Why ET will phone using neutrinos not photons

Neutrino communication

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence assumes that ET will be communicating using photons. But despite decades of listening out, we’ve heard nothing.

But today, John Learned from the University of Hawaii and pals say forget photons. We should be looking for evidence of ET using neutrinos.

The reason is that any civilisation advanced enough to colonise the galaxy would need a reliable way to communicate over intragalactic distances and photons simply don’t pass muster. There is a huge amount of noise in the electromagnetic spectrum, photons are easily scattered and would almost certainly be absorbed if they had to travel from one side of the galaxy to the other.

By contrast, the neutrino spectrum is relatively noise free and neutrinos intereact so weakly with matter that a signal could travel unhindered from one side of the galaxy to the other.

They propose testing the idea by generating a neutrino signal using a particle acclerator to genreate Z nought particles which decay into neutrinos of a relatively easily detectable energy. They would encode information in the time structure of the beam, like Morse code.

What’s more, Learned and co say that the kind of neutrino signals that ET might be expected to beam should be detectable by the generation of neutrino detectors now under construction.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/0805.2429: Galactic Neutrino Communication

34 Responses to “Why ET will phone using neutrinos not photons”

  1. amnezick says:

    or maybe the ET is smart enough to just live happily on their planet in their corner of the galaxy just as we should.

  2. Digital says:

    Good call, lets just wait here to die… after all, what’s it matter really? The species will survive long enough for me to breed and die, screw what happens after that.

    Or… you know… maybe they aren’t stupid animals.

  3. Kaiser says:

    Very interesting, I would assume that ET has found a way to generate a neutrino signal without the use of a particle acclerator. I know we will have to if we are going to use it!

  4. Britt says:

    I am curious, why “should” we confine ourselves to only our planet? I can think of numerous reasons why not, as an example, when you have vacation do you go home and sit peacefully? Or do you go someplace else? Me, I like to go someplace new and different.

    So, Amnezick, why ‘should’ we voluntarily confine ourselves to our one little world, which most likely will be existing within the sun (if it exists at all) in roughly 5 billion more years?

    B…

  5. Britt says:

    I am curious, why “should” we confine ourselves to only our planet? I can think of numerous reasons why not, as an example, when you have vacation do you go home and sit peacefully? Or do you go someplace else? Me, I like to go someplace new and different.

    So, Amnezick, why ’should’ we voluntarily confine ourselves to our one little world, which most likely will be existing within the sun (if it exists at all) in roughly 5 billion more years?

    B…

  6. Anthony Kendall says:

    @Kaiser,
    Actually, a particle accelerator is probably a trivial piece of hardware for a society capable of propelling ships at useful fractions of the speed of light. And, since you’re only using the neutrinos for communications between stellar systems, or even stellar provinces, the neutrino signals need only be something akin to a trunk-line, with multiple distribution channels to local end points.

    Just as we don’t all have a gigantic fiber pipe leading into our homes, such a civilization could simply switch optical messages to neutrino-encoded signals for the long haul.

  7. ET says:

    Nice idea, but even a neutrino signal will travel no faster than the speed of light. You will still have a 4 year delay in your phone call to Alpha Centauri.

  8. Dennis says:

    Frankly, this is only a small step in the right direction. Any advanced interstellar civilization will have to develop faster-than-light communications at the very least.

    I have a question about this neutrino communications: If it is a focused neutrino beam (akin to laser) and not a broadcast signal, will we still be able to detect it?

  9. jack says:

    Amnezick, Why you’d prefer us all inside a huge gravity well is beyond me. The earth literally brings destructive objects to it. If there’s one lessen to be learned, it’s don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

  10. Diego says:

    i admire your hability to find alien technology! that’s was a very good kept secret until now.
    There is a multidimensional phisics for neutrinos, isn’t it?

  11. txinva says:

    Hmmm so what would we use to read the neutrino mail? Since they don’t interact very well with anything. Of course we would also have to have a way to modulate them have intelligence transmitted. Sounds like an interesting concept, but very difficult to achieve with current technology

  12. […] con ondas electromagneticas? , pero estas plantean un problema…..la respuesta en el meneo. Vía:arxivblog.com/?p=426 Artículo original:arxiv.org/abs/0805.2429 sin comentarios en: cultura, ciencia karma: 11 […]

  13. R.Mirman says:

    Actually ET won’t phone at all. The concept of ET is pure fantasy. The arguments are overwhelming. It takes a whole book to even start to show that. See the OAIU book. And look at how big it is.

