Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Some Conjectures About the Mechanism of Poltergeist [April Fools]


Two physicists are publishing what sounds like a bizarre scientific paper that they claim explains poltergeists. The researchers--Pierro Brovetto, formerly of the Institute Fisica Superiore, and his colleague Vera Maxia--hypothesize that female neuronal changes at puberty can cause quantum mechanical disturbances. The paper will be published in the science journal NeuroQuantology

"Brovetto and Maxia hypothesise that the changes in the brain that occur at puberty involve fluctuations in electron activity that, in rare cases, can create disturbances up to a few metres around the outside of the brain. These disturbances would be similar in character to the quantum mechanical fluctuations that physicists believe occur in the vacuum, in which "virtual" particle and antiparticle pairs pop up for a fleeting moment, before they annihilate each other and disappear again. The extra fluctuations triggered by the pubescent brain would substantially enhance the presence of the virtual particles surrounding the person. This could slowly increase the pressure of air around them, moving objects and even sending them hurtling across the room."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmm...this looks like some sort of April Fool's Joke

Josh said...

It was indeed an April Fool's joke! Check out the references for the mock paper.