Trixology
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: elagache on May 20, 2015, 09:36:19 PM
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Dear WeatherCat science critics,
You might have missed the landmark achievement of two groups working with the new CERN Large Hadron Collider. Thanks to this colossal scale-up of particle accelerator technology, we have a new record . . . . The largest number of authors for a scientific paper:
http://news.sciencemag.org/sifter/2015/05/physics-paper-sets-record-with-more-than-5000-authors (http://news.sciencemag.org/sifter/2015/05/physics-paper-sets-record-with-more-than-5000-authors)
Here is the text associated with that link:
With 5154 authors, a physics paper has seemingly broken the record for the largest number of contributors to a research article, Nature News reports. The study, published in Physical Review Letters, provides the most precise estimate of the mass of the Higgs boson yet known and is the result of collaboration between two teams that operate detectors at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Europe?s particle physics lab near Geneva, Switzerland. Of the article?s 33 pages, 24 of them list author names and institutions.
Now who is kidding who? Does anybody really believe that an paper with only 9 pages of actual content (since 24 of those pages are author's names and institutions,) that all 5154 authors actually contributed some text to this paper?
Sadly it is extremely clear what is going on. All those people wanted something to put on their Curriculum Vitae, so the "bent the rules" so that they could "share in the glory." It is another very grim reminder that science isn't quest undertaken by motivated, disciplined, and moral investigators - it is simply another paycheck. If you can't trust employees in general - why could we trust scientists in particular?
Some of you may be aware of the moto of the Science channel: "Question everything." Perhaps they would be well served to take seriously what they claim to be their Modus operandi . . .
Edouard
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I had heard about the discovery but wasn't aware of the nature of the publication. Of course, discovery takes on new meaning in these domains. It is only a statistical phenomenon. The particle's existence is quite ephemeral. On another note, I recall well a tour of CERN I took when the upgrade was still under construction. Pretty fascinating place.