----- Original Message ----- From: "David Hobby" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2007 11:09 AM Subject: Re: Mirror particles form new matter
> > Rob-- > > Actually, I think the wikipedia article is excellent. > It doesn't go that far, but how much did you want to > know about something that may or may not even exist? Oh, I definately read the entire Wiki-article, but as such things go, I was curious to see more. I realize that I most likely appear to be an ignorant hick to some here, and it is true that I am ignorant, frequently ignorant. But I do not believe I am willfully ignorant. I spend at least a couple of hours just about everyday reading articles here and there about subjects that capture my interest, doing google searches to chase down some basic facts, and otherwise satisfying my hungry curiousity. I'm rarely satisfied on that account, there is always something new to learn about. Mirror Matter is interesting because it is a good candidate for the elusive Dark Matter. From here, it seems to be a good fit for the missing 90% of the universe.<G> > > By the way, I think this is a very important role for > Wikipedia. It acts as a central place for people to > argue about what various terms mean. If one reads further > down, the article mentions that some people use > "mirror matter" to mean antimatter. But then it makes > clear that they are definitely in the minority. > And I argue that they ARE, since otherwise they would > have "edited back" at the Wikipedia article. I agree! I normally defend Wikipedia for similar reasons. > > ---David > > Hey, wasn't there some book where "gaser" meant "graviton > laser"? That sounds familiar. Perhaps Baxter? I don't see a source better than: http://tenser.typepad.com/tenser_said_the_tensor/2007/07/review-brave-ne.html "graser (a gamma ray laser): Quick! Name the science fiction author least likely to have first used such a hard-core mil-SF term in 1974! Give up? Answer: Harlan Ellison, in his excellently-titled "Adrift Just off Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38°54'N, Longitude 77°00'13"W". You could have knocked me over with a feather. However, it doesn't appear that he coined the term, or that it was even originally from science fiction; it goes back at least as far as U.S. patent 3,234,099 (page 6, left column), which was filed in 1963. I think there's also an additional sense of this word floating around in SF, meaning 'gravity laser' or 'graviton laser' (whatever that's supposed to mean, physics-wise), but I couldn't come up with any citations to prove it." Nice page there. Interesting enough! xponent Gaser Graser Maru rob
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