[Atmob-discuss] we destroying the Universe?

[Bern Kosicki]

At 05:32 PM 11/25/2007, Mario E. Motta wrote:
>Interesting article sent by Gary Meehan originally. Thought I would pass
>it on. Apparently we amateur and professional astronomers may be
>responsible for the for  cosmic expansion and destruction of the entire
>universe! We must stop observing!
>
>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/11/21/scicosmos121.xml&CMP=ILC-mostviewedbox

Well, here's some relief for our guilt at observing the universe!

The authors of the original paper, 
<http://arxiv.org/find/hep-ph/1/au:+Krauss_L/0/1/0/all/0/1>Lawrence M. 
Krauss  and  <http://arxiv.org/find/hep-ph/1/au:+Dent_J/0/1/0/all/0/1>James 
Dent , felt the need to actually CHANGE the last sentence of their abstract 
in the face of all the flurry raised by those who (mis)interpreted their 
original wording!

Old abstract:  http://arxiv.org/abs/0711.1821v1
"Several interesting open questions are raised, including whether observing 
the cosmological configuration of our universe may ultimately alter its 
mean lifetime. "

Revised abstract:  http://arxiv.org/abs/0711.1821v2
"Several interesting open questions are raised, including whether observing 
the cosmological configuration of a metastable universe can constrain its 
inferred lifetime. "

See this comment about all this on Wired:

"We Shorten Universe's Life Just By Looking! Or Not..."

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/11/we-shorten-univ.html

Now I can at least sleep better at night...all is well again!

Bernie Kosicki