[decimon]

Cut rate ping.

[cripplecreek]

That is interesting. Seems to indicate the possibility of something happening faster than light speed.

[dockkiller]

It’s cool when science changes. That’s how we know it’s real science.

[Yo-Yo]

From the correlation-does-not-prove-causation dept.

[bvw]

Also has ramifications in nuclear bomb and bomb making detection.

[rlmorel]

Interesting. Did I understand this correctly? Are they saying that solar flare activity can possibly affect the half-life of an isotope?

Huh. That smacks of SOMETHING heretofore unexplored...

[huldah1776]

Since there were changes before the flare, what was happening before?

I’m going to get real technical here-is a flare like a sneeze as opposed to a fart?

I love science. :)

[PeterPrinciple]

Would this raise questions on the use of carbon dating?

[Beowulf9]

“...in classrooms around the world, where students are taught that the rate of decay of a specific radioactive material is a constant. This concept is relied upon, for example, when anthropologists use carbon-14 to date ancient artifacts....”

If it’s not a constant than maybe they will consider that carbon dating can be unreliable.

[The Comedian]

Captain-the-dilithium-crystals-are-decaying-as-we-approach-that-geomagetic-storm-front ping!

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

[BuffaloJack]

And exactly what’s dhat doing to the accuracy of the atomic clock?

[mmercier]

if true this sux for all the stuff we dated.

as i was saying in another thread, trying to comprehend and master deep time (or even real time) is a useless pursuit.

we did not know this yesterday, what may we know tomorrow.

what does it matter anyhow?

intellect is better spent on useful pursuits. anyone who pays a person to mess with a decaying proton should go to africa and watch the children of savages die from diarrhea or malaria. they dont expire faster than those particles, and it is in no way more elegant.

at least studying atomic decay rates keeps your suit clean and allows the arrogance of pretend intellect.

[Zathras]

Facinating!

[fruser1]

Maybe it’s gravitational waves.

[Bernard Marx]

the rate dropped slightly during the flare, a decrease that started about a day and a half before the flare.

Shades of "The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline." (See Asimov).

[count-your-change]

If decay rates are not constant and can be changed by external influences then the dating methods based upon them are also suspect over very long periods of time.

[ApplegateRanch]

Manganotimoline will signal an impending solar flare?

Why not; thiotimoline signals impending dissolution in water.

Question for further study: if the decay rates drops, does the sun flare to bring it back to the normal rate, i.e. does the decrease cause the flare?

More serious question: do prolonged periods of increased or decreased solar activity affect decay rates of elements used for dating purposes; and if so, is a significant amount? Would it average out over time, or would it be biased in one direction?

Will this finding increase or decrease Crevo argumentation? ;-)

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks decimon and ApplegateRanch! I didn't have the heart to look through the thread for some nutty misconceptions about radiocarbon dating.

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[LomanBill]

[noticed that the rate dropped slightly during the flare, ]

 

Interesting. 

 

But is the effect upon decay rate  caused by solar flares - OR - is there a common, unknown, condition which is conducive to increasing solar flares and decreasing decay rates?

[LomanBill]

[The decay rate was ever so slightly faster in winter than in summer.]

Is this true in both hemispheres?