Protons, gluons, muons — COOL!
p2pnet news view | Cool:- I don’t know about you, but all the news about Europe’s Large Hadron Collider has me more excited than a kid in a candy store.
I think sending particles zipping around a 17 mile race track just so they can crash head on into each other and explode into a billion bits is the coolest thing in the world. The notion that the universe is held together like an enormous ball of rubber bands is fascinating to me, though I also don’t believe it (personally, I could never build one bigger than a softball).
Anything involving stuff named protons, gluons, and muons has to be cool. And I love the fact that every time science believes it has gotten down to the essential elements of matter, somebody finds something even smaller and more elusive.
Call me a physics geek.
Of course, some people believe the LHC is going to end life as we know it. Black holes will emerge from the collider and swallow up the earth like a jawbreaker. Never mind that protons collide at high speeds oh, about a billion times a second out there in the solar system. Or that many of the same people who believe humans could not possibly have had any impact on global warming still think we’re capable of obliterating the universe.
So they’re doing things like issuing death threats to some of the scientists involved and suing in court to try and stop it. (Though as I understand it, black holes are not bound by temporary restraining orders.)
On a related note, some religious zealot is trying to organize a boycott of Will Wright’s Spore because she thinks the game teaches kids to believe in evolution. And that, as we all know, is tantamount to eating apples and talking to serpents.
All these people are really doing is proving that evolution truly is selective — and they weren’t picked.
I don’t believe in the infallibility of science. The great thing about science is its fallibility — the fact that no assumption is safe and every theory must eventually prove its merit. That’s why they spent $9 billion building that enormous atom-smashing toy — to prove their theories right or start all over again from scratch.
What you have to watch out for are the theories that claim to be infallible. Because the only way their believers can win is to stomp out everyone who disagrees with them.
It’s just part of the war on rational thought that has been waged for hundreds if not thousands of years. But you know what? Rational thought is actually a good thing. It’s what brought us the computer, the Internet, and yes, that cool atom-smashing machine under the earth in Switzerland.
If you believe in rational thought, you need to make your thoughts known and your voice heard. At the very least, vote for politicians who also believe we should be ruled by our brains and not our fears.
Are people around here getting dumber, or are they just more determined to prove it? Post your thoughts below or email me direct: dan (at) dantynan (dot) com.
[This post originally appeared on Infoworld's Notes From the Field blog.]
Dan Tynan – Tynan on Technology (beta)
[Tynan slugs his personal blog 'Tech talk without the usual BS.' He's been writing and editing stories about technology and its discontents for more than 20 years. During that time he's been an editor in chief and an executive editor for national magazines, written for more than 50 publications, and taken home a closet full of awards. He's also the author of Computer Privacy Annoyances, soon to be a major motion picture starring Ashton Kutcher.]
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September 13th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
I often think all the conspiracy theories and nuts coming out of the wood work is a direct result of a failing educational system, being pulled hither and yon, not by educational curriculum but by political mandates. Everyone has their axe to grind but none of it seems to really be for true betterment of education.
Creationism could not win on the merits of it’s beliefs. It had to do an end run around that through the political access to get into the education field. In other words, it has no real meat that can be considered to be factual evidence to support it that stands up to real scrutiny.
Through out, it is like we digressed back into the Middle Ages where witches are rampant and the orge is just around the corner waiting to pounce on the unwary. I gather that study to learn is outmoded and this is the results. Studying takes effort and is hard. Being a conspiracy theorist is much easier, especially if you can get your opponents on the defensive to try to disprove you rather than you doing the effort. On the whole this seems to be the modus operandi of conspiracy.
It never fails to amuse me to see someone pointing to Hollydud films as a source for their concern. The films are not for education on the whole but for entertainment. Most such movies require you to suspend what you know as real in order to be entertained. When you go to using that as your source, it speaks loudly of gullibility.
September 15th, 2008 at 1:04 am
i still cant believe all the hype over this.
its a science experiment that cost a huge amount of money so that an atheist can prove to those that believe the atheist isn’t god that there could have been big bang (still not proven)
they money should have been spent on the creation of alternate fuels and global warming since the knowledge won’t matter if we are all dead.
Really I’m sick of the atheists and their bs and the god believers for caring about what the atheists say.
Teach both and let the kids decide for themselves on what they want to believe.
September 15th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Nobody is trying to prove atheism nor existence of a god, you idiot. First off, the scientific community doesn’t give a shit because scientists from all over the globe have different religious backgrounds. Secondly, existence of god/gods cannot be proven nor disproven. Thirdly, the field of science only concerns itself with study of the natural world through experimentation and observation.
Physicists are trying to perform an experiment on subatomic particles where they can record and study the observations gathered and will likely lead to a better understanding of the natural world and the universe as a whole.
Yeah, it might seem useless and pointless right now, but that’s because we don’t know what we’ll see and how it will be applied. I’m sure people thought Newton’s experiments were pointless at the time as well… until his discoveries helped design/build steam engines. Faraday’s experiments were useless at the time, also… until his discoveries led to the invention of electronics. Einstein’s theories were pretty much useless at first, too…. until they were used to bring us into the nuclear age.
Experiments happen all the time and better continue to do so if we want to keep progress alive. This one just happens to be a big one. You can choose to embrace new discoveries and relish the ways that they can improve our (our our children’s) quality of life, or choose to live like a scared caveman.
September 15th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
^^^ That is what kids should be taught in school – to be educated or ignorant. Fuck religion.
September 15th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
“Its a science experiment that cost a huge amount of money so that an atheist can prove to those that believe the atheist isn’t god that there could have been big bang (still not proven)”
Obviously you have no scientific culture because you carry a lot of misconceptions about science.
Misconception 1
First of all, science does not try to prove or disprove the existence of God. How the Universe was/is made and function have no bearing with the question of if there is a god or not. Same with evolution. And no evolution does no imply the survival of the fitest!
Misconception 2
Scientific approach is based on gathering information and then building theories. A theory is never perfect because ii is just a human representation of reality and not the reality itself. But theories help us understand the universe and make prediction.
Misconception 3
The value of science is undeniable. Everything you use today would not be there without science and its by-product: technology. A super collider might seem to be a waste of money but it is likely lead (at least on the long term) to new fundamental discoveries that will improve dramatically our live or the live of our descendant in the future.
Society a particularly capitalist society needs novelty to prosper.
Misconception 4
Without new fundamental scientific discoveries such as those found at the end of the 19th beginning of the 20th Century (Radioactivity, Relativity, living cells/infectious agents, Penicillin, Immunization, hormone, Quantum Mecanic “even if I hate quatum mecanic!”) capitalism will decay. We are now in desperate need of new fundamental discovery to sustain our society.