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Collider Must Produce 'Eureka Moments'

If not, particle physics hits a brick wall

By Jane Yager,  Newser Staff

Posted Dec 13, 2009 7:38 AM CST
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(Newser) – With the Large Hadron Collider getting back into action, Kurt Andersen travels to the French-Swiss border to examine the potentially "paradigm-shifting" consequences. Or at least, physicists hope it will shift some paradigms. "If this new collider doesn’t produce groundbreaking discoveries, particle physics will have reached a dead end for a generation or more," Andersen writes in Vanity Fair. As one physicist puts it, "I hope there will be many eureka moments."


The collider is supposed to help scientists examine minute particles, isolate fleeting bits of energy, and understand the conditions at the beginning of the universe. Andersen sees in the collider a "bold defiance of our era" of "ever tinier gadgets, ever shorter attention spans, and the privileging of marketplace values." The "unimaginably long-term" collider is "the most elaborate scientific enterprise of all time, but it’s also, to my postmodern eyes, the largest art project ever built, as well as a quasi-religious undertaking."


This image provided by CERN shows particle tracks as protons collided in CERN’s Large Hadron Collider Sunday Dec. 6, 2009.
This image provided by CERN shows particle tracks as protons collided in CERN’s Large Hadron Collider Sunday Dec. 6, 2009.   (AP Photo/CERN)
Scientists gather at the European Organization for Nuclear Research data quality satellite control center during the restart of the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland, Nov. 23, 2009.
Scientists gather at the European Organization for Nuclear Research data quality satellite control center during the restart of the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland, Nov. 23, 2009.   (AP Photo/Keystone, Laurent Gillieron)
Rolf-Dieter Heuer, director general of CERN, and Steve Myers, CERN's director for accelerators and technology.
Rolf-Dieter Heuer, director general of CERN, and Steve Myers, CERN's director for accelerators and technology.   (AP Photo/Keystone, Laurent Gillieron)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 17 comments
Jojo
Dec 26, 2009 9:16 AM CST
Lol at the people that did not recognize the quote or understand the connection. It is aimed at those that believe we shouldn't be messing with this LHC. I can't WAIT for more work to be done with this.
guasu
Dec 15, 2009 12:05 PM CST
Big things that I don't quite understand scare me. :(
kyleleitch
Dec 15, 2009 4:30 AM CST
How very true for all of us. And it's about time someone came out and said it. :)

 
science • particle accelerator • Large Hadron Collider • particle physics • particle collider

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