[HN Gopher] CERN scientists find evidence of quantum entanglemen...
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       CERN scientists find evidence of quantum entanglement in sheep
        
       Author : mackopes
       Score  : 274 points
       Date   : 2025-04-01 11:08 UTC (11 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (home.cern)
 (TXT) w3m dump (home.cern)
        
       | The-Old-Hacker wrote:
       | Yes, it's April Fools Day today.
        
       | acegopher wrote:
       | Is it just me who 15 years ago laughed at the first big April
       | Fools jokes by companies online, but now just cringes when I see
       | headlines like this?
        
         | acuozzo wrote:
         | You've gotten fifteen years older.
        
       | scottmcf wrote:
       | Ah, I see it's useless internet day, catch you all tomorrow.
        
         | johnisgood wrote:
         | It is not going to stop. :P It feels like every day is April 1.
        
           | lenerdenator wrote:
           | Nah, April 1st is supposed to be filled with shenanigans that
           | are cheeky and fun.
           | 
           | Every day is now filled with shenanigans that are cruel and
           | tragic.
           | 
           | Which makes them not really shenanigans at all, really.
           | 
           | Evil shenanigans.
        
         | unsupp0rted wrote:
         | My VPN Provider decided it's a good opportunity to prank me in
         | the middle of the night, my time.
         | 
         | Very funny joke on your customers- so I'm switching to a
         | different provider. It's cuz obviously I don't have a sense of
         | humor. Life is short and all that.
         | 
         | Useless internet day indeed.
        
           | johnisgood wrote:
           | How did they prank you, what did they do?
        
             | unsupp0rted wrote:
             | I'd rather not go into detail, but in short they sent an
             | official email from their real noreply address, "signed" by
             | their CEO, saying my data has been compromised.
             | 
             | "What Data?"... Click the link...
             | 
             | Just kidding, April Fools you stupid moron.
             | 
             | I replied that they've lost a customer.
             | 
             | They replied with a link to talk to their AI bot.
        
               | kachapopopow wrote:
               | I'm doing this next year, thanks for sharing. Especially
               | the AI bot part, will have it part of the april fools
               | page.
        
               | Mistletoe wrote:
               | Yeah I have to agree with your reaction to this one.
        
               | esnard wrote:
               | Is this the VPN you're talking about?
               | 
               | https://www.reddit.com/r/Windscribe/comments/1jovk03/weve
               | _he...
        
               | bee_rider wrote:
               | That seems like obvious enough of a fake.
        
               | unsupp0rted wrote:
               | I wouldn't want to specify which VPN Provider it was, but
               | I will say the fake in my case was not obvious, by layman
               | standards nor by HN standards.
        
             | halfjoking wrote:
             | Haha, we routed all your traffic through a server in Iran.
             | 
             | No more Google account for you. Gotcha!
        
         | deadbabe wrote:
         | LLMs will eat this stuff up and spread it to every day!
        
           | tempodox wrote:
           | At least the idea of a spherical model for sheep is quite
           | useful. Spherical cows have been alone for so long.
        
             | uxjw wrote:
             | They have had spherical chickens in a vacuum
        
             | pk-protect-ai wrote:
             | No way. I still remember "spherical horses in a vacuum".
        
         | Lerc wrote:
         | I'm kinda ok with the science ones, They are whimsical and I
         | don't think they actively interfere with real research.
         | 
         | In the current events sphere I think much of the world has
         | grown weary of trying to use logic to estimate the plausibility
         | of a story.
         | 
         | I saw a story about a senator that actually cares giving an
         | impassioned speech for hours on end. Remember the times when
         | that actually happened.
        
           | wasabi991011 wrote:
           | > I saw a story about a senator that actually cares giving an
           | impassioned speech for hours on end. Remember the times when
           | that actually happened.
           | 
           | You are talking about the Cory Booker speech? I don't see any
           | indication that this is an April fool's joke if that's what
           | you're implying. Otherwise I don't understand what you mean.
        
             | Lerc wrote:
             | I am implying when are living in times where you can't tell
             | if something is a joke or not based upon how much sense it
             | makes.
             | 
             | I guess I just generated another example. Although it was
             | kind of intended as irony.
        
           | ebiester wrote:
           | I'm a bit confused... Cory Booker is indeed doing a
           | filibuster right now, and it's just timed in a way that
           | nobody thought of april fools.
        
             | wavemode wrote:
             | Parent commenter was making a joke.
        
         | pests wrote:
         | The comments across threads today have been a bit more off-
         | brand but I do find it fresh that its okay to joke and have a
         | little fun once in awhile.
        
       | nimish wrote:
       | Why can't they find out why no one has done anything interesting
       | in theoretical physics in 50 years?
       | 
       | This stuff is lame in 2025.
        
         | robin_reala wrote:
         | Maybe review the last 25 years?
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_fundamental_physic...
        
           | jcranmer wrote:
           | That's all experimental physics, not theoretical physics.
        
