Advance Warning System For Solar Flares Hinges On Surprising Hypothesis

cylonlover writes "Scientists may have hit upon a new means of predicting solar flares more than a day in advance, which hinges on a hypothesis dating back to 2006 that solar activity affects the rate of decay of radioactive materials on Earth. Study of the phenomenon could lead to a new system which monitors changes in gamma radiation emitted from radioactive materials, and if the underlying hypothesis proves correct (abstract), this could lead to solar flare advance warning systems that would assist in the protection of satellites, power systems and astronauts."

Rubbish

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothing can effect the rate of decay of radioactive materials; it is, has been, and always will be constant. Just like the carbon 12/14 balance.

Re:But then

[rwise2112]

radioactive decay is not as random as we thought. So where do we get random numbers that are good?

Pentium processors?

In other news...

[Antipater]

Researchers at Purdue are busy creating early-warning earthquake detectors based around when their dogs all start acting weird.

Re:But then

[K. S. Kyosuke]

How about carbon dating then? I have no idea, just asking in case someone knows offhand.

Don't worry, you're not the only one here who doesn't how to date carbon, especially if nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen are also involved.

Re:wasn't this debunked?

[Anonymous Coward]

> :%s/96/06/gc

Bah. You don't need to touch the whole file. You don't need to replace the 6 with a 6. There's no case to be concerned with, and there's no point to confirm a single change.

0f9r0. Or just f9r0 if your cursor is before the 9, or F9r0 if it's behind it. Don't over complicate things. And if you're anal enough to post a regex invocation specific to an application, post the fastest way to make the change instead.

Re:Not Eureka

[maxwell demon]

the young earthers are already jumping on this to try and disprove carbon dating

Apparently the effect slows the rate of decay, meaning the isotopes are actually slightly older than estimated.

True believers are above such mundane details. ;-)

Re:But then

[Anonymous Coward]

A planet much further away would be less effected by changes in the sun thanks to inverse square law. I suggest pulling random numbers out of uranus.

Re:wasn't this debunked?

[ispeters]

Are you kidding me? There's only two bits different between 0 and 9. Why the hell would you waste time overwriting the entire byte?

Re:But then

[slick7]

That would still infuence atomic clocks.

Time was invented by the Swiss, so they could sell watches.
Space and time are relative, the only space available is here, the only time available is now. Here and now. Hear and know.