    The proof that physics, a universe, would be impossible in any dimension but 3+1 (strangely agreeing with reality) is clear and unavoidable. Stunning is that a change of any number in any of the formulas by even 1 would make any dimension, thus any universe, impossible.

    That the universe allows, and has, galaxies, stars, planets, even life, thinking life, that all the conflicting conditions do not conflict and are met, is beyond stunning.

    Click on

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    This discussion is aimed at all interested in not only science, but in the world in which we (strangely can and do) live, the laws of nature, in what humanity is and why. It has in addition much material of value to specialists, and because of its breadth and coherence, its attempts to provoke thought, it, besides being a popularization, should be an excellent text for courses in science for non-scientists and as a (perhaps necessary) supplement for science courses.

    I. IS OUR UNIVERSE REALLY POSSIBLE?
    Existence is the greatest mystery, not only that it is but that it can be. Conditions are too many, too strict, too conflicting. Outlandishly we are, yet that we are impose upon us the responsibilities of loneliness. Horrendously our most basic need is to hate, hurt and kill, to horribly misuse that awesome, and likely unique, gift of intelligence — destroying, dishonoring, the most magnificent constituent of nature.

    II. MYSTERIES OF THE MERE NUMBERS THAT GIVE US LIFE
    The most elementary arithmetic, just counting, should make a universe impossible. Why then does one actually exist? Just counting, not even concepts of numbers and arithmetic are needed, just nothing, but in that nothing there is so much, so much that is so necessary. Nothing, but that nothing gives everything, existence itself. Why can, why should, our invention, mathematics, tell nature that it can be, what it must be? Is it counting or is it physics? Is it physics or just mere numbers? Yet mathematics extends almost infinitely beyond numbers, our mathematics that we create. That is the strangest part of being human: we can — and do — create rules for nature. And nature obeys. There is no reason that we should even have mathematical talent, no reason for it to have developed. Humans have immense, but quite unreasonable, talents not only in mathematics — totally unreasonable but true. Why? And they work.

    III. SPACE: THE COMPLEXITY AND WORTH OF EMPTINESS
    We look, we see, but do not notice. The nothingness that is space much requires noticing — the opulent structure of the emptiness is essential, even for just a universe. There is so much to see, especially because there is nothing to see. We should learn, and we should look.

    IV. HOW TURNING AROUND CREATES SPACE AND TIME
    What do we mean when we say that space is 3+1-dimensional, that the space part of space is 3-dimensional, and that there is also another dimension, time? Couldn’t we say that space is 3-dimensional and that time is an independent dimension? Why do we even say that space is 3-dimensional rather then space having 3 independent dimensions? And why is temperature not like time? So we have to consider how to turn around, even between space and time. If space is 3+1-dimensional some distances, and masses, are real, some imaginary. There must be a boundary: the boundary cone, unfortunately called the light cone. Light and gravity (these only) travel on it and only on it. Why?

    V. WHY THE WORLD MUST BE UNCERTAIN
    Atrocities nurtured by twisted views of the universe emphasize that they are not merely wrong but deeply malevolent, deeply malignant, and the overriding moral imperative of correct understanding and acceptance of the realities of nature. What are these realities, what are physical objects including people? Not particles, not waves, meaningless words here. However unpleasant it is, we must accept what all objects, all people, must be, whether we or nature wishes it so. Thus nature must be quantum mechanical, probability, uncertainty, are inherent, unavoidable. Yet it is causal, quite sensible, quite understandable even elementary. And physics must have axioms: physical objects. Quantum mechanics emphasizes how dangerous language is.

    VI. OUR UNIVERSE IS — JUST BARELY — POSSIBLE
    It is simple to show that physics, a universe, could not exist in any dimension but 3+1, little more than counting. Yet only because of a set of numeral accidents is 3+1 possible, thus that any dimension so any universe is possible at all. Change any number, even by 1, then nothing, no universe could exist. But that universe allowed by arithmetic, barely much more than numbers, is the unique one allowing structure, galaxies, stars, atoms, certainly life. And these requirements have nothing to do with ones leading to the dimension. Satisfying any one does not mean any others can be, certainly not that all can be, that all are. So many conditions, it is just a freak that any are satisfied, thus extremely implausible that all can be, all are. Yet they are. Life is impossible, it really cannot exist.

    VII. LAWS OF PHYSICS LOVE US
    Why is the universe not concentrated in an immensely small region, or is not huge and practically empty, with nothing but a few useless particles? Why can it have galaxies, stars, light, people? This analysis of a broad range of laws of physics (and mathematics) amazes, that our universe can be possible, and more that it is true, and is what it is. These laws, what they are, their form, how many, the numbers, all the very, very little details — if there were even the most minute difference then essentially nothing. Laws must prevent a realistic universe, yet actually allow it.

    VIII. WHY ON EARTH?
    Because it is so special, and in so many ways. Yet it is not just that it is special but that it is possible at all seems so implausible. Physical laws, and the vagaries of chance, conspire to allow it — quite, quite difficult — and then to make it true, and thus very special.

    IX. WHY LITTLE THINGS MEAN A LOT
    To emphasize our implausibility and our peril, our dangerousness, we must consider the often immensity of the most minute, so the moral and ethical implications of mathematics. From the most fundamental laws of nature to the distribution of dirt on asteroids, the slightest change and we would not exist, perhaps intelligence would not exist in nature. Chance has been very kind. We are children of chance.

    X. LIFE — WAS IT REALLY NECESSARY?
    Life is a precarious balance between altruism and selfishness. The necessity for both, from the beginning, emphasizes how difficult it is for life to arise. A review of the complexity, the intelligence, the linguistic ability, required of even the simplest cells, of what life is, shows that it, even the most primitive, is very likely extremely rare. We see also the absurdity of the concepts of genetic determinism, nature vs. nurture, even survival of the fittest. Looking at the huge number of potential forms of life, and of the small number of actual ones, emphasizes the immense improbability of a specific type, like one with intelligence, especially humans. We should be thankful to the universe for allowing life (seen clearly dreadfully hard), and to chance for actually creating it, and humans.

    XI. IS BEING SMART REALLY A VERY STUPID THING TO DO?
    Intelligence is rare — is it toxic? These arguments, including what nerves and brains are like, show strongly why it is, why it is so disadvantageous. The evolution of humans, even intelligence, emphasizes the huge number of accidents, the luck, needed. It is clear why only (placental) mammals have even hope of thought: MOTHERS.

    XII. DOES THE WORD GOD EXIST?
    The vast implausibility, yet actuality, of nature and of humans seem to have implications. Can there be any? To study this we must consider not science, not religion, but language. That is definitive. Inability and refusal to accept reality, to accept what humans are and our place in nature, and our egomania, megalomania, helping to cause these, has led to vast evil. Science is rejected, since it shows that evolution leads to morality, and because people cannot tolerate the truth about reality, about themselves, causing great suffering, much abominations.

    XIII. A UNIVERSE OF WONDER
    Our universe is a strange and wonderful place, almost impossible, as are we. But we do not care about these great gifts given us by the unbelievable beneficences of chance. We apply them, not gratefully, but to destroy and diminish, to show our contempt for that life likely so rare, perhaps unique. Our gifts are used not to enhance this life with such incredible talents that we are part of, but to satisfy what is so clearly the most basic human needs, to hate and to kill — hatred, this cancer of the human soul, is fundamental. We are part of a universe of great rationality and grandeur, exceedingly kind and exceedingly cruel, that has made us, and made us what we are. We should be thankful, yet are contemptuous.

    A. DOES SPACE MATTER FOR MATTER?
    Laws of physics are (perhaps completely) consequences of geometry. Nature, God and we are all governed by geometry. Some of those that we are most aware of, like conservation of energy (with obvious major effects on daily life), are required by geometry (and its monotony). Why? How does geometry enforce these; what do they mean? And how does it restrict turning around?

    B. ASTONISH PEOPLE WITH YOUR BRILLIANCE BY BABBLING
    See how to impress your friends with your mastery of the secrets of the universe without really knowing anything, especially by misusing language. There are many reasons for the strange stupidity of the errors about quantum mechanics, including often saying it requires that which it forbids (as with wave-particle duality and the vacuum). A major one is that words are not only wrong, meaningless, misleading, but say just the opposite of what we think they say. Quantum mechanics makes complete sense; often language makes none and makes it seem that quantum mechanics (even nature in general) is weird. Language is very dangerous. Weirdness is a confession of incompetence, or dishonesty. It is an interesting psychological question why so many physicists feel so compelled to flaunt their incompetence and complete misunderstanding of their own field.

    C. HOW WE DEVELOP (HOPEFULLY CORRECT) BELIEFS ABOUT NATURE
    Our world is vastly complicated. Biological objects, especially humans, have developed ways of coping, thus telling much about biology and us. In their most formalized forms they are called science. Which are the best scientists: bacteria, trees, worms, bees or birds? Among humans, babies. For biology, even at its most elementary, science is necessary. What is science, what is a scientific theory, why? What is required of these? Why can a theory be indispensable even if absurd? We see that evolution is scientific; (blasphemous) proposed alternatives are nonsense.

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    Physics is the most valuable liberal art, but too often quite poorly taught. Here we consider some rules for one aspect, problems. The educational system in general is too often not only poor, even counterproductive, but dishonest, unethical. Emphasis on this can help, but it is only a start.

    E. IS MODERN “PHYSICS” A SCIENCE?
    It is shocking to see what leaders of the “physics” community, from the top universities, whose work appears in the leading journals, are working on, supported by taxpayer money. Do “physicists” really believe that an object (including a “physicist”) can be in two places at the same time; that “physicists” are so extremely important that just by looking at something they cause the entire universe to split into many universes; that gravity can leak out of the universe; that our universe was started by “another universe” smashing into it (perhaps periodically); that part of the universe is rolled up into a tiny tube and that the dimension is actually 10 or 11 rather than the obvious (and necessary) 3+1; that 1 can have different values in different parts of the universe or at different times; that particles pop out of the vacuum to change solutions of equations; that the vacuum has energy; that a function (which depends on space so has different values at different points) equals a constant (which has the same value at all points); that they are melting the vacuum? Does the American Physical Society advocate that its member lie to Congress to get money, showing deep contempt for Congress, taxpayers, physics and honesty, or do they claim that they have crystal balls in their offices? Evidence is compelling. IS IT ALL A DELIBERATE MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR FRAUD? Taxpayers should be concerned.

    by R. Mirman

    Group Theory: An Intuitive Approach
    (Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co., 1995)

    Group Theoretical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics
    (Commack, NY: Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 1995; republished by Backinprint.com)
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    Massless Representations of the Poincaré Group
    electromagnetism, gravitation, quantum mechanics, geometry
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    Point Groups, Space Groups, Crystals, Molecules
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    Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Field Theory
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  14. […] Comm Links The better to hear you with, my dear! The search for extraterrestrial intelligence assumes that ET will be communicating using photons. […]

  15. Andrew says:

    “The proof that physics, a universe, would be impossible in any dimension but 3+1 (strangely agreeing with reality) is clear and unavoidable.”

    Well, I read no further as I have arrived at this ‘unavoidable’ conclusion:

    You’re a crackpot.

  16. Andrew Bennett says:

    Because in 300 million years of life on Earth, no event has ever been so devastating as to leave the Earth less habitable, less survivable than any other place known to Man. No ice age has been as cold and dry as airless Mars. No Triassic heat wave was the pressure cooker that Venus is today. Not even the most energetic asteroid collision has sterilized Earth to the barren, pockmarked wasteland that is the Moon. For every person you might be able to position out of harm’s way off-world, thousands more could be saved if instead the money were used for shelters here on Earth. Exploring space is a fine and noble cause on it’s own merits. Survival of the species, however, is a job best accomplished at home, sweet home.

  17. meh says:

    Doesn’t quantum entanglment get around the speed of light issue, this i think is the likely method for long distance communication.

  18. Dee Yoganes says:

    Ok, we have two kinds of phisicians. the ones who believe in the 3+1, others for the string theory, and even 11 dimensions. I’m still with einsteins unitary field theory. i see one dimension, but i could be probably wrong.
    Space signals are real. and probably they are neutrinos quantum entangled. could it be?

  19. amnezick says:

    Really? Why am I not so interested in outer space? Do you see fish trying to build pressurized costumes so they can walk on land [which is their “outer space”]? No! Because they don’t need to. They have everything they need on their “Earth” [that’s water] just as I have everything I need on my Earth. So good luck wasting your life on doing something useless because I prefer living it.

  20. seth says:

    Someone said faster-than-light communications? Have we determined the speed of gravity? All we need is something to detect the movement of a large mass from a large distance (that, or defy physics and learn how to create and destroy large amounts of matter to send gravity taps to galactic neighbors).

  21. tothal says:

    We have already tested faster than light communications -did you hear about quantum entanglement?

  22. Helmut says:

    my brain is aching reading something that is trying to explain quantum stuff, but i know for sure – our universe is real, and we’re not alone. well, atleast i hope so 😀

  23. Georgie says:

    Would detecting neutrinos hinder/reduce the amount of neutrinos arriving at their intended destination?

  24. Omitted says:

    Hmm. A lot of cracked pottery here, but that long post was worth a skim just for: “These force the question: does the word God exist?”

    Seems a little self evident at first written (as it is) in a sentence composed of, you know, words, one of which is… oh never mind. But on further thought, it might be a paean to “the Word God”. Which is alright be me. There are some pretty funny words. Trellis. Rheumatoid. Lemma. Whatever force created them is OK with me.

  25. Allen Brown says:

    There is another application for this technology which is much closer to home. Messages could be beamed point-to-point anywhere on earth. No need for optical fibers in the ocean. No need for satellites. Just aim the transmitter and fire.

    Allen Brown http://brown.armoredpenguin.com/~abrown/
    Nostalgia is not what it used to be.

  26. Anonymous says:

    These statements, “Galactic Neutrino Communication” (title), “We examine the possibility to employ neutrinos to communicate within the galaxy.” (abstract), “Such signals [neutrinos] from an advanced civilization, should they exist, will be eminently detectable in neutrino detectors now under construction.” (abstract), “So if they want to send a message in advance, saying hello and welcome to the galactic network they are going to have to speculate about when to bother to transmit.” (page 2), and “For instance, the ETI may be relatively nearby, either on a extrasolar planetary base or in a space station, waiting for us to build a suitable neutrino telescope.” (Page 3), by John G. Learned et al, sounds like a hollow theory, by hollow men. And this is why:

    1) No analyse of the Roswell incident in New Mexico in 1947.

    2) No analyse of the Shaq Harbor incident in 1967.

    3) No analyse of the Phoenix lights in 1997.

    4) No analyse of The UFO Encyclopedia, The Phenomenon from the Beginning, 2 Volumes, by Jerome Clark, and/or the UFO phenomenon in general, and its sececy within DoD, DOE, DHS, FBI, CIA, NASA, local police et cetera.

    5) No analyse of Bob Lazar and his statements of Detachment 3, Air Force Fliight Test Center, i.e. Area 51, S4, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Edward Teller, and back-engineering of captured Extra-Terrestrial Crafts (UFO:s) at S4 in Papoose Lake, NV.

    6) No analyse of Area 51: The Alien Interview (Documentary), directed by Jeff Broadstreet, 1997.

    A Documentary About Aliens And UFOs, With Reenactments Of Alien Interviews And Video, Of A Supposedly Real Video Of An Alien Being, Inerviewed By Government Officials.

    7) No analyse of Inside the Black Budget by William J. Broad, NYT, April 1, 2008, and its Esprit de Corps. Especially:

    A Lifetime Of Silence; Southwest as a red star; Behind The Green Door.

    My seven examples are an example of the limit, and NOT beyond this limit of “Normal science” (John G. Learned et al, the term also refers to Thomas Kuhn´s, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions), or with Nietzsche´s preferable words, “The hatred of philosophy not at all uncommon among men of learning is above all hatred of the long chains of conclusions and the artificality of the proofs. At bottom, indeed, every generation of men of learning has an unconscious canon of permitted sagacity; whatever goes beyond it is called into question and all but employed to cast suspicion on the probity of its propounder.” (Friedrich Nietzsche; Untimely Meditations, Schopenhauer as Educator, Cambridge University Press 1997, Chapter 6, page 170.)

    It is also (John G. Learned et al) in conjunction with the naive Kantian Worldview, i.e. objective will, objective truth, and objective world, and it also has the belief of zero!!! information – and knowledge hierarchies.

    The paper by John G. Learned et al also has the idea of Terrestrial Intelligence (TI) = Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (ETI), even better, extraplorate TI into ETI, but this idea in reality has very low probability, and the overall idea of “Galactic Neutrino Communication,” will risk to be a failure, almost before its future use, and John G. Learned et al gives almost a classic example of Nietzsche´s “unconscious canon of permitted sagacity,” when ZERO UFO-reports are analysed, and nothing of my seven examples as well, and thus its hollowness.

  27. omni-impotent says:

    I’m not sure neutrinos would be so good due to oscillations… but anyway, if you follow the same lines of argument, they could be communicating gravitons, dark energy, dark matter, hell, even the CMB might be just them painting the night sky…

  28. just some physicist says:

    Yes, the “speed of gravity” is known (in the sense that anything in science can be “known”) and is equal to the speed of light. A change in the gravitational field propagates through vacuum at the speed of light, just like a change in the electromagnetic field propagates at the speed of light. In the case of gravity, the disturbance propagates as a wave in spacetime itself, (creatively) called a “gravitational wave”.

    So gravity isn’t the solution to sending messages faster than light, unless we exploit spacetime by curving it into a wormhole or something similar… it will probably turn out to be easier to send a “signal” (such as a photon) through a wormhole than to send a human being, so wormholes will probably be a better bet for faster-than-light communication than it would for faster-than-light travel, at least at first. The really, REALLY difficult part still lies in creating the wormhole in the first place. It requires an astronomical amount of energy, if it’s even possible at all.

    Quantum entanglement can break the speed-of-light barrier. Entangle particle A and particle B. Do something to change particle A, and particle B will also magically change regardless of how far away it is (ie, the speed of light is no limitation to the speed of propagation of the signal from A to B). There’s a potential drawback however… as far as I know, when you engineer the entanglement of A and B they need to be near each other spatially. Once entangled, then you can send B out to Alpha Centauri, and once it’s there you can send a signal from A to B instantly. But, B still has to make the 4-year trip to Alpha Centauri first. Granted, B only makes the trip once and then your “telephone line” is set up. But we’d still have to wait 2 million years to set up such an “entanglement phone line” with Andromeda.

  29. just some physicist says:

    Clarification on my previous post: sending a “signal” via quantum entanglement may not be possible, in the sense that it may not be possible to transmit “information” via entanglement. Not to mention the incredible challenge of building a conduit from here to another star or galaxy that doesn’t disturb the quantum state of an entangled particle. However, even if it were possible to do all of those things, the problem of first “laying an entanglement phone line” probably still remains an issue.

    All that said, I have to hand it to scientists and engineers… they are extremely clever, and no matter how many roadblocks nature throws up, I’ve learned to never say anything is impossible.

  30. just another physicist says:

    To answer a few unanswered questions and make a few comments:

    Dennis – the idea is to send bunches of neutrinos in a Morse code style – series of short and long bursts. These would have to be in a focused beam if they are to be detectable far away (otherwise they will become too diffuse to be detectable).

    txinva – as explained in the article, we would read the neutrino mail with neutrino detectors.

    R. Mirman – crimony man. Andrew – agreed!

    meh, Dee Yoganes, seth, tothal – see Just Some Physicist

    Georgie – Yes, we would absorb some of the neutrinos, but only an infinitesimal fraction of them, so the signal should make it to its intended destination (if not us) with minimal degradation.

    Anonymous – you forgot 8) no “analyse” of how crazy you sound. Learned et al do not need to analyze the pseudoscience of ufology to discuss the practicality of using neutrinos for galactic communication. Your philosophical ramblings don’t make sense. And if you actually read Kuhn, you would understand why Learned et al don’t bother with analyzing Area 51 or alien interviews – if their aim is to do their job as scientists, it’s a waste of their time.

    omni-impotent – oscillations are not a problem. The neutrinos would be far enough away from the source that all flavors would be in equilibrium. And if one detects the neutrinos via neutral current interaction, oscillations are irrelevant.

    just some physicist – thank you for making sense

  31. just another physicist says:

    That 8) is meant to be an 8 followed by a ). 🙂

  32. saillabs says:

    The question is when actually phones will be replaced with digital cameras?

  33. cig says:

    I believe that in a 2-3 years the cellolar phones definatelly replace them