Why I Have a Man Crush on the Large Hadron Collider
Last weekend they cooled it to 456.25 F below zero.
Buried 300 feet beneath the border of France and Switzerland, 17 miles long, 14 years in the making, it now begins two months of tests before some 7,000 scientists from around the world come to its grand opening party in October.
I love the Large Hadron Collider.
I love it that the citizens of 20 European countries have been willing to pony up $8 billion for something whose findings may have huge relevance to the frontiers of scientific theory, but zero relevance to the practicalities of everyday life. Like great art and literature, it may fundamentally recast our understandings of the essence of existence, but it won't invent Tang or Velcro, nor will it enable the West to say nyah-nyah to the Russians.
(On the other hand, I don't love it that political timidity and a poverty of imagination led the United States, which has chipped in $531 million to the LHC budget, to abandon construction of our own, even more powerful Superconducting Supercollider in 1993, having wasted 10 years of planning, two years of digging and $2 billion on a 54-mile proton racetrack beneath Waxahachie, Texas, that is now worthless for probing the secrets of the universe but a real contender for the title of world's most expensive mushroom farm.)
I love the exotic "God particle," the as-yet-undetected Higgs boson that the LHC may create when it crashes protons together at energies of 14 trillion electron volts and recreates the conditions of the Big Bang 30 million times a second, and whose existence will push physics beyond the Standard Model that has dominated science's understanding of the universe for nearly four decades.
(But I don't love it that the baseline of American scientific literacy is so low; that the frontiers of quantum physics and cosmology are so abstruse; that so many scientists who put a high priority on talking to one another rarely bother to help the public that funds their work grasp what they're up to; and that science journalism, like arts journalism, has become an endangered species.)
Best of all -- and here's where many scientists part company with me -- I love the LHC because trying to understand its reason for being means also trying to understand the reason for Being.
If you listen to what cosmologists say about the origin of the universe, you have to put your mind in a place where mystics also dwell.
Just try this on for size: At the beginning of time, 14 billion years ago, every single thing that exists in the universe today was compressed into one single point a zillion times smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. Oh, and by the way, it's entirely possible that before that Big Bang, there was a whole other Big Bang, which created a whole other universe, and before that, yet other Bangs and universes. If that is what scientists really say is true about genesis, and it is, it strikes me as something even more inconceivable and awe-inspiring than anything in biblical Genesis.
Or try wrapping your mind around this: Quantum physicists say that the smallest things in the universe aren't things at all; they're not matter, they're energy. What's more, there is no there there. Stuff isn't anywhere in particular; all that exists is probability, a calculable likelihood that various weirdly named entities will turn up in one place or another, though if you look for them, you'll change where they are.
Einstein famously hated this now-accepted idea, saying, "God does not play dice with the universe." But I find the implications of a probabilistic universe way more mystical than what follows from a mechanistic universe, including the one described by Einstein's theory of general relativity. Imagine that any given point in the cosmos, at any given time, might contain nothing at all. And yet out of all this nothing comes something. You got that? The ultimate reality described by quantum physics is arguably as ineffable as the reality of Buddha, Meister Eckhart or the Kabbalists of Safed.
There's one other thing I love about the LHC: the empirical bearing it may have on string theory. String theory says stuff that makes Richard Dawkins sound like Rumi. (If you'd like my take on string theory, and the thing about the LHC creating a planet-destroying black hole, check out the bigger longer uncut version in my Jewish Journal column.)
According to theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, at a 1993 congressional hearing about the soon-to-be cancelled Superconducting Supercollider in Texas, a congressman asked a physicist, "Will we find God with this machine? If so, I will vote for it." We won't find God in the LHC. But if we can get our minds to fully comprehend what we do discover with the LHC, we may yet find God in ourselves.
Follow Marty Kaplan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/martykaplan
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That 'Murkans are so willing to shed our once-dominant spot as the scientific brains of this world isn't surprising: the vast majority of 'Murkans aren't concerned with science, with philosophy, with critical thinking, but with profits, power, status, and keeping up with the Joneses. In a word, suburbanism. That's the new science in the land.
