Role of ambient humidity underestimated in research | Hacker News Reader

Role of ambient humidity underestimated in research

nature.com

Full title: Role of ambient humidity underestimated in research on correlation between radioactive decay rates and space weather

there was a reply https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-06179-7

So basically, radioactive decay turns out to be less-constant than previously assumed, not so much because of the influence of "space weather" but more so because "terrestrial weather"...

Decay is much slower when it is sticky humid weather.... who could have guessed that connection?

The important word is “measured” there in the title, where they are not claiming the decay is varying, but that the measurement equipment is showing variation, and trying to quantify and model the dynamics of that.

Yes. The title should have been 'Instruments that measure radioactive decay are affected by humidity, more than was previously thought to be the case'. That is not surprising at all.

I sort of thought it was surprising because it was more than was previously thought to be the case?

Well, not as surprising as it would have been, if, as the title seemed to imply, that radioactive decay itself was affected by humidity.

Please, post the full title next time.

There’s a character limit that can make it difficult to summarize the whole title. Maybe the norm should be to post a top level comment with full title and brief summary or something?

Edit: current top comment is from OP posting exactly this…

Ah, I forgot about the character limit, sorry.

right; normally I just change the title to conform to the limit, but in this case I thought it made a difference, also there was the reply which I thought should be put in.

As Jacques Pepin once said... your recipe is just a guideline because you have to adapt it to the ambient humidity when and where you cook.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com