The shocking truth about the universe - We shouldn't exist !!

[Pluvious]

In those rare moments, where I've tried to wrap my head around the vastness of the Universe, and conceive its origins, I always find myself frustrated with failing to understand why matter exists at all. I'm unable to grasp the timelessness of matter's existence, that it has no origin, that there is no "before."

Maybe, just maybe, science and technology will one day puzzle this mystery all out...

An exciting new avenue of research has opened up that could help us unlock the secrets to the universe itself.


It is the age old question about our universe, and that is why there exists anything at all. It is a question that has vexed philosophers and scientists alike since the beginning of time, and now researchers think they have come up with a rather disturbing conclusion: we should not exist at all.

There is one major problem with that conclusion, in that we do exist, and that is why the question is so intriguing. While every piece of evidence suggests that the universe should be a totally featureless expanse of nothingness, it is filled with stars and planets and even life forms capable of contemplating their own existence.

And that is where we get to the latest breakthrough. Scientists took 65 pounds of germanium, a rare isotope, and cooled it to extremely cold temperatures about a mile underground in some gold mine that has long sing been abandoned. They call it the Majorana Demonstrator, and it is located in South Dakota at the super secret Sanford Underground Research Facility.

https://www.morningticker.com/2018/03/the-shocking-truth-about-the-universe/

[Sinistrous]

1. Major response expected

today.

[SWBTATTReg]

2. Yeah, right...

An interesting theory, but not supported obviously by the clear fact that we are here.

We don't know everything yet in the Universe so to make a statement (we are not supposed to be here) such as this clearly in view of the fact that we are here is kind of brash (I didn't read nor want to read the article on Morningticker).

[shraby]

3. How did the isotope get cooled to the extreme because it was a mile underground? My understanding

is the deeper you go underground the higher the temperatures.
Makes more sense to take it to the south pole where the temps are extremely cold in the first place, or to the space station and put it outside the station to cool it to the extreme.

Something doesn't sound right here.

[Jim__]

4. I don't think it's cooled because it's underground, it's underground to reduce the possibility ...

... of contamination.

Here's a link to a paper on the processing, and a diagram from the paper - my understanding is that the germanium is in the cryostats:

Abstract

The Majorana Demonstrator is an array of point-contact Ge detectors fabricated from Ge isotopically enriched to 88% into search for neutrinoless double beta decay. The processing of Ge for germanium detectors is a well-known technology. However, because of the high cost of Ge enriched in special procedures were required to maximize the yield of detector mass and to minimize exposure to cosmic rays. These procedures include careful accounting for the material; shielding it to reduce cosmogenic generation of radioactive isotopes; and development of special reprocessing techniques for contaminated solid germanium, shavings, grindings, acid etchant and cutting fluids from detector fabrication. Processing procedures were developed that resulted in a total yield in detector mass of 70%. However, none of the acid-etch solution and only 50% of the cutting fluids from detector fabrication were reprocessed. Had they been processed, the projections for the recovery yield would be between 80% and 85%. Maximizing yield is critical to justify a possible future ton-scale experiment. A process for recovery of germanium from the acid-etch solution was developed with yield of about 90%. All material was shielded or stored underground whenever possible to minimize the formation of 68Ge by cosmic rays, which contributes background in the double-beta decay region of interest and cannot be removed by zone refinement and crystal growth. Formation of 68Ge was reduced by a significant factor over that in natural abundance detectors not protected from cosmic rays.

...



Fig. 1. A computer-aided design drawing of the Majorana Demonstrator showing the detector arrays, cooling system, and complex shielding of copper, lead, and a 4 cosmic-muon active veto surrounded by polyethylene neutron-moderating shield. The inner polyethylene panels are borated to absorb moderated neutrons.

[Voltaire2]

5. Its underground for shielding not for cooling.

The article is practically unreadable.

[caraher]

7. The germanium detectors are cooled to liquid argon temperatures

It actually wouldn't help to put them at the South Pole, or anyplace really inaccessible (on the ISS getting rid of waste heat is a huge problem, so there would be no benefit to going up there). You're not getting anywhere close to the required temperature just relying on ambient temperatures. Also, the distance you need to go underground before it gets super-hot depends on local geology, and the deepest holes we can dig barely scratch the surface of Earth's crust.

The cooling is to improve detector performance. Uncooled, there is too much current generated by thermal fluctuations to make the detectors useful. Liquid nitrogen/liquid argon temperatures are necessary.

As others have mentioned, they are underground to shield against cosmic ray effects. That would become an intractable problem in space.

The article is very badly written. "Scientists took 65 pounds of germanium, a rare isotope, and cooled it to extremely cold temperatures about a mile underground in some gold mine that has long sing been abandoned." They took 65 pounds of a rare isotope of germanium (germanium is an element, with many isotopes (varying numbers of neutrons); it is not itself an "isotope" ). The reason for using the rare isotope involved cutting out background events, as Jim__'s link describes. And to call Homestake "some gold mine that has long sing (sic) been abandoned" makes it sound like one morning a bunch of physicists randomly started trucking equipment down the first mine they ran across.

[Thunderbeast]

6. Probably, the whole thing is just my dream.....

.....projected in three dimensions.

Everything and everybody.

None of it real.

Your dreams and thoughts don't exist, because I am unaware of them.

Guess I don't have to clean the house after all!