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You misunderstand, the particle physicists are having a blast discovering properties, they're just not finding any more particles. Finding particles is sexy, an

by tinco 9y ago

You misunderstand, the particle physicists are having a blast discovering properties, they're just not finding any more particles. Finding particles is sexy, and sexy gets funding, so the risk is that they run out of funding with their run of the mill sciencing. That's why they're postulating, maybe if we had a slightly larger collider we could find sexy super symmetry. The author thinks that is disingenuous because the argument that a slightly larger collider would find supersymmetry is speculation, not based on real science. Anyway, even if there was a solid argument for there being supersymmetry just around the corner I don't think a larger collider would be funded, the LHC offered many many sexy things, so the stars aligned and it got funded, but would the stars align again for such a huge amount of funding, just for supersymmetry? I feel as a layman the idea of supersymmetry is not captivating enough. Not in the way the higgs boson was. Anyway, there's so much applied physics research just waiting to be done right now, maybe it's time for theoretical physics to chew on it for a bit.

sevensor 9y ago
> the particle physicists are having a blast discovering properties I'm glad to learn that I was mistaken! As a layman myself, this is really all I want from the LHC: for it to continue to be a useful piece of equipment for scientific experments. From the article, it sounded like the attitude was, "we didn't find anything sexy, so we're done here," which would be a huge waste.
- iamatworknow 9y ago
  For what it's worth, there are accelerators, colliders, and synchrotrons here in the US that were dwarfed by the LHC (and practically unheard of in popular culture) that are in use today. They're still running experiments on the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Lab in New York, for example, even though it started operation 8 years before the LHC and runs at a fraction of the energy.
  - minitoar 9y ago
    I always get excited when driving or flying over SLAC! Although I understand that the facility is now half laser interferometry.
Slansitartop 9y ago
> but would the stars align again for such a huge amount of funding, just for supersymmetry? Maybe not. What we really need is China to build a massive new supercollider as a national prestige project, to show their parity with the West. That might even spur some competitive spirit and get the West back into the game.

by tinco 9y ago

sevensor 9y ago

> the particle physicists are having a blast discovering properties I'm glad to learn that I was mistaken! As a layman myself, this is really all I want from the LHC: for it to continue to be a useful piece of equipment for scientific experments. From the article, it sounded like the attitude was, "we didn't find anything sexy, so we're done here," which would be a huge waste.

iamatworknow 9y ago
For what it's worth, there are accelerators, colliders, and synchrotrons here in the US that were dwarfed by the LHC (and practically unheard of in popular culture) that are in use today. They're still running experiments on the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Lab in New York, for example, even though it started operation 8 years before the LHC and runs at a fraction of the energy.
- minitoar 9y ago
  I always get excited when driving or flying over SLAC! Although I understand that the facility is now half laser interferometry.

Slansitartop 9y ago

> but would the stars align again for such a huge amount of funding, just for supersymmetry? Maybe not. What we really need is China to build a massive new supercollider as a national prestige project, to show their parity with the West. That might even spur some competitive spirit and get the West back into the game.