Earlier this month, we got a strange case of science working exactly like it's supposed to. There was some flurry of activity about a bump in the data at Fermilab's CDF apparatus, part of their Tevatron collider. If this data could have been confirmed, it would have potentially signalled a whole new type of particle, which may have required revisions to the Standard Model to get everything to work out consistently.
Instead, what happened is that the Tevatron's other experiment, DZero, found no indication of the bump signalling this new particle. Case closed, it would seem ... no new particle.
While this might seem like a failure for physics, it's exactly the way that things are supposed to go! In fact, it's the whole reason why they have two different experiments set up at the Tevatron - so they can check each others' results. There's a bittersweet element to this, however, because the hope was that the Tevatron might find some major new discovery in its closing months. The Tevatron is set to wind down its activities and go offline in September (September 30 at 2:00 pm, to be exact.)
But fear not, because particle physics is in good hands with the Large Hadron Collider breaking records for the most number of collisions, which is giving a lot of data to physicists all around the world. That pesky Higgs Boson will be discovered in no time (if it's out there, and we don't discover something unexpected and far more interesting).
Related Articles:
- Cosmic Variance blog - Milestones for the Tevatron and LHC, June 18
- Symmetry Breaking blog - LHC experiments reach record data milestone, June 17
- CBS News/Space.com - World's biggest particle collider smashes data record, June 17
- Cosmic Variance blog - Why We Need the Higgs, or Something Like It, June 14
- Symmetry Breaking blog - Fermilab's DZero weighs in on an unexpected CDF result, June 10
- Cosmic Variance blog - D0 Decides to be Debbie Downers, June 10
- Wired Science - New Tevatron Particle May Be a Mirage, June 10
- Discovery News - Fermilab's 'Bump Hunters' See Hints of New Particle, June 5
- Cosmic Variance - Anomaly at the Tevatron Might Be Something Real?, May 30
Comments
I have a different take on it. You see, something must be seriously wrong with the management at FerrmiLab. Instead of waiting for confirmation from the other experimental group, they allowed a single group make a fool of themselves and the National Laboratory. That’s NOT how good science is done – that’s how operators operate hoping to screw their colleagues.
Well, there was a bump in the data and no one said it alone was reason for new physics. They were aware it needed to be confirmed. I fail to see the harm since their comments were guarded. Those techies are bored to death and when something different appears it creates a little of cautious hope. Maybe they will discover something before they shut down in September.
To Ken,
Someone named Deto, once mentioned the verse in the Quraan:
With power did We construct the heaven. Verily, We are Able to extend the vastness of space thereof.
1) In the Arabic language, it is something normal to use the plural to refer to one with a high place and who is well respected, and that is the case of “We” in this verse.
2) As for the explanation of this verse, i advise you to see the home page of Dr. Zaghloul El-Naggar, he is an earth sciences Professor, and the chairman of committee of Scientific Notions in the Quraan.
I think this will make things more clear because it seems that there is a misunderstanding.
I know i’m too late mentioning this now but i didn’t read it until know.
Sarah, I recall Deto’s comment. I gather you also assume the Qur’an predicted universal expansion but the expansion is only observably occurs between galactic superclusters. In the so-called heaven above earth nothing of the sort is observable. Further the expansion as per modern detections is accelerating via dark energy. This something as I recall is not in any way addressed in the scanty verse.
You and others, like your biblical counter parts, read far too much into such scanty references. You simply need your esteemed sources to have predicted what scientists later discovered. However it is all wishful and unclear thinking. It has never be proven.
Okay I don’t mind viewing your source material but I only read English. Please at least provide the URL. I can say I been down these kinds of paths before only to find that moderns are reading far too much into some very scanty verses. In any case believe away if it makes you happy.
Really, Sarah? Mayhaps you visited the wrong page?… news flash: there are no “scientific notions” associated with the Quraan–except in the mind of someone feebly reaching for some. Stick to what you know… silly, outrageous mythology comes to mind–and not even top-of-the-line at that. The first two comments offer good contradictory perspectives on the article… I’m more inclined to go along with Ken’s, but both are obviously valid. They were/are racing the clock at Femilab, and jumped at the possibility of discovering something new; but their comments were very guarded, as I remember them. Too bad… it would have been a nice closing act.
Thanks Darrel & kenkoskien for quashing the Qu’ran alleged “prediction” made in above post. It’s futile using science in a dialog with dogma, although you both handled it at best. In the minds of ‘true believers,’ whatever Mohammad said is irrefutable and intractable: “Insh’allah” (god willing) is the only truth (Shari’ah the only law.)
Zimmerman:
I agree with your coment on the interpretation of Sriptural sources.
About the expansion of the universe, and the concerns of Lee Smolin ( I read an article of his in Sientific American some years ago, about this). I know of a radical new theory developed by Johan Masreliez before the year 2000. Which i find very elegant that just may do get rid of all those problems. Simply put, in the equations of Relativity you allow time to expand too. not only space, as it should be because we only have space-time, make the expansion grainy like the discrete steps of the quantum world, and you get quantum mechanics. the universe expands in this manner, including atoms and particles and ourselves this expansion of coure is not detectable exept in phenomena like the red shif. Light wawes are streched. The oscillations of the expansion are somewhere in the Comptom frequencies and are discrete, not continuos. Well, It will be nice if you check:
estfound.org
Specially if you want the full mathematical explanation.
Cheers
meridalva