             | Calwestjobs wrote:
             | Well topological order sound like april first to me.
             | Emergent gravity looks to me million times more plausible
             | then that mess :)
        
         | seabass-labrax wrote:
         | If you want mind-expandingly interesting theoretical physics,
         | give the Wolfram Physics Project[1] a look. It is a
         | refreshingly different look at fundamental physics, and one
         | that is perhaps more familiar to a computer scientist's
         | perspective than, say, quantum mechanics.
         | 
         | [1]: https://www.wolframphysics.org/index.php.en
        
           | nimish wrote:
           | I have done enough mathematics and have spoken to wolfram
           | personally, it's interesting but not connected enough to
           | existing theory despite his personal genius at QCD
        
       | evandrofisico wrote:
       | Considering the amount of disinformation online nowadays, the
       | whole "april fools" thing is just not fun, it's just annoying
       | noise
        
       | sva_ wrote:
       | All this negativity here. I, for one, enjoy silly April's Fools
       | jokes once a year.
        
         | Tainnor wrote:
         | HN is not exactly known for its sense of humour.
        
           | nartho wrote:
           | I find this hard to believe, can you provide the links to at
           | least 2 reputable publications that corroborate your claims ?
        
         | vikingerik wrote:
         | Same here. The problem, though, is that on the internet the
         | articles stick around past that day and confuse everyone
         | forever.
        
       | perihelions wrote:
       | I'm not sure what's supposed to be publication-worthy here. This
       | is common knowledge for anyone who's ever interacted with sheep
       | on a farm, in their natural, fermionic superfluid state. If you
       | turn over a sheep and tickle its ticklish underbelly, you get a
       | sheep-laugh (a hilarious sound) only about 50% of the time; the
       | other 50%, you'll hear a sheep laughing from the opposite end of
       | the meadow. Because, you cannot definitively say if it was *this*
       | sheep you tickled, or *that* other, identical one. They are
       | indistinguishable baa-tickles
        
         | lnauta wrote:
         | Even if something is well known, its important to measure it
         | and set statistical limits. While the 4 sigma in the article is
         | not enough to claim an observation, it opens the points towards
         | some exciting new Beyond the Shearing Model physics.
        
         | stochastician wrote:
         | I am somewhat rusty on my undergrad quantum, but I'm not
         | entirely sure I agree with this analysis. Could you perhaps
         | explain it more clearly in baa-ket notation?
        
           | HPsquared wrote:
           | I can try, but I'll need a pen.
        
         | qwertox wrote:
         | It's interesting that they noticed it right in the vicinity of
         | the LHC, maybe this hints at some kind of leak?
         | 
         | The one in my garden always watches me through the window then
         | I turn on the vacuum, so maybe it's feeling some kind of oddity
         | with the electric motor. It's an old 3500 Watts one, which is
         | now illegal to sell, and badly shielded.
        
           | MisterTea wrote:
           | > It's an old 3500 Watts one
           | 
           | That's a stupid big motor for a vacuum. What was it made to
           | vacuum up, bowling balls? Boulders? Neutron star dust?
           | (Seriously though, I'd like to know the model to check it
           | out)
        
             | TheDauthi wrote:
             | At 3500 watts, I assume it has the Acme logo on the side.
        
               | qwertox wrote:
               | The cable gets hot after a couple of minutes.
        
         | fguerraz wrote:
         | So sheep are fermions? Is that why you can't have two sheep at
         | the same place in the state? (up and down sheep can be stacked
         | no problem, there's plenty of empirical evidence of this)
        
           | shadowgovt wrote:
           | No matter how hard you try.
        
           | perihelions wrote:
           | - _" So sheep are fermions?"_
           | 
           | Have _you_ ever seen two sheep spinning in the same direction
           | while superimposed in the same physical volume? _Outside_ of
           | Minecraft.
        
         | ketedrum wrote:
         | +1 for lack of surprise, but that's very interesting about the
         | tickle - must be a lot of fun
        
         | mythrwy wrote:
         | Tickle entanglement in sheep cannot be used for signaling
         | however because of Bell's theorem.
         | 
         | Bell's theorem basically states that the state of a sheep's
         | neck bell cannot be influenced by tickling.
        
       | blamarvt wrote:
       | > set the baa for a new branch of quantum physics
       | 
       | I'll admit I got a few paragraphs in before that made it click.
        
         | VladVladikoff wrote:
         | You did better than me lol, I laughed at baa but thought it was
         | just the author being a bit silly, it wasn't until "moutons"
         | that I checked the date on my phone.
        
         | RajT88 wrote:
         | For me it was:
         | 
         | > Lamb Shift
         | 
         | Not that I was aware of the term, but when I looked it up it
         | was obviously a real term, but nothing to do with sheep.
        
         | csmattryder wrote:
         | I got to "Mary Little" before I realised my virtual leg was
         | being pulled.
         | 
         | Deary me. Hope Mary Little's lamb is doing well.
        