And so we slide inexorably toward Third World status.
LMAO
check that - i'm certainly NOT in fear of science!!
lol
this is offered as a means of relieving fear of catastrophe:
"Because of Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, there is a tiny chance that anything will occur. There is a chance that fire-breathing dragons will be produced by the LHC. But the probability of this event is so small, one can show that it will not happen in the lifetime of the universe."
the theoretical physicist says the probability of fire-breathing dragons being created is so very small - he didn't mentioned the probability of creating black holes at all.
*chuckle*
i'm certainly in fear of science, just not too fond of toying with things that i don't fully understand.
reminds me of the star trek tng episode where they were stuck in some kind of loop and kept making a decision that would blow up the ship over and over again. perhaps we've had so many Big Bangs because we keep progressing to this point and then blowing it all up every time!
i'm paying attention to this one. if the world is about to suck up into itself, i wanna kno
*nothingness*
;p
nice.
Right. All science can do is to try to show what's out there. It has no business talking about Who put it there.
WHO Said?
Great read, Marty. As always.
I like the Einstein quote: "God is my ever increasing wonder of the universe."
Physics is not about finding god. It just isn't.
'God particle' is a misnomer. It's a tag for what's called a Higgs
particle, which could be the basis for a theoretical explanation
of what causes 'mass', and obviously we are all very interested
in that. Once found, it can then be 'weaponized', maybe.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jun/30/higgs.boson.cern
'Finding the Higgs boson is probably the only thing many people outside physics know about the impending experiments at Cern. And until recently, the man behind it has been as mysterious as the missing particle.
In April, Higgs visited Geneva for a peek at the LHC before it was super-cooled with liquid helium, ready for the near light-speed buzz of the first proton beam around the ring.
The Higgs boson is the particle that is thought to give everything else in the universe mass, but that bit of theoretical physics is unlikely to be the reason most people have heard of it. Its theistic nickname was coined by Nobel-prize winning physicist Leon Lederman, but Higgs himself is no fan of the label. "I find it embarrassing because, though I'm not a believer myself, I think it is the kind of misuse of terminology which I think might offend some people."
It wasn't even Lederman's choice. "He wanted to refer to it as that 'goddamn particle' and his editor wouldn't let him," says Higgs. ' ...
Also from the Guardian article...
'Peter Higgs rarely gives interviews. The 79-year-old might be a shoo-in for a Nobel prize if the LHC finds evidence for the fundamental particle he proposed in 1964 - known as the Higgs boson or, more colourfully, the God Particle - but he is a reluctant rock-star scientist, too self-deprecating to even refer to the particle by name. He prefers to call it the "boson named after me".' ...
While I'm on the subject...
Particles of matter are classified as either 'bosons' or 'fermions'. Bosons
obey what is called 'Bose-Einstein statistics', a certain way of behaving.
Fermions obey 'Fermi-Dirac' statistics'. (Physicists love this stuff.)
One of the peculiar differences is that fermions (which are the more
usual sort of matter) obey a fairly obvious rule that only one can be in
a place at a time. Bosons, on the other hand, have a curious trait that
*many* can be in the same place at once. Hilarity may ensue.
It seems that at least sometimes, in physics, the rule is that things
have to be a certain way, except when they're the opposite way, which
is also permitted.
See also: Miss Anne Elk (John Cleese): 'I have a theory, which is mine...'
The only thing that bugs me... remember the legend about how Atlantis fell into the sea? (I'm just sayin'...)
lovethesinner:
No, for those of us who have this strange addiction to the real world, how did Atlantis fall into the sea?
Cheers
LF
but what is "the real world?"
and where?
LOL
Yeah, I do have a certain kind of wariness or leeriness on the idea of it.
on the other hand if it creates a black hole my worries and tribulations will be over, the demonization of all things Clinton will end and it will end the war in Iraq.
Solve the Russian problem, The China problem and a big plus, it will create a LOT of energy!
;-)
"
Solve the Russian problem, The China problem and a big plus, it will create a LOT of energy!"
