Open4D writes:
"As many people expected the American BICPE2 team has just announced the discovery of the gravitational waves predicted by the Inflation theory of the early universe.
The BBC is one of the first with a write-up."
Related Stories
cosurgi writes:
"Neil Turok, a South African physicist, and the Director of Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, argues that recently published results from BICEP2 need more confirmation by independent experiments."
The original Soylent News story went out on the 14 March, and referred to these BICEP2 papers.
kebes writes:
Theoretical physicist Sean Carroll has written an opinion-piece in the New York Times about the role of "naturalness" in physics. Searching for physical theories that seem 'natural', as in they explain rather than introduce seeming contrivance and coincidence, has been very fruitful in science. For example, the recent BICEP2 results--measuring the imprint of gravitational waves on the very early universe--help vindicate the theory of inflation, which was developed in part to provide a more natural explanation for the seemingly unlikely state of the early universe (extremely homogeneous and 'low entropy'). Carroll's piece asks whether such reasoning also provides support for multiverse predictions, while equally questioning whether we can objectively judge naturalness, concluding:
Naturalness is a subtle criterion. In the case of inflationary cosmology, the drive to find a natural theory seems to have paid off handsomely, but perhaps other seemingly unnatural features of our world must simply be accepted. Ultimately it's nature, not us, that decides what's natural.
Two Approaches to Tastier Tomatoes
Jinhe Bai, an ARS chemist, and his colleagues at the U.S. Horticulture Research Laboratory analyzed the effects of two common practices that he suspected affect tomato flavor. Some people refrigerate their tomatoes, and some people dip them in hot water to make them easier to peel, a practice known as "blanching."
Bai and his colleagues divided 60 standard tomatoes into 3 groups: one group was refrigerated at 41 ˚F for 4 days; another group was kept at room temperature (68 ˚F) for 4 days and then dipped in 122 ˚F water for 5 minutes to simulate blanching; and a control group was kept at 68 ˚F for 4 days.
...
The results showed that refrigeration greatly reduced 25 of the 42 aroma compounds and reduced volatile levels overall by 68 percent. Blanching the tomatoes also greatly reduced 22 of the 42 compounds and reduced volatile levels overall by 63 percent.The results spell out why it is better for tomatoes to be stored—and washed before use—at room temperature. Shelf life generally shouldn't be a problem, Bai says. "If tomatoes have been picked green and chilled to minimize damage, as they usually are, they will remain unspoiled for about a week at room temperature," he says. Tomatoes from a garden or farmers market that have not been chilled also will last a few weeks at room temperatures, he adds.
Good information if you like to cook Italian cuisine. Others have it on good authority that "wolf peaches" are "evil and deadly."
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 17 2014, @09:29PM
For the very first time, a First Post directly from the Big Bang was observed. Scientists say it is a direct proof of the Universe's inflated ego.
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Monday March 17 2014, @10:30PM
(such a good opportunity to post an off-topic still useful comment wasted).
Is BICEP, not BICPE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 17 2014, @10:44PM
I built an Arduino-driven vibrating buttplug. Is this awesome!!?
(Score: 2) by bucc5062 on Monday March 17 2014, @09:36PM
I RTFA, I think I got some brains, and this just wrapped my head around a tree. Wow. I love reading about this type of discovery, even if I can't understand all of what they are talking about. So they are saying they've discovered a gravity wave? That this wave was the primordial "energy" that pushed out the universe?
And what now? What can we eventually do with such knowledge I wonder. I really ponder if stuff like this is the first step on the next plateau of scientific understanding that could (outside the petty human nature that holds us back) propel us beyond the solar system.
Think Big.
The more things change, the more they look the same
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Dunbal on Monday March 17 2014, @09:59PM
No, the wave was distorted by the expansion of the universe. It doesn't cause the expansion, gravity in fact causes quite the opposite. However since gravity is an inverse square function - its strength diminishes rapidly over distance. The idea, I gather (I'm not a physicist), is that the polarization of cosmic background radiation through some physico-mathematical stuff I don't understand but they swear is true could only be affected by gravity. Since this polarization is spread out across a massive patch of sky, it's impossible that this polarization is an ongoing event but rather can only have happened right near the beginning of the universe when everything was much closer together and gravitational effects were thus much stronger. The universe spread out since then, but the different regions retained their particular polarization. At least that's as far as I've managed to understand without taking more physics courses.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 17 2014, @10:37PM
The B mode polarisation of the CMB -- Catherine wheels, basically; it's a rotation-invariant transformation of the U Stokes' parameter if that helps which it may well not do -- can be and is generated by tons of things. That's what's made it so difficult to track down a primordial signal. Dust, magnetic fields, synchotron radiation, gravitational lenses, they all contribute. There are two "cosmological" signals, one on large scales (which until today was unknown) and one on smaller scales caused by gravitational lensing of the microwave background. Then there are "foregrounds" which have caused bad headaches amongst observers for at least 20 years so far. (There is another form of polarisation, so-called E mode which look like Swiss crosses rather than Catherine wheels, which delayed the second-year release of NASA's WMAP probe by over a year. Planck's E and B mode work was delayed from first to third year. This kind of thing has gone on since before I even started my undergraduate. The signals are drowning in foreground.)
