Page 64 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Jan-Feb 2018, Vol 27, No 1

64 Large Hadron Collider Disproves Ghosts

fundamental laws of the Universe we have - the can be no such thing as an energy source that's
A Physicist Explained second law of thermodynamics. driving our bodies."

Why The Large Hadron The second law of thermodynamics DeGrasse Tyson adds to this by saying
states that the total entropy of an isolated system that while he, like many people, has experienced
Collider Disproves The always increases over time. "haunting experiences" in the past, he's yet to
Entropy is a measure of the randomness really find a phenomenon that's defied his
Existence of Ghosts or disorder within a closed or isolated system, complete knowledge of physics, maths, and
and the second law of thermodynamics states astrophysics.
www.sciencealert.com that as usable energy is lost, chaos increases - But that doesn't mean he doesn't get the
and without extra energy being put into a very human urge to want to believe in the
Recent polls have found that 42 percent of system, that progression towards disorder can lingering dead.
Americans and 52 percent of people in the UK never be reversed. "In that moment, there's a mystery, and
believe in ghosts - a huge percentage when you In other words, energy is always lost to it's kinda fun," he says.
consider that no one has ever come up with heat in any system - whether it's a washing "And that allows me to understand, and
irrefutable proof that they even exist. machine or the Universe - and you can never get even embrace, the urge that people have to want
But we might have had proof that they back all the energy you put in. there to be this deep mystery, such as ghosts of
don't exist all along, because as British The principle can be used to explain why ancestors. I have a soft spot for what that
theoretical physicist Brian Cox recently pointed the arrow of time only ever marches forwards; psychological state is, because I've felt that
out, there's no room in the Standard Model of why there's a past, future, and present; and why intermittently, except I kept exploring and
Physics for a substance or medium that can carry you can't un-scramble an egg, because it would getting the answer."
on our information after death, and yet go lower the Universe's entropy.
undetected in the Large Hadron Collider. So how does that apply to ghosts? You can download and listen to the whole
"If we want some sort of pattern that Because we can't touch and interact with segment at the BBC's website. []
carries information about our living cells to them, ghosts can't be made of matter, but instead
persist, then we must specify precisely what of energy. Barnum Effect
medium carries that pattern, and how it interacts And if energy is necessarily lost within
with the matter particles out of which our bodies every system - particularly if they're doing
are made," Cox, from the University of anything that requires using more of it, such as Barnum Effect : is a term that is used in
Manchester, explained in an episode of BBC's moving, emitting light, or making spooky psychology. It is the tendency for people to
The Infinite Monkey Cage. sounds - it would be impossible for them to accept very general or vague characterizations
of themselves and take them to be accurate. A
"We must, in other words, invent an maintain their existence for any significant
good example of this can be seen when people
extension to the Standard Model of Particle period of time.
believe what is said about them in psychometric
Physics that has escaped detection at the Large The second nail in the coffin comes from
tests, personality profiles, astrological
Hadron Collider. That's almost inconceivable at the Large Hadron Collider, because while there
predictions, and so on. This phenomenon is
the energy scales typical of the particle are things about the Universe we still can't find
named after P. T. Barnum, who believed that a
interactions in our bodies." using this giant particle accelerator, what we can
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, see very well is the way energy drives our cells' good circus had "a little something for
who was also on the show, replied, "If I information. everybody." Even though the descriptions or
understand what you just declared, you just If we assume that the energy that descriptive terms used in the inventories,
typologies, and tests can apply equally well to
asserted that CERN, the European Centre for sustains ghosts isn't an entirely new substance or
other people, some individuals are gullible
Nuclear Research, disproved the existence of medium, but carries on from when we were
enough to believe they are unique to themselves.
ghosts." living, then this mysterious force controlling the
Of course, this is exactly what happens with the
"Yes," said Cox. particles that make up our cells would have been
horoscope, palm reading, and crystal ball gazing
It's become glaringly obvious that the detected in the Large Hadron Collider by now.
(Referring to the comments of P.T. Barnum,
Standard Model of Physics is an incomplete "I would say if there's some kind of
theory, with several gaping holes that physicists substance that's driving our bodies, making my 1810-1891, American showman, about public
have been trying to patch up for decades, but arms move and legs move, then it must interact gullibility). []
Cox says the existence of ghosts doesn't fall with the particles out of which our bodies are
within the 'known unknowns' of the Standard made," says Cox. “The difference between a dream
Model. "And seeing as we've made high and reality is just doing it.”
Instead, he says it directly contradicts precision measurements of the ways that - Rob McConnell
one of the most rigorously tested and particles interact, then my assertion is that there