What big science is really like ...

Started by Baruch, April 29, 2018, 02:33:38 PM

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Baruch

it is the human psychological dimension, not the hidden physical dimension that matters ...

http://books.wwnorton.com/books/losing-the-nobel-prize/

The story of the recent fiasco, of hyper competitiveness and intellectual jealousy that caused the BICEP2 team to prematurely announce the discovery of primordial gravitational waves (ripples in the background 3k radiation).  This is not the same as the actual gravitational wave detection from binary pulsars.  There were two teams, one team had a setup that could detect the difference between cosmic dust and primordial gravitational waves, and another team had a setup that couldn't detect that difference.  In the race to publish, the BICEP2 team (whose instrument is at the South Pole) took a 50/50 chance that the measurement they took, showed primordial gravitational waves (the other team hadn't published yet, and the teams are secretive and didn't cooperate).  The team lead of the South Pole team, wrote this book.  And basically blames the Nobel Prize system for raising the stakes too high, so that things are too competitive, too much publish or perish.

This follows on the fiasco not too long ago, of experimental proof that the speed of light wasn't constant (and was shown to be an effect of the experimental setup, not of fundamental physics).
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

SGOS

Damned science.  It's all a pack of lies and wishful thinking without any practical value.

Baruch

Quote from: SGOS on April 29, 2018, 03:28:07 PM
Damned science.  It's all a pack of lies and wishful thinking without any practical value.

You can't trust people, and without people, there is no science.  However, in spite of that, some actual objective work gets done (electronics for example).  Most people would not conclude that electronics is a vast Right-Wing conspiracy (it is a vast Left-Wing conspiracy instead). 

Popular science, like popular mechanics ... is political propaganda put our the capitalists and communists to prove that their system of insanity is best.  This is part of the mind-control necessary by modern governments (aka fascism) to control the expectations of the lumpen proletariat.

I doubt actual knowledge about the 3k radiation will ever have any practical value to normal people, let alone some obscure nuance on that radiation.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Unbeliever

If the B-mode polarity of the CMB is found, demonstrating the existence of primordial gravity waves, it would prove wrong the model of cosmology called the "ekpyrotic cyclic universe," put forward by Steinhardt and Turok (no, Turok's not a Vulcan, though the name sounds like one), because that model doesn't allow for them.


Planck2013 results support the cyclic universe
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman