I read an essay in the New York Times the other day that I thought was interesting, The Joy of Physics Isn’t in the Results, but in the Search Itself.
I was asked recently what the Large Hadron Collider, the giant particle accelerator outside Geneva, is good for. After $10 billion and 15 years, the machine is ready to begin operations early next year, banging together protons in an effort to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang. Sure, there are new particles and abstract symmetries in the offing for those few who speak the language of quantum field theory. But what about the rest of us?
If you are not familiar with what exactly the LHC is, this presentation at TED, in 2008, by physicist Brian Cox gives a nice overview, followed by a fascinating brief summary of the formation of the universe. Who says you need religion to have an awe-inspiring creation story?
Well, some in the scientific community say the collider is being sabotaged from the future by the higgs boson, a particle that, if discovered by the collider, supposedly could end the world. The idea is that the higgs boson is repelling all attempts to be engaged because it, along with the universe, will be destroyed. Or something like that. I ain’t a science geek.
Anyway, a fun story. And…oops…they must have unleashed it…bye all…………………………………………
Yeah, when Brian Cox was on The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert brought that up. Crazy stuff, that theoretical physics.