Large Hadron - Tomorrow - If I Don’t See You Guys Again…
Just a quick note on something I only vaguely understand, but that fascinates me to no end. The Large Hadron. In case you don’t already know, physicists and scientists are turning this device on tomorrow. Most of them believe it will teach us secrets about matter and the universe that we have only sort of believed on “faith” until now. Other, more pessimistic souls, believe it’s going to blow the world to kingdom come and create a rift in space. The only consensus appears to be that they really don’t know WHAT will happen.
It’s a seventeen mile long circular instrument built about a hundred meters beneath the ground, partly in Switzerland and partly in France. It’s the largest scientific instrument ever created. It has segments designed by teams from around the world intended to examine and analyze different aspects. There is a particle they often call the “God” particle that is believed to give mass to everything in the universe. This experiment could prove it. No anti-matter has ever been detected, but if all they believe to be true IS true, then this experiment should prove the existence of anti-matter AND possibly show us where the heck it all went. A lot, then, is riding on this scientifically. 
Of course, oddly, the media has basically kept pretty quiet about this, which is odd. Unless they are afraid to report something that turns out to be wrong after tomorrow, how can they ignore what could be some of the most stunning scientific discovery of our lifetimes? I have to say, I think the “end of the world” conspiracy theories are a bit silly, but certainly this is significant enough that it should come in higher on Google Trends than Silver Asian Carp - which was a story about some kid out water skiing who got slapped so hard by a jumping carp it broke his jaw…odd, but not as cool as smashing atoms. Not to me anyway.
I refer you to my earlier post: The Large Hadron Rap
If you watch and listen, it gives you a good overview of what should happen tomorrow.
-DNW
09/9/08, 9:06 AM |
Yes, but the carp story has that _human_ element. The mass media, in their infinite wisdom of what “the public” likes, seems to avoid high level science stuff unless it’s directly related to a specific tangible result. “How does antimatter affect me directly?” is a bit too hard to explain in a sound bite.
09/9/08, 9:30 AM |
But maybe if we showed them how an anti-carp would affect a carp, should they ever happen to slap one another…
I know what you mean, but still…there has to be some interest, you’d think, even if the angle was - we want to see if all that stuff you had to study in physics all those years is actually based on what we think it is…