LMFAO!!!!
When the first nuclear bomb was tested people thought the world might end.
The media loves to describe this in sensational ways .
I was just re-watching the fourth season of the silly ,sci-fi show Lexx, and one of the plot lines is that Earth is a type 13 planet which is one that is about to destroy itself by discovering the Higgs-Bosun particle.
It is fun in fiction but silly to think this will do anything but advance science.
Good post.
The world has ended.
We just have not caught up yet.
You have no idea how correct you are. While we sit here (all 6 odd bilion) positing on this and that and BLAM a meteor takes us out. Or Bush realizes he might go to jail.
Absolutely excellent article! But wait a minute, you said 14 billion years ago. Uh-oh. All the fundies are gonna get really peeved now! Unless "year" - like radioisotopes - have magically and mysteriously changed themselves and it just LOOKS that old. Maybe that's why the US gave up on funding it. The fundies couldn't stand the idea, and most scientifically-illiterate Americans couldn't understand it.
I was taught somewhere along the line that research is something that only wealthy societies can afford. This implies that only wealthy societies can make progress that may eventually help everyone in the world. If that's the case, I hope we can get the h*ll out of Iraq and go back to doing more research. We are a fairly wealthy society, and who knows? We just might be able to put this knowledge to practical use some day. First comes basic research like this - no apparent practical value. Next comes semi-applied research - often accidentally finding uses and byproducts of the basic research. Then comes applied research - looking for more uses. Then comes product development...
I heard some guy on the radio say this blasted machine was going to cause the earth to disappear.
Why is this page purple?
(I heard some guy on the radio say this blasted machine was going to cause the earth to disappear. )
It won't. It simply won't. Even IF a mini-black hole were created it would be so short lived that it would not have any real effect.
Cheers
LF
Well that would sure solve the energy crisis.
Purple because its in the living section.
Each section has different colors.
They could use a Science section as well I think for this kind of thing.
Maybe it would encourage more of it.
Ohhhh,
Mary I love this post.
I get so excited about all of this too.
I don't understand it all (duh- of course)
I have no scientific training or any advanced math, having grown up when algebra was pretty much the only math you needed in HS.
If I was younger and my mind was more agile I would definitely take some University classes in this stuff, it just blows my mind.
So clad to see this posted here. (the demagoguery here always has me swearing I won't come back. LOL)
I need to find more of this kind of thing and get away from politics for awhile.
Thanks so much for waking up my mind this afternoon.
BTW, my birth father helped invent Tang!
;-)
OOPS!
Excuse the typo! MARTY.
Not suggesting a thing!
LOL
Also, they biblical Genesis strikes me as an allegory, a poetic version of "in the beginning..." First there was nothing, then there was something, then things evolved through the ages (days) until humans arrived.
There are many things that are more true than facts. Mythological stories aren't meant to be "facts" but are nevertheless true, contain timeless truths that if understood and delved into their depths can have profound AHA! moments in an individual's life. And Religious stories as well of course.
Scriptures of all religions contain many timeless truths if read and contemplated in this manner. This is what it means about the "living" Bible. There are personal understandings in them for life now. Lectio Divina is a Christian Practice to move into the depth of a verse or two from the Bible.
more:
pt.3
Don't know what happened to 2.
I write too much I guess.
Chanting in other religions brings one into a more receptive state, Zen has sitting, counting the breaths, koans and the like, Tibetan Buddhism has practices that Christians and Jews might find bizarre but I'm not so sure that the practices do not have a commonality with some Hebrew and Christian stories- just developed in a different cultural context. For instance I can remember when it first occured to me that we are all "Jews" fleeing "Egypt," right now, today. Egypt could be considered the small part of ourselves that demonizes our self and others for not living up to our ideals perhaps. Or it could be the part of us that is stuck in a self destructive, ego driven need that we cling to whether through narcissism, addiction etc. Or it could be the addiction we have to separation and hatred from others, either individuals or a whole people when in fact, cosmologically we are one. YIKES, now that is a concept that blows my mind! Progressive Theology coming out of Alfred Whiteheads work.
