Neutrinos Have Mass?

Posted on April 2, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

The BBC reports (March 31, not April 1) on findings that neutrinos have mass! If correct (the data seem to be at the edge of our ability to measure) then that is double plus ungood for the Standard Model, helpfully summarized by the BBC in this little chart:

In other science news, evidence that cell phones do cause cancer.

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3 Responses to Neutrinos Have Mass?

  1. Robert the Red says:
    April 3, 2006 at 8:34 am

    True, but the situation is (as usual) murkier than one would wish .

  2. Siva says:
    April 3, 2006 at 10:15 am

    Michael,

    That cell phone “study” is pretty slight. It does not present evidence that cell phones cause cancer. It presents evidence that among people with brain cancer some people used cell phones. We can derive only slight correlation and no causation from the data.

    Panic-driven pseudoscience is bad for everyone.

    Siva

  3. Bruce says:
    April 4, 2006 at 12:47 am

    Here’s the key finding:

    However, researchers at the Swedish National Institute for Working Life said they looked at the mobile phone use of 905 people between the age of 20 and 80 who had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and found a link.

    “A total 85 of these 905 cases were so-called high users of mobile phones, that is they began early to use mobile and/or wireless telephones and used them a lot,” the study said.

    WIthout knowing what proportion of the population are “high users,” and whether “high users” share characteristics more likely to lead to brain tumors (e.g., high users have a fondness for uranium), I don’t see what this study proves.

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