O/t e=mc?

[AZ BU Fan]

Ba da boom!

The bartender says "we don't serve neutrinos in here, cause your kind is faster than light"!

A neutrino walks into a bar.




I know this has been around a while on the Internet, but I still think its hilarious!

[Future Walk-On]

I agree that some of these headlines are worded sketchy

and the "bad wiring" excuse for the neutrinos was ridiculous (like as in how they actually thought they may have overturned Albert's theory and told everyone)

and the one about the "organism that is not carbon based" or whatever when it would really only survive somewhat with Arsenic rather than phosphorus

[tornado]

..
..those who claimed they found the new arsenic-bacteria..

Remember - those 2010 claims of new forms of LIVING CELLS that used molecules of arsenic in their protein structure - were made by researchers who work for NASA and who receive PUBLIC funds and taxpayer money...
...with the researchers even hiring publicity teams and makeup artists to pose for pictures that they knew the gullible press was going to eat up!!
-- LINK

So what has happened to those claims - have they been upheld, confirmed???
Have those "scientists" who did the research and made the claims been honored as doing groundbreaking and innovative work?

Have those TAXPAYER paid scientists even stepped forward to enter into discussions and debate the valildity of their wildly publicized claims - LINK

Well, NO -- they have gone into hiding and...
"Dr. Wolfe-Simon and her colleagues had adamantly refused to respond to
any of their critics' questions or comments."

They have gotten the podium, put on their show, gotten the accompanying tons of publicity and fame (as well as $$), claimed they are right, and then turned off the microphone - not letting anyone debate their findings or refute a single thing that have said - and they know the media will play along because the DEBUNKING just isn't as sensational and won't get any coverage!

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/story/2011-12-04/arseniclife-bacteria-dna/51593468/1

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110809/full/news.2011.469.html

Http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/grrlscientist/2012/feb/23/1

BUT -- I WILL GIVE THE DEBUNKING COVERAGE -- THERE'S PLENTY OF IT
and this whole idea of arsenic containing bacteria is totally false science and is totally wrong and now even the NASA people know it but won't speak on the issue hoping the whole embarrassing thing will just go away and thet people will forget and NOT HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE!!!

Other decent scientists are now proving the folly of
"...scientists announc(ing) preliminary results not by publishing a paper but by holding a press conference.
The two examples they presented were the recent OPERA “faster than light” neutrinos and the NASA “arsenic-based” bacteria.
In both cases, someone shot their mouths off before the experiments could be replicated or sources of error could be determined....and be proven fiction."

http://www.themadskeptic.com/2012/03/attention-scientists-of-world.html

[tornado]

and one last gasp for the faster-then-light neutrino argument that the CERN guys wen't viral on...

The fact is - they were wrong, too......but they sure enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame...

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401728,00.asp

[SFP]

There are theories in which sub-atomic particles could appear to be moving quicker then the speed of light without dismissing Einstein's theory of relativity. The relative word is appear and could happen within a tear in the time fabric, which can be explained with Quantum physics.

[tornado]

"can be contemplated" or "can be theorized" but certainly cannot be or will never be demonstrated...

[ChewaBrave]

yeah it is very neat stuff. Einstein's models were never really designed for extremely small matter - there are a handful of pretty interesting people/groups working right this minute to try and re-write (or redefine/re-work) Einstein's theory of relativity to be used at the quantum level.

Seems like daily, I'm stunned at how smart some people are.

[tornado]

CERN is about to pull it again -- talking up and hyping something they have really NOT done yet...

but then a little publicity won't hurt, even if they don't have the evidence they're claiming they have...

http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/06/not-even-cerns-chief-knows-if-god-particle-was-found-or-not-yet.php

[AZ BU Fan]

I think I'm going to have to go on a low Higgs boson particle diet....

I really need to drop a few kgs!

I knew it wasn't all the Dorito Taco's I have been eating...

[ChewaBrave]

Looks like a new particle.

[tornado]

Recall that NASA promoted the discovery of a bacterial organism that used arsenic in its own makeup...
In other words - it was a monumental discovery of a new type of organism - that it was suggested might be "alien" in nature!
They even played the whole thing up in trailer-like news leaks, then a big news conference worthy of when we landed men on the moon!

Well....several recent studies have now completely debunked the entire premise by the NASA scientist, Felisa Wolfe-Simon - who in the meantime has made a killing out of her notariety

"DEBUNKED"

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/startling-discovery-debunked-bacteria-survive-arsenic/story?id=17407576#.UIKV28XLQ20

http://www.evolutionnews.org/2012/10/latest_non-news065081.html

Now Felisa Wolfe-Simon's legacy will be a bit besmirched....she no longer works at or for the NASA research lab, and has kinda gone into hiding - giving no interviews..
Her research is now being ridiculed & hailed as "The Bigfoot of Microbiology"!!!

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/evolution/Bad-Science-Aggressive-Marketing---the-Arsenic-Bacteria-Fiasco-.html

...except she did give one interview - exclusively on her opinion about life on Mars....yeah, right...

http://radio.seti.org/blog/2012/08/big-picture-science-a-martian-curiosty-felisa-wolfe-simon/

One of the reader comments in that article is quite insightful and something I might have asked myself...
"Why conduct an interview with an individual whose work has been so completely discredited?"

[SFP]

T - Scientific fraud has been going on for a very long time and I expect it to keep happening. I just hope we do not give in to those that want to stop funding science for a few *****s. If we had stopped funding scientist around 500 years ago, the world would still be flat and the heavenly bodies would be rotating around the earth. Every industry has their flakes and scams. Enron, Madoff and the 1919 White Sox team to name a few and I see those industries are still moving forward.

[tornado]

SFP - I fully disagree - largely the world has advanced via discoveries and ideas of people (Edison, Einstein, etc..) who did it on their own and not via government funding...

the difference in this story is that this is fraud, lust for fame & publicity, and stupid error at the highest level, promoted and endorsed by none other than NASA!!!

Wouldn't you think if you were endorsing or validating some huge, breaking scientific news - that you'd have done it the way everyone else does it...
to freely discuss and show your results to your peers and the scientific community via publication or open presentation at meetings...
BUT - instead these guys went for the glory of a highly promoted and hyped NEWS CONFERENCE with the phrase "alien bacteria" as a teaser to get people actually thinking we have discovered life from another planet!
Then it all turns out to be bogus...gimme a break....this was done about as reputably and properly as the ads for the Ronco Slicer & Dicer..

[SFP]

Without the government we would not have ht e internet and a few other services we all so depend on. Its not all bad.

[Da Coach]

Without the government we would not have ht e internet and a few other services we all so depend on. Its not all bad.

SFP, I wish you would elaborate on why you say this. Despite the bragging by people like Al Gore and Barack Obama, from what I have read and understand, the government played only a small part with the invention of the current internet that we use today (TCP/IP based- the way all computers connect and communicate), or its development. Some earlier computer networks can be traced to government defense applications and universities needing a way to share information, but the internet as we know it today, and especially the WWW (which the government had even less to do with), would have surely occurred even without those much different earlier versions.

Private individuals and companies were mostly responsible for the internet-

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444464304577539063008406518.html