beta decay

Beta Decay
This is a nuclear process that happens in the sun and other radioactive places. Radioactive atoms are unstable. So a neutron or proton will break down into smaller components, thereby stabilising the number of neutrons and protons. One of the small components is a neutrino, which flies off into space. These are tiny particles that rarely interact with other matter. There are masses of neutrinos passing through the entire universe, the earth, our bodies, teacups, pets, and other objects and equipment. The trajectories of neutrinos are largely unimpeded. Scientists in the underground lab at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory detect a mere 10 or so solar neutrinos per day.

http://education.jlab.org/glossary/betadecay.html


- sally mckay 2-12-2004 7:19 am

... and this Neutrino lab is at Honest Ed's!




- joester 2-13-2004 9:46 am

Nice story board. We Can Remember It For You Wholesale and The Time Machine meet A Short History of the Universe ?
- mark 2-13-2004 10:34 am

Joester, this lab is in Times Square. But I might need to pick up some data from Honest Ed's as well.

Thanks for looking at the storyboard, Mark. Good references! I've seen Total Recall (based on We Can Remember it For You Wholesale) many many times. Have you seen Copenhagen? Would love to hear your take on it.
- sally mckay 2-13-2004 8:05 pm

The city? No, my only travel in Scandanavia was in Norway.
- mark 2-13-2004 10:21 pm

She means the film based on Michael Frayn's stage play. Here's an IMDb comment:

This film treatment of a play by Michael Frayne has an odd structure; essentially there are three attempts to tell the same story, wrapped around a subsequent ghostly appearance by the protagonists, Nils Bohr, his wife Margrethe and Werner Heisenberg.

In this correspondent's education, Bohr, of the Bohr atom, and Heisenberg of quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle, were two of the giants of 20th century theoretical physics. The story revolves round Heisenberg's mysterious visit to his old friend and mentor Bohr in September 1941 in German occupied Copenhagen. Was Heisenberg, no Nazi but a patriotic German, trying to find out how far the Allies had got with nuclear fission? Was he trying to use Bohr to persuade the German High Command that building a fission bomb was too difficult? Did he just have the hots for Margrethe (herself a physicist)?

In a way, the answer doesn't matter much; shall we say the ending is cloaked in uncertainty, but the acting is very fine and some of the dialogue sparkling. However, it is also a bit dull at times. For some reason Mr and Mrs Bohr are shown as inhabiting a vast belle epoc mansion (without a single servant) and the cast and camera wander round the building and its formal gardens in a fairly aimless fashion. Even as a film it would have worked with a just a couple of sets.

Ironies abound in this story. The Nazis allowed Jewish scientists to work in the theoretical physics area thinking it less important than applied physics, so that by the time they were finally expelled to Britain and the US the same Jewish scientists had made theoretical breakthroughs which proved vital in the development of the atomic bomb. As Bohr points out ruefully, Heisenberg, working for the Nazis, never did anything to kill anybody, whereas he, Bohr, spent two years at Los Alamos after his escape from Denmark in 1943 helping out with the Manhattan Project. Yet it was Heisenberg who had to convince the world after the war that he was not a Nazi collaborator.

On a personal level, Bohr and Heisenberg had a relationship going back 20 years, when Heisenberg, as a young student had had the termerity to challenge the (then) recent Nobel prize-winner's mathematics. Two people as smart as they were with egos to match were unlikely to have a smooth friendship, and so it turns out. Margarethe who apparently assisted Bohr with his work, is a bit of a spare wheel here, though Francesca Annis has such a good presence you hardly notice the fact. Stephen Rea as Bohr is wonderfully tired and world weary and Daniel Craig is very much the younger eager beaver as Heisenberg.

I've not seen the play, but I suspect this property would work better on stage. Opening out the scenery is a distraction here. Still, as Bohr is wont to say, the ideas are `interesting', even if the questions posed can't really be answered.

damn that is good news. I actually meant the play (just saw it here in Toronto, and I know its been in NYC) but I am very excited to hear that there is a film, because I wanted to see it again, but can't afford another ticket to the theatre.
- sally mckay 2-13-2004 10:57 pm

Actually it appears it was a TV movie, but is available on DVD.

- tom moody 2-13-2004 11:29 pm

Hmmm, somehow I missed your previous post, on the play. Maybe I didn't scroll down far enough.

- tom moody 2-13-2004 11:30 pm

D'oh! Looks intersting. I've read about the Manhattan Project, but forget the name of the book. Many of the Europeans, including Bohr, were decidedly "city folks", and felt ill at ease Los Alamos. No nipping down to the corner shop for a croissant, atom boy!

I came across some information related to the meeting.
- mark 2-13-2004 11:58 pm

Two hydrogen atoms walk into a bar, and proceed to drink far too many beers.

As they're leaving, one turns to the other, and says "Ohmygawd, I left a neutron in there!" The second hydrogen atom asks "Are you sure?", and the first replies "I'm positive!".
- anonymous (guest) 2-14-2004 7:30 am

Did they leave the bar then, or did they "split"?
- joester 2-15-2004 8:48 am

Brian Greene talks about string theory, etc.
- mark 2-26-2004 11:42 am

The new unified field theory: Jesus
- mark 3-02-2004 10:20 am

The Trouble With Oscillation has a new incarnation here.

- sally mckay 5-05-2004 6:13 pm

- radioactive (guest) 11-09-2004 12:04 am