I am also interested in seeing the neutrino make an entrance on this list as I originally come from a physics background. I'd just like to point out that the evidence for neutrinos is far from being "really sketchy" as William Silvert describes below.
Cowan and Reines were awarded the 1995 physics Nobel Prize for providing the first direct experimental evidence for the neutrino way back in 1957. Since then neutrinos have been unambiguously detected in many experiments. It's now known that the neutrino comes three 'flavors' and an experiment in Japan called Super-Kamiokande showed that neutrinos produced by the sun oscillate between these flavors. While originally the neutrino concept was originally pure speculation, there is now hard experimental evidence for these particles (at a level which would equal or exceed the standards required for ecological experimental proof). Millions of dollars is now spent on experiments around the world to do science based on neutrino physics, which has potential to address problems such as the missing mass in the universe and provide observations of galactic cores as well as the core of the Sun. See http://icecube.wisc.edu for information on the IceCube Neutrino Detector, a fascinating experiment under construction at the South Pole. Ascelin Gordon -- Dr Ascelin Gordon School of Global Studies, Social Science & Planning RMIT University, City Campus GPO Box 2476V Melbourne 3001 ph. +61 3 9925 9930 | fax. +61 3 9925 3088 > Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:39:36 -0000 > From: William Silvert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Neutrinos > > I was intrigued to find one of my favourite particles, the neutrino, show up > on this list. As Dr. Novee says, they are hard to find. But I think that > there is much about the neutrino that is relevant to ecology. > > Ecologists often take it for granted that if theory and experiment disagree, > the theory must be wrong. That is how the neutrino was first "discovered", > because experiments on scattering produced results that were theoretically > impossible - the Compton effect violated both conservation of energy and > conservation of momentum. Did the theorists yield? No, they postulated an > invisible particle called the neutrino which carried off the missing energy > and momentum. No ecologist would fall for such a sneaky trick! > > The neutrino concept was of course pure speculation, which many ecologists > claim has no place in science. > > For many decades there was no experimental evidence for the neutrino (as for > the quark and the Higgs boson). And yet, physicists didn't give up, and > astrophysicists even started hypothesizing that much of the matter ("dark > matter") in the universe consisted of neutrinos. > > So far only a handful of neutrinos have been "seen" (the evidence is really > sketchy, just a few flashes of light in huge tanks of liquid), certainly not > enough to satisfy the ecological standards for experimental proof. On the > other hand, there is a noteworthy precedent for building theoretical castles > on just a small mound of experimental mud - Kepler's theory of elliptical > orbits was inspired by a minor discrepancy between the centuries old theory > of epicycles and the observations of his great mentor, Tycho Brahe. > > As regards science and politics, when I was a graduate student we thought it > was a great joke to spead a whispering campaign about a new weapon, the > neutrino bomb, against which there could be no defense. After all, since > neutrinos can pass through the entire earth, what man-made shield could > deflect them? Of course the reluctance of neutrinos to interact with matter > also meant that they could do no harm, which made them the perfect weapon, > no defense and no damage. But a wise professor told us to stop before the > military heard of this, as they did not appreciate jokes and would spend > billions on it before they caught on, and then we would be in deep trouble. > > Bill Silvert > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "malcolm McCallum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 11:39 PM > Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Palin laughs at fruit fly research > > >> My mother worked for Dr. Novee at Argonne National Laboratory in their >> search for the nutrino. One day, she asked why it was important. He >> said something to the effect of, "right now we don't know what it will >> be good for, but we can't use it if we can't find it." >> >> So it is with most knowledge. >> >> On Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 10:15 AM, David Bryant >> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> >>> On Oct 29, 2008, at 9:36 AM, malcolm McCallum wrote: >>> >>>> The fact of the matter is that basic research must be in place before >>>> applied research can utilize that information. Until American society >>>> as a whole understands what research is and why it is important, these >>>> kind of simple-minded attacks will continued. >>> >>> "To the electron, may it never be of any use to anybody" >>> >>> A toast by JJ Thomson, following his discovery of the electron.
