By: fostert

fostert — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:00:13 +0000

What I found most annoying was that they were kind of sloppy with their description of which collider we're talking about. There are two colliders operated by CERN, one called 'CERN' and the new one called the "Large Hadron Collider." It took me almost to the end to realize it was the LHC they were talking about because they kept referring to it as the "CERN collider." For most people, the distinction is irrelevant. But for us Physics geeks, it's not. We've been eagerly awaiting the startup of the LHC because it will provide us some great new data in energy ranges never before tested. More significantly, the energy range happens to coincide with that which could prove Lisa Randall's theories correct (and String Theory wrong). About two years from now, we'll know for sure. And we may be able to answer the all-important question of how many dimensions the universe has. If you find this stuff interesting, I'd strongly recommend reading Lisa Randall's "Warped Passages: The Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions." It's written at a level that does not require a physics degree but still explains the theory pretty well. That's hard to pull off in modern physics. And you get an early look at what may the most significant scientific theory ever. The search for an explanation of gravity has long been science's Holy Grail quest. And we may get there soon. Of course, Randall could be wrong. That's always the danger of proposing a scientific theory. But fortunately, we learn as much from being wrong as from being right. Oh, and the people filing the lawsuit are just plain silly. Scientists, not judges, should decide how safe an experiment is.

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By: fostert