X-Message-Number: 17476
From: "Mark Plus" <>
Subject: Yet another threat to immortality ...
Date: Fri, 07 Sep 2001 22:34:47 -0700



http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/in_depth/sci_tech/2001/glasgow_2001/newsid_1528000/1528481.stm

Thursday, 6 September, 2001, 10:39 GMT 11:39 UK
Universe 'could condense into jelly'


By BBC News Online's Helen Briggs
The Universe may be in a state where matter could disintegrate at any 
moment, a scientist has warned.

But the probability is less than that of buying two lottery tickets in the 
same week that both win the lottery, said Dr Benjamin Allanach of the 
European laboratory for particle physics, Cern, in Geneva, Switzerland.

"The fact that the Universe has existed for 15 billion years should tell you 
it's not likely to happen tomorrow," he told the British Association 
Festival of Science in Glasgow. "The probability of it happening is tiny."

The idea behind such a catastrophic possibility is supersymmetry. This 
theory of the Universe states that every particle that makes up matter has a 
heavier ghostly partner that has similar but not identical properties.

If true, current data implies that the Universe must be perched on an 
unstable vacuum and "could suddenly condense into 'jelly' and cause this 
catastrophe", said Dr Allanach.

Ghostly particle

The danger is that a jelly of the ghostly partner of the quark could form 
spontaneously at any moment, changing the laws of physics of the whole 
Universe.

Light would stop shining, electricity would no longer work and the matter 
that makes up us, the Earth and the stars would disintegrate to form a 
different kind of matter, said Dr Allanach.

This disaster scenario caused some initial nightmares, he said. But further 
calculations showed that the probability of it actually happening was 
miniscule, even in a time as long as the age of our Universe.

The actual probability is one in 13 million squared, he said.





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