# Bosenova missing atoms
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bosenova-missing-atoms/98249
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [March 14, 2002, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bosenova-missing-atoms/98249 "2002-03-14T11:38:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Illuvatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuvatar)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2002, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bosenova-missing-atoms/98249/1 "2002-03-14T11:38:52Z")
Where do you think the missing atoms go in a Bosenova?
I can’t find any data on these experiments so I doubt it’s mass-energy conversion or they’d have worked it out by now.
All the scientists on the websites just shug their shoulders.
Does anyone want to give it a go, and be prepared to back it up with sound logic?
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### Author:  [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2002, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bosenova-missing-atoms/98249/2 "2002-03-14T13:22:52Z")
It might help if you explained what on earth you were talking about.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2002, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bosenova-missing-atoms/98249/3 "2002-03-14T14:34:09Z")
It would appear that he is talking about [this.](http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/bosenova.htm)
Beats the hell outta me.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2002, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bosenova-missing-atoms/98249/4 "2002-03-14T15:41:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Illuvatar \*
> \*\*Where do you think the missing atoms go in a Bosenova?
> Does anyone want to give it a go, and be prepared to back it up with sound logic? \*\*
Souls. Scientists have stumbled on a method of converting base matter into immortal souls. Unnoticed on the floor of the lab, their creation eventually slithered off to inhabit a politician who had sold own soul in a futile attempt to regain national prominence. The devil is **mighty** pissed.
On the other hand, it may just be that the mass measurements weren’t as good as the researchers thought. Or that the journalist who did the story reported on things before that were not ready for publication. That sort of thing has happened many times before.
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### Author:  [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2002, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bosenova-missing-atoms/98249/5 "2002-03-14T16:30:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Please note that the detection methods prevent us from observing very fast
> moving rubidium-85 atoms leaving the system. They did not “disappear” or
> “vanish”, they just left the detection area very very fast.
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### Author:  [@Illuvatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuvatar)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2002, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bosenova-missing-atoms/98249/6 "2002-03-15T01:30:19Z")
The experiment was first performed at the start of May last year… surely they would have built a better detector by now?