Physics@Berkeley on 10 Apr 2023, Chen-Yu Liu The Neutron Lifetime Puzzle

Physics@Berkeley:  April 10, 2023: Chen-Yu Liu The Neutron Lifetime Puzzle at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1r8SnosSFU

Chen-Yu Liu,

Links to the author(s) and collaborators. Links to the papers (make sure link to open accessible sources). Links to the raw data and algorithms (software used). No missing pieces, get all the settings, assumptions, steps. There are about 5 billion Internet users now. You need to prepare, edit and work on your online presentations MORE than if you were writing for any paper peer-reviewed or preprint journal. You show results from papers in the 1950s and 1960s, and you certainly must know how many things they did not write down, that might be critical now.

This was a good historical review, but not very useful for verifying the whole experiment, unless you want to wait another 50 or 80 years. The magnetic trap can be miniaturized (milli, micro and nano scales) and used as a gravitational detector. There are lots of ways to validate that now.

The source neutron process is completely ignored. In some sense, no two neutron sources are identical.

You jumped around quite a bit. Your thoughts and memories jump as fast as the green laser pointer spot. If you control your laser pointer, perhaps that will slow down your thoughts so you can be more efficient at presenting.

You need to give more credit to your students and collaborators. Perhaps, “Introduce the Team” at the beginning, AND provide links to the effort.

(“cold neutrons” OR “cold neutron”) has 522,000 entry points today (31 May 2023, Google).
(“neutron decay” OR “neutron decays”) has 195,000 entry points

And you did not try to give context. Most people arriving at YouTube are NOT going to know your group or the global effort on neutron decay.

Your cartoons are cute, but hide more than they convey. Actual units on the charts and equations. Links to open symbolic equations for the models. Give model names and links. Open symbolic models with data, calibration results, and open accessible tools to check quickly and easily and precisely.

Am I glad you did this? Yes. Am I satisfied with the way you shared it? Not at all. Solar system colonization is going to put a huge demand on global collaborations to be more open, complete, verifiable, replicable. The fastest way to move forward is to post all the raw data, the models, previous results with full trace-back on software and data – online where everyone can see all of it, and work on it as they have time. Easier for funding agencies to check progress, and easier to verify results.

Don’t use “spin” use angular momentum, moments of inertia, and absolutely do the precise vector magnetic dipole-dipole interaction energies for all species with magnetic moments. If you use calibrated dynamic magnetic field gradients you can trap and measure much more precisely and determine geometry precisely.

Richard Collins, The Internet Foundation


Physics@Berkeley, Please put links on all videos for authors, collaborators, groups, data, models, results and papers. YouTube can be used for global collaboration, but you (the ones posting videos) have to work a LOT harder to be complete and provide an open and inviting place for interactions. A 10% effort at global collaboration pays back more than $million and billion experiments that few ever see the results. There are hundreds of millions of people now with backgrounds sufficient to follow this kind of video – if you make the process of checking the background materials, methods, data and tools more efficient. It is NOT brains and creativity that are missing, it is basic information about what was done, what is being done, and the precise data and tools and models uses. Those CAN be shared not globally. And in a few years or decades, heliospherically. Richard Collins, The Internet Foundation

Richard K Collins

About: Richard K Collins

Director, The Internet Foundation Studying formation and optimized collaboration of global communities. Applying the Internet to solve global problems and build sustainable communities. Internet policies, standards and best practices.


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