GLOBAL TEAM OF PHYSICISTS UPENDS STANDARD MODEL WITH DISCOVERY OF NEUTRINO OSCILLATION, MASS

Boston University ^ | 08 July 2004 | News release staff

[Shryke]

Ahem, my graphic was of a real object, not some false, repeated sinner-turtle. Hrmph.

[Poohbah]

Um, OK, but, then ... what is the mass of a neutrino?

The square root of the unladen airspeed of a swallow (expressed in furlongs/fortnight).

[GeraldP]

Excellent!!

Say, Jack looks a bit pensive in that picture.

[Dead Corpse]

Yes, but don't forget to factor in drag for each coconut carried.

[RadioAstronomer]

Sniff..... Ol RA is left out in the cold once again!

[talleyman]

"I've always believed neutrinos and even photons have some level of mass, if planck levels..

Pirated neutrino's must walk the planck! Harrr!

[Poohbah]

Yes, but don't forget to factor in drag for each coconut carried.

Note that the swallow is unladen.

But you do have to factor in whether it's English or African...

[RadioAstronomer]

They always have, currently are, and always will be adjusting their idea of the big picture.

And religion doesn't?

[searchandrecovery]

To the Deluxe Model?

Haha - that's funny. But seriously, with physics these days, everything is counter-intuitive. The correct answer is the Economy Model.

[talleyman]

Do you have to wait 24 hrs before filing a missing neutron mass report?

Indeed! :-)

Then you see pictures of them on the sides of milk cartons.

Shouldn't that be "on the sides of Milky Way cartons"?

(ducking)

[Flightdeck]

"Better to have studied a century ago. In 1904, before relativity, QM, nuclear physics and the big bang, at least you felt that you had a good grasp of things."

I was planning on sitting in on Weinberg's class in the fall, but maybe I should wait a few years.

[PatrickHenry]

Ol RA is left out in the cold once again!

I think of you in the context of larger particles. Much larger. Like planets. You're my "big picture" guy.

[expat_panama]

if photons have mass and don't travel at the speed of light

By fudging industry standard definitions (in the Phys Biz) light does have mass if you mean that mass is something that moves something else that it slams into.  In fact, if you twist the polarization of a wave train, your twister will even recoil in the opposite direction.

But standard definitions require that we use the term "rest mass"-- that light only acts like it has mass when it's moving at light speed, and that if a neutrino has a finite 'rest mass' then it can never attain light speed because then its mass would have to be infinite.

[MEGoody]

"This discovery shows that it is likely that the Standard Model, proposed in the 1970s to describe the fundamental forces and particles that make up all matter, is incomplete."

Well, gee, I never would have guessed that.

[neutrino]

Um, OK, but, then ... what is the mass of a neutrino?

Hmmph. How would you feel if I went around discussing the mass of a jennyp?

Or, for that matter, the flavor of a jennyp?

[neutrino]

This solved the missing neutrino problem.

I'm not missing. I just oscillated around the local area for a few hours.

[talleyman]

Do you have to wait 24 hrs before filing a missing neutron mass report?

I believe they're legally dead after 7 light years.

[balrog666]

Or, for that matter, the flavor of a jennyp?

Bite your tongue!

[Doctor Stochastic]

Note that the swallow is unladen.

I saw an Arabic swallow which had been laden.

[MD_Willington_1976]

Does it make for better beer or cure ED?

<;P