I must admit I am slightly disappointed, no make that very disappointed. The media has been abuzz with speculation about the "Big Bang" experiment in Switzerland - it could spell the end of the earth, or at least Switzerland.
Visions of all those chocolate box houses and cows flying through the air flooded my mind as I envisioned our dear Swiss friends being sucked into a man-induced black hole and what happened...nothing. Not even a slight earth tremor.
Granted it would have been quite unpleasant to have a big nothingness parking off in the middle of Europe where Switzerland used to be and I would be upset not to eat Swiss chocolate again, but hey if you are going to spend £5bn on a mega project at least make sure it produces something that the rest of the world can enjoy - after all there is nothing entertaining on TV these days.
But no all those little boffins are dancing around shouting success because they managed to send a proton beam around a tunnel hidden 100m beneath the earth's surface. Really cool dudes, but honestly does the result really justify the cost?
What difference would it make if we understood the Big Bang theory or at least have a definitive answer to the question - what is mass?
It certainly wouldn't put food on the plate of starving children, patch up the hole in the ozone layer or create a cure for cancer. Personally I think the money would be better spent on things that matter today. I am not claiming to be the biggest tree hugger out there, it does annoy me though when I see conglomerates that could make a difference wasting millions on proving inconsequential theories.
Even if they do succeed, what does it actually mean for us lowly plebs? Science textbooks will get updated but life will carry on as normal, none of the important issues facing the world will be resolved. My worse fear is that this experiment might give scientists ideas on how to create new types bombs or weapons. After all, that is what happened when some genius discovered how to split an atom. So I ask yet again, is the cost of this experiment justifiable?
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I could not agree more l'il sis. I get mad when I see the animal protection units putting on fancy gala dances to raise funds for the animals - what about putting the money used on the fancy dance into the animal's welfare, and downscale a bit? I could go on....
First of all, remember, we'd still have Belgian chocolate! And it could still happen, they said they needed a week or so to "warm it up" before they can get crackin' with the black holes and such.
But where would this world be today if we didn't have scientists who researched the basic laws of nature? We wouldn't have a proper understanding even of "simple" gravity, friction, electromagnetism. People didn't think it'd have any impact on their lives when this was researched and "discovered" back in the days when the first scientists did their work either, but the world would be a very different place without them, just as the future will be a very different place because of the research being done now. Understanding the Big Bang and what mass is, on a fundamental level, might not in itself plug up the ozone layer or feed starving children, but there is no way of knowing which implications it could have for further research and new technologies. It might solve all our problems, and more!
It might not have been as expensive with Galileo Galilei dropping his apples of orbs from the tower of Pisa (or whatever the popular myths say), but the deeper you dig, the harder it gets to get the answers, and the more expensive it gets. It might be a bit harsh to say in the face of all the poverty and famine in the world, but the pursuit of knowledge and scientific advances has value in itself, if you ask me. The fight against poverty and famine needs to go on, but parallell to scientific research, not instead of it.
If we discount religion, as I tend to do, what is the human race but the sum of our achievements and our knowledge? A great achievement would, of course, be world peace, the end of world hunger and poverty, but as we keep multiplying, and our intent is to keep living on this earth, and living off it, we need new energy sources, new technologies and, basically, new ways of treating the earth in a sustainable fashion. The only way to get that is through research.
And there will always be new weapons, but since the a-bombs and h-bombs we now have can destroy the world 100 times over, they can't really get bigger, only more sophisticated. (well, I guess they can get bigger, there just wouldn't be any point to it)
So, that's my 5 minutes worth of commenting ;) Now back to work!
Just wanna say thanks for a nice blog, been following it since Sol gave me the link after your first post. Good stuff.
Personally I think the media made the whole thing up 'cos they were bored of reporting about wars and corrupt politicians. I mean, the alleged thing is underground... betcha it was all staged. Like the moon landings. And the Mars probe (how convenient that it landed, went around a rock and was never seen again?!)
Oh and if anyone takes this comment of mine seriously all I can say is... Mwahahahahaha!
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