I just wish someone would write a book about that for lay people, the academic books are difficult to plow through!
Oh hell, over again.
4.
But I digress.
So escaping bondage in "Egypt" means freeing ourselves from what enslaves us as individuals-- and as a culture I might add.
How different is that from the Chod practice in Tibetan Buddhism where you imagine a fearsome "Demon" may cutting you up and devouring you?
What is the Demon- you?
What is the Demon devouring? The smallness of ego driven attachments to separation and enslavement? self identification as something special, different?
These are just thoughts that flow through my odd little brain now and then, I'm not well versed in any of it -too much a magpie that gets fascinated by so many things in this vein and not enough discipline to choose one.
no matter.
Thanks again.
sorry others who get annoyed with such long multi post- comments.
;-(
O think I must have hypergraphia.
Maybe i should start a Salon Blog?
Marty, thank you for this great post, but having said that, let me mildly disagree with you. While I agree with you that Americans are woefully illiterate scientifically, a more important issue is their lack of any ability to think critically.
Critical thinking is the lynch pin that allows for good decisions. But thinking logically is considered an anathema in many American circles. For the lack of it, our population is left to cling to unrealistic ideologies and theologies that do not serve, but enslave us instead. It is a skill that can be easily learned, but it is seldom taught in our schools, leaving us to learn it on our own. A good place to start is D. Q. McInerny’s little book “Being Logical.”
My interest in physics, in 1948 when I was in the seventh grade, was met with protestations that physics was done. That we knew everything there was to know about physics and there was no reason to study it. While I was unable to go to college, I have remained an avid reader in all of the scientific disciplines. So one of the questions I’ve been pondering (love that word) is; If CERN’s LHC produces a Higgs Boson, is physics finally done?
If you’d like to know more about physics, the book “Physics, concepts and Connections” by Art Hobson, is a good place to start.
Thanks for the info on the books.
Good question to ponder but I think not, there is always more.
What IS going on in those parallel Universes anyway.
OOPS, better not go there or someone will want to start a war over energy.
LOL
The lack of objective analysis, Critical Thinking and repeaating every meme that serves a personal purpose of pushes an agenda is not restricted to theology/ideology. this election cycle has really shown this to an astonishing degree.
At least on blogs. I guess politics is most often ideological but the unbelievable demonization I've read all over the blogs has been disturbing.
This is the level of thinking "progressives" have?
Has left me feeling a little demoralized and burnt out.
Even the far right evangelicals were not so appallingly hateful in their arguments.
Anyway, thanks for the info again.
Will look for these books.
I love reading and hearing about this stuff but find my mind starts to wander off into what if land, parallel universes, particles that aren't there until observed ... it makes my brain ache
I love the concept of parallel universes. I heard some scientist say something like well, if you aren't living the life you want here chances are you are in another Universe.
I always had this bizarre idea that maybe people who have auditory hallucinations and/or see things that aren't there are maybe getting "seepage" from another dimension/parallel Universe.
I know its strange and I'm not invested in it but every so often I think "what if..."
makes this quasi-octagenarian's mind ping and her heart sing.
quasi... that is cute.
I'm pushing 60, maybe I'll start calling it quasi.
;-)
Thanks.
Great thoughts Marty,
I find the news of the Hadron Collider far more compelling than the Olympics or even the presidential election. What could be more fundamental than finding answers to reality? Most bets are the Hadron collider won't find the Higgs bosen particle and the answers to dark energy or dark matter that comprise 94% of the universe may always be an enigma.
Years ago, I started reading books on cosmology and physics only to realize later that I was trying to find the answers religion no longer provided me. I find it somewhat comforting that because nature is so complex, bizarre, and infinate, we will never know or understand it. In the end, my search for answers in physics leave me with the same open ended questions and imponderables I had from religion.
Just don't screw my air conditioning.
Play with your particles - hope ya don't find a cheap easy way to make those particles fuse.
Guess it wouldn't be cheap - but can ya imagine the bang.
:-)
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