Physicists invalidate scientific law

[TM2-Megatron]

Re: Physicists break law of nature

They are literally breaking the laws of physics to produce a substance that supposedly existed before the universe did. HOW IS THAT NOT DANGEROUS!?!?!?

1. Scientists are the ones who defined these "laws" of nature in the first place, through observation and experimentation. If one has now been proven less of an absolute law, and more of a general guideline (or an "in most situations" case) then it simply means that the previous experiments and observerations weren't quite complete enough.

2. Before the Universe? Where did the article say that? The one I read said that they believed the substance may've existed when the Universe's age was in the microsecond range. I doubt anyone will ever claim to have created something that existed before the Universe... there's really no way to know what (if anything) did, nor what physical laws it operated under (if any), etc.

Time is a concept created by humans. The universe doesn't care if something happened 365 human days ago. If something is going to happen it will happen when it happens.

No, time isn't merely a concept "invented" by humans. We perceive the passage of time and use it to define our existence, sure; but time exists as a facet of the Multi/Universe at large.

There is truth to the fact that for Universal matters, things aren't necessarily quick or immediate... much like the Geological time scale on Earth (only much longer). However, this particular science project doesn't strike me as dangerous. The people involved are highly-qualified, and well-trained.

 

[Fig]

Thread title changed because I was tired of the whole "LAWS OF NATURE SHOULD NOT BE BROKEN!" reaction.

A law of science has been invalidated. The fundamental workings of nature have not been broken or altered.

 

[Beligaronia]

Re: Physicists break law of nature

Are you a trained physicist? I know I'm not and thus I'm rather concerned about tampering with the laws of nature. The last time scientists did that... two Japanese cities where destroyed in twin hellish explosions that vaporized people instantly and permanently burned their shadows in the sidewalk.

Just a small point. This was not actually breaking any "law of nature", it was merely utilizing the known fact that fission of large quantities of radioactive material results in a massive explosion.
If a "law of nature" is broken then clearly it was never a law to begin with (either that or you somehow manged to break the entire universe with one small experiment. In which case, well done!). Not that this was an example of physics at its finest, but it was simply a practical (if morally abhorrent) application of physical principles.

 

[Transfinite]

That's exactly why I'm saying we are focusing to broad. Sure, it's the universe. It's big. It's awesome. Yet, there are more immediate issues at home. Anyone find it funny that we can draw an accurate map of the moon but can't map our ocean floors?

This is a false dichotomy, Ryuutakesh!. Also, it's pretty funny that you changed your reason for disagreeing once everyone pointed out how wrong you were about it being dangerous.

If all you're going to do is whine and moan about how scientific progress is bad, why are you posting in Ancora Imparo?


Also, like I said before, parity being broken is nothing new.

 

[Lord Fedora]

Okay, I'm going to put this into simple words so that everyone can see it, because the disparity seems to be between whether there are or are not fundamental "laws" of physics that can't be broken.

There are. There are in fact limits and rules to the universe that say "such and such can not be done, ever." The very existence of mathematics proves this, since no matter what you do you will never make 2 plus 2 equal 5, and if you really tried you could break everything in the universe down to arithmetic. HOWEVER, those fundamental laws of the universe and our laws of the universe are not necessarily the same. Our laws of the universe are what we, through observation of the universe, have determined are the laws of the universe. But, any self-respecting physicist will tell you that there's no way in hell that almost all of it is wrong, and will probably never be exactly right. Thus, we must strive to break our laws of physics, because every time that takes us closer and closer to the real laws of physics. That's the entire purpose of science.

 

[dman_dustin]

You know what would suck, if the last words spoken on earth were "Uh-oh"

Only joking though, while I think Physicists experimenting could lead to something dangerous, they have PHD's and are incredibly intelligent in their line of work, and they can't afford to screw up.

Besides recreating the big bang sounds a lot more dangerous, than some plasma soup which if I read correctly can only exist for a billionth of a second.