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Particle physics needed the LHC. In particle physics, the fastest way to answer the question "are there new particles at higher energies?" is to collide particl
by archgoon 14y ago
Particle physics needed the LHC. In particle physics, the fastest way to answer the question "are there new particles at higher energies?" is to collide particles at those higher energies. Also, $4.4 billion dollars isn't that much. For the price of Zynga and Instagram, you get to push out the limits of our understanding of the interactions of fundamental particles.
- SoftwareMaven 14y agoI'm still hoping know the Higgs mass will lead to hover boards. I don't really believe it will, but I'm sure Maxwell never thought his work would lead to something like always-connected pocket computers. I don't begrudge spending the money at all, as there is little question that particle physics has massively impacted everybody's lives. That said, we have limited amounts to spend on tese things (more limited than it should be!), so we should be asking, "What experiments help us learn the most?" when we spend it. We should not be asking, "What experiment will yield something I can sell?"
- archgoon 14y ago> so we should be asking, "What experiments help us learn the most?" when we spend it. Understood, but isn't the point of not saying "What experiment will yield something I can sell?"", is that we don't know the answer to the question "What experiments help us learn the most?" Again, the LHC isn't that expensive. Mark Zuckerberg lost more money over the last two days to pay for both the LHC and the Hubble.