001 | Helen Briggs

[blam]

Thursday, 6 September, 2001, 10:39 GMT 11:39 UK

Universe 'could condense into jelly'

By BBC News Online's Helen Briggs
The Universe may be in a state where matter could disintegrate at any moment, a scientist has warned.

But the probability is less than that of buying two lottery tickets in the same week that both win the lottery, said Dr Benjamin Allanach of the European laboratory for particle physics, CERN, in Geneva.

"The fact that the Universe has existed for 15 billion years should tell you it's not likely to happen tomorrow," he told the British Association Festival of Science in Glasgow. "The probability of it happening is tiny."

The idea behind such a catastrophic possibility is supersymmetry. This theory of the Universe states that every particle that makes up matter has a heavier ghostly partner that has similar but not identical properties.

If true, current data implies that the Universe must be perched on an unstable vacuum and "could suddenly condense into jelly and cause this catastrophe", said Dr Allanach.

Ghostly particle

The danger is that a jelly of the ghostly partner of the quark could form spontaneously at any moment, changing the laws of physics of the whole Universe.

Light would stop shining, electricity would no longer work and the matter that makes up us, the Earth and the stars would disintegrate to form a different kind of matter, said Dr Allanach.

This disaster scenario caused some initial nightmares, he said. But further calculations showed that the probability of it actually happening was miniscule, even in a time as long as the age of our Universe.

The actual probability is one in 13 million squared, he said.

[headsonpikes]

Nope.

The cat came back, the very next day...

[Dr. Frank fan]

"The fact that the Universe has existed for 15 billion years should tell you it's not likely to happen tomorrow,"

No!!!11 It just tells me that we're about due to get crunched into a bunch of jelly, any day now!111 Now I'm really scared. ;)

[Benrand]

Have I got a jam for you!

Mangled Baby Ducks...yes, Mangled Baby Ducks!!!

[headsonpikes]

"How many grains of sand...?

It depends what beach you're on.;^)

[KillerWabbit]

Where will we find an english muffin that's 20 trillion light years in diameter?

That's a big Twinkie. Er.. english muffin.

[headsonpikes]

Nope! That's the 'Gambler's Fallacy'.

[LoneGreenEyeshade]

Brings to mind a conversation I had in the far distant past while very stoned, before I gained some meager semblance of today's sanity, regarding the possibility that the theory of evolution was backward. Are we, in fact, evolving into rocks?

[Dr. Frank fan]

;)

[gcruse]

Fruit flavored, or K-Y?

Uhm, I uh.....I yum.....uhm......
(is Baby watching?)

[gcruse]

You know, I thought 'e was a goner.

[Tuor]

I've heard similar analogies before. They strike me as unimaginative.

It may be unimaginative, but it is also true.

The nice things about math and physics is that constant and we can use them to learn about things we cannot perceive directly (like the whole of the Universe).

The odds I gave were calculated based on the likelihood of all the various requirements needed to form the Universe we observe. The odds of intelligent life forming were based on the likelihood of 1) the proper building blocks for life being present, and 2) the likelihood that these building blocks would evolve into something intelligent.

If you don't like the odds, then attack their basis.

There are a lot of things I don't like, but unfortunately my not liking them doesn't make them any less true.

Tuor

[blam]

"There are a lot of things I don't like, but unfortunately my not liking them doesn't make them any less true." So, what you're saying is, We're all gonna die?

[onedoug]

If I recall, supersymmetry also posits the decay of the photon...is it 10³² years? There's been some study of this in neutrino detection tanks of pure water at deep mines both here and in Japan, the idea being that with ~10³² protons about, by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, one might expect to see perhaps one decay/year. Negative results, so far, it seems. But if and once the proton goes, boys and girls, we're all done.

[Constantine XIII]

Awww, foot. I'm not going to hold my breath over supersymmetry predictions. Not a very testable theory--it looks nice, sure, but I want more than that to keep me up at night.

[djf]

One in 13 million squared? Probably happen tomorrow. Lets start talking some really big numbers, say Avogadro's constant (10 to the 23rd, some hundred thousand billion billion) or, if you like, some small ones, like the Planck time length (10 to the minus 46th) of a second. Guess I'll go back and meditate on the fine-structure constant.

;)

[Cleburne]

And it's all because of evil white Republicans burning something. Crusade against "jellification"! Forget global warming, this is universal!

[Tuor]

So, what you're saying is, We're all gonna die?

Yep. I guarantee that everyone reading this post will be dead within a hundred years. For most of us, it will be sooner than that.

Yes, we're all going to die -- it's just a matter of time.

Tuor

[zeugma]

The cat came back, the very next day...

Thought it was a goner but....

That's one of my favorite shorts. I managed to get it on tape the 2nd time I saw it. It currently resides at the end of my Pink Floyd "Pompii" tape.

[ALASKA]

The only kind of jelly I like is grape, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[Zon]

It may be unimaginative, but it is also true.

What happens to your odds if when we find an abundance of life throughout the Universe? Say, millions of planets with intelligent life -- conscious beings. Sort of changes "everything" from an Earthling perspective.