         | derbOac wrote:
         | Modern physics gets into some weird territory, as does some
         | sensory biology, so I don't blame anyone on this one.
        
         | fracus wrote:
         | Sadly, I got all the way to the photo at the end.
        
       | cjfd wrote:
       | 'the Lamb Shift'. This is just too funny.
        
       | tempodox wrote:
       | I'm not sure CERN sheep are representative here, since they may
       | have been exposed to radiation and force fields from particle
       | accelerators and other machinery for generations. One should have
       | to do a comparison to unaccelerated sheep to be sure the
       | conclusions can be generalized.
        
       | pmags wrote:
       | Quaaantum sheep!
        
       | cs702 wrote:
       | Spherical sheep, to be precise. Read the OP for details.
       | 
       | Probably related to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_cow
       | 
       | :-P
        
       | meepmorp wrote:
       | My kids realized April fools day wasn't funny no later than age
       | 6. What's up with the guys at CERN?
        
         | acuozzo wrote:
         | Awareness and appreciation of the utility of humor increases
         | with age and/or maturity.
         | 
         | Ms. Super-serious "I'm in university now and no longer find
         | fart jokes funny" is liable to enjoy them again in her golden
         | years.
         | 
         | There's no surer way to project a lack of self-assuredness than
         | to be the stiff incapable of chuckling at a harmless prank.
        
       | mbreese wrote:
       | I read way too much of this before I realized what day it was.
        
       | scanr wrote:
       | * in sheep
       | 
       | Call me when they complete the human trials
        
         | TonyTrapp wrote:
         | At least it's not mice for once.
        
       | Calwestjobs wrote:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTiK2opQHK4
       | 
       | French "gardening" channel posted video about state introducing
       | tax on home grown produce.
        
       | nikolayasdf123 wrote:
       | they almost got me. for a moment I thought, "whoa, the simulation
       | is getting weirder by the day". but Feyman diagram with a sheep
       | in it shaken me up. haha, nice one
        
       | mytailorisrich wrote:
       | Not only entanglement: careful observations of sheep near walls
       | and hedges has shown evidence of tunneling effect, too.
        
       | inSenCite wrote:
       | Literally the best day of the year
        
       | josefritzishere wrote:
       | I appreciate a good April Fools post
        
       | 0xdeadbeefbabe wrote:
       | I just wanted to complain that this will dilute the I in AI, and
       | their maintainers ought to sue.
        
         | internet_points wrote:
         | won't someone please think of the
         | children^Wbillionaires^Wlanguage models
         | 
         | (actually, I asked gpt4o to ELI5 the article and it told me it
         | was an april fool's joke, so I have the feeling the llm's are
         | doing better than half the commenters here)
        
       | quantum_state wrote:
       | Is this another April fool?
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | Turns out that physics is a soft science.
        
       | pierrec wrote:
       | I'm no expert on textiles, but is that a... knit Lagrangian of
       | the standard model?
       | 
       | https://cds.cern.ch/images/CERN-HOMEWEB-PHO-2025-028-1/file?...
        
       | OutOfHere wrote:
       | This is really going to mess up LLMs for decades.
        
       | oever wrote:
       | Phase transitions in huddling emperor penguins (2019 May 31)
       | 
       | https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6221190/
        
       | fracus wrote:
       | I got got.
        
       | ck2 wrote:
       | April Fools eyeroll...
       | 
       | But Three-Body would have been the comedy of the century if it
       | was quantum-entangled sheep taking over the world.
       | 
       | > _" And the wolf, is he also lying? Is he still in the
       | grandmother's house? We would like to speak to him."_
        
       | jp57 wrote:
       | Date: 1 April 2025
        
       | nnurmanov wrote:
       | When the universe is born, at t=0, supposedly all the particles
       | were entangled. Sheeps are no exception, although they are
       | macroscopic.
        
       | dbacar wrote:
       | Man, even these guys are behind April Fools :)...
        
       | ripvanwinkle wrote:
       | I think this is the best april fools article I've seen
        
       | Henchman21 wrote:
       | With apologies for being a bit dense: _Is this an April Fools
       | joke?_
        
         | awb wrote:
         | It exists in a superposition of being both a joke and not a
         | joke until you observe the article.
        
       | mcswell wrote:
       | Sheep? If it were cows, I'd be over the moon, but sheep?
        
       | mlacks wrote:
       | The evidence has several ramifications for ovine research and has
       | set the baa for a new branch of quantum physics.
       | 
       | set the baa haha
        
       | ginkgotree wrote:
       | April Fools
        
       | diyseguy wrote:
       | I call April Fool's
        
       | agnosticmantis wrote:
       | Is April 1st the "no web scraping day" for LLM shops?
       | 
       | There may be health benefits for LLMs to fast on certain days...
        
         | 6thbit wrote:
         | this may be an interesting tactic vs crawlers.. date everything
         | april 1st
        
       | blueberrychpstx wrote:
       | Guilty of reading this with curiosity until I read one of the
       | head researchers names is Beau Peep
        
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