So what they've managed to do is subtract every foreground we've been able to think of and get a signal that fits the predicted CMB lensing, and then continues onto larger scales following the same kind of curve - meaning we suddenly have an amplitude for it. It's that amplitude which is currently being touted as a "smoking gun" of primordial inflation, although even then there are other mechanisms that can create it and there are some mildly concerning tensions with Planck that have to be resolved. Maybe there's actually a scale-dependence in the power spectrum of density perturbations -- which to be honest I'd be surprised isn't there, although I'm also surprised if it's this big -- *and* gravitational waves with a remarkably high amplitude. That seems the most likely.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 24 2014, @02:09PM
This is the most exciting thing I've ever completely not understood.
(Score: 1) by cosurgi on Monday March 17 2014, @10:49PM
What you are describing sounds to me like a Faraday effect. But I didn't RTFA yet.
#
#\ @ ? [adom.de] Colonize Mars [kozicki.pl]
#
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 17 2014, @10:58PM
That's part of it, yes - both primordial signals (indeed, it's a constraint on the size of primordial magnetic fields, measurements of their Faraday signal, which rotates E modes into B modes thanks to how it would rotate Q into U), and also foregrounds. The primordial fields were pretty weak, though, and a signal this strength is more likely to be dominated by primordial gravitational radiation (or another, more subtle effect; some forms of isocurvature could generate it... but I wouldn't bet on it). The Faraday effect is instead a lot more significant for mucking up the signal. Physics often entertains itself wreaking havoc on our cosmological datasets. We are, after all, looking through the entire universe from early birth pains to its current lumpiness, and all of it mucks up the polarisation.
That's part of what makes this so impressive.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by wjwlsn on Monday March 17 2014, @09:41PM
There is nothing about this that contradicts a young universe. There is a difference between what you observe and what happened in the past. We didn't see the universe actually forming. We didn't see those gravitational twists being laid down. You're assuming things in regard to the past that aren't necessarily true. The reason I believe in a young universe is because of the Bible's account of origins. The witness who was there and told everything and told us. From the word of God. </sarcasm>
I am a traveler of both time and space. Duh.
(Score: 4, Informative) by buswolley on Monday March 17 2014, @09:58PM
If the universe is a simulation, then that simulation could be begun at any point regardless of appearances. A saved game of cosmic groundhog day
subicular junctures
(Score: 3, Interesting) by wjwlsn on Tuesday March 18 2014, @12:10AM
You just blew my mind.
I am a traveler of both time and space. Duh.
(Score: 1) by Yog-Yogguth on Monday March 17 2014, @10:26PM
And $deity said: "Let there be 10,000 trillion gigaelectronvolts!" :D (number from BBC article).
Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))
(Score: 3, Funny) by wjwlsn on Tuesday March 18 2014, @12:25AM
For some reason, I'm hearing that in the voice of the Dark Lord Chuckles, the Silly Piggy... followed by "... or something. like. that!"
I am a traveler of both time and space. Duh.
(Score: 1) by TK on Tuesday March 18 2014, @01:26PM
I wonder who chose that particular combination. I guess it does sound more impressive than 10 yottaEv, but equally impressive (I think) are:
10 trillion teraEv
10 billion billion megaEv
10 thousand million billion megaEv
This many: 10000000000000000000000000 Ev (most impressive)
In any case, I'm glad $diety uses the same prefixes as us, regardless of how He chooses to use them.
The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum
(Score: 4, Interesting) by wjwlsn on Tuesday March 18 2014, @12:28AM
Hmm... I guess those sentences were funnier in their original form, back when Ken Hamm used them in the debate with Bill Nye. Oh well. :/
I am a traveler of both time and space. Duh.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday March 18 2014, @06:50PM
There is nothing about this that contradicts a young universe.
Young universe? Hell, it isn't even fourteen yet although it does have another birthday coming soon. It's still a kid! It will be over a billion years before it's old enough to legally drive!
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: -1, Troll) by DrRJonesDC on Monday March 17 2014, @10:34PM
Interesting article. Whenever these types of stories are printed I often wonder if it has anything to do with ill-health. If these gravity waves are coming at us from every different direction, could they be tugging at our spines as well causing vertebral subluxation? It is a scientific fact that VS can occur spontaneously, even when just standing upright with proper posture.
The Spine Whisperer
(Score: 1) by ticho on Monday March 17 2014, @10:45PM
Yes. When you try hard enough, any topic can be twisted to be about your quack pseudo medicine. We get it, we really do. Now please turn around and swim back into depths of internet.
(Score: 2) by buswolley on Tuesday March 18 2014, @03:40AM
I read the comment as an attempt at humor.
subicular junctures
(Score: 2, Informative) by mcgrew on Tuesday March 18 2014, @06:53PM
Yes, but a poor attempt indeed.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 4, Informative) by Covalent on Monday March 17 2014, @11:56PM
Up to this point, inflation had remained "just" a theory...that is to say it was one of several possible explanations for the observations we see of the universe. The good news about this is that not only is this very good evidence of inflation (not proof...sorry, this is science...we don't do that here) but a specific subset of inflation theories. This should help nail down exactly what happened at the creation of the universe. Exciting stuff!
You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.