Thursday, April 08, 2010
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
My nominee for the decade's worst scientific reporting
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/05/freaky-physics-proves-parallel-universes/?test=faces
2) The "time travel to the future and back again" idea is completely idiotic. I find it hard to believe that Richard Gott actually said that. My bet is the reporter got it wrong. (If not, then shame on Richard Gott.)
3) None of this has anything to do with the actual discovery, which is that researchers at UCSB appear to have found a macro-system that exhibits quantum superposition.
4) The headline is that this proves parallel universes exist. I'm still trying to figure out wtf that even means in the context of this story.
Wolf says that time - at least in quantum mechanics - doesn't move straight like an arrow. It zig-zags, and he thinks it may be possible to build a machine that lets you bend time. Consider Sergei Krikalev, the Russian astronaut who flew six space missions. Richard Gott, a physicist at Princeton University, says Krikalev aged 1/48th of a second less than the rest of us because he orbited at very high speeds. And to age less than someone means you've jumped into the future - you did not experience the same present. In a sense, he says, Krikalev time-traveled to the future - and back again!1) Writer switches from QM to relativity in a completely unwarranted manner.
2) The "time travel to the future and back again" idea is completely idiotic. I find it hard to believe that Richard Gott actually said that. My bet is the reporter got it wrong. (If not, then shame on Richard Gott.)
3) None of this has anything to do with the actual discovery, which is that researchers at UCSB appear to have found a macro-system that exhibits quantum superposition.
4) The headline is that this proves parallel universes exist. I'm still trying to figure out wtf that even means in the context of this story.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
