I can't decide whether it's a good thing or bad to be the namesake of a particle that, to date, may not exist, may never have existed, and, if so, probably won't exist in the future. Not exactly a Mt. Rushmore accolade.
For those who have no idea what I'm writing about, the Higgs Boson is a massive sub-atomic particle that, if discovered to exist, will give physicists an identifier for the existence of mass in the universe. Currently, there is a mad rush on to see who finds it first, since the Geneva Hadron Collider, completed last year, went down to malfunction. The huge (largest in the world) collider probably had the best chance to find Higgs in the shortest time, but since its broken, Fermi labs and others are trying to claim the prize. Whoever gets credit for the find can clear a space on his/her mantel for the Nobel.
I know, to most people, this seems unimportant and uninteresting, but, if you Google "particle accelerator" or "atom smasher" or the like, and ask what we've gained from things like these, you will find that the very communications medium that serves to allow you to read this blog on your computer would not exist if not for their help in the advancement of particle physics.
2 comments:
You know what I like about this particle race? I like that it brings science to the forefront again. How long has it been since we have heard about anything other than wars, dirty politics, crime? I would love to see a revival of interest in science similar to the 1960's space race. Get kids to come unglued from their computers and video games to realize all the really awesome possibilities that are out there to those who would be willing to put some work into their education. You know, I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was a poll of what kids wanted to be when they grew up, and instead of classic answers like "fireman, policeman, doctor" the majority answer is "video game designer." How sad. Maybe a little more news about the interesting and creative things people could do with an education would put today's youth back on the right track. One can hope...
I remember telling my parents "just you wait til November 2007 rolls around. Then we'll know a lot more about the universe" because everyone was hyping the date of when Hadron was going to be turned on. Then they turned it on and it immediately broke. Then they fixed it. Then they turned it on and it immediately broke again. I'm becoming less and less impressed with the Brainiacs at CERN. Meanwhile, Fermilab, right here in good ol' Illinois, has a much smaller collider. But at least the damn thing works. Now when people tell me "The Hadron Supercollider is getting turned on next month!" all I hear is "The Hadron Supercollider is about to immediately break again!"
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