Newsweek: The Large Hadron Collider

Well, if you're looking for practical results...

A hot cosmic ray can have the kinetic energy of a well-pitched baseball, far more than the LHC can manage. Certainly in the age of the Earth two such cosmic rays have collided nearby. We're still here.

John

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PD, Are any of these from the last century... discounting gravity which made a big spalsh before 1950. I think the trend of the last 25 years is to exploit any discovery as quickly as possible... before the other guy does it. In the past there just wasn't the competition of today. You could what till the end of your career and then publish some of thie things you did. Today if there's an aplication or advance it's used right away. The people at the LHC are not stupid. If they had found some new "thing" that could make them some money... or get them tenure you cna bet it wouldn't just sit there for 50 years. George

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Well, I think that's the point. Quantum mechanics, originated in the 1930's, has started to make significant splash some 50 years later. But weak interaction physics, originated in the 1940's, hasn't really started to make a splash yet, but could very well in the next two decades. Controlled fusion power is the most likely candidate. Strong interaction physics, originated in the 1960's, probably won't make a splash for another three decades. Gravitational physics, originated in 1915 and then ignored for three decades, probably won't make a splash for another four decades or so.

That's not so for fundamental research.

Tenure doesn't buy you anything except for continued servitude.

So you mean, 'Sure' in the sense of 'Not hardly'.

The only arguably recent claim you make is the one about Mendel, and Mendelian genetics was used in cross-breeding animals well before the

Thanks for playing.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

Einstein, 1917, Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

The maser, 1952. Optical pumping, also early 1950s. Pretty far from a century.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

Don't forget the only art piece on the Moon (of course, it's best placed there):

Tim

---------------------------- No Higgs and No hoggs and no schmigs !!!!

look for the Circlon

ATB Y.Porat

-----------------------------------

I have those for breakfast. Mmmmmmmmmm.

Columbus went to the Queen of Spain To ask for ships and cargo. He promised to kiss the Royal Arse And bring her back Chicago.

For what it's worth: The first single bunch of about 5e9 protons at the injection energy of 450GeV has made three complete turns in the LHC this morning. That's a good start.

Jeroen Belleman

Yeah, right. But the media are all buzzing and many seem to believe we're going to gobble up the world.

Jeroen Belleman

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And the laser did not make it into mainstream applications until the

And you'll note that I said it was not unusual for fundamental research to take five to ten decades to percolate into signficant consumer impact, ten decades being an extremum.

You asked for ONE case, because you could not think of a single one.

I gave you several, which is certainly not an exhaustive list. You chose to reject several as being not recent enough for your tastes, but allowed that one of the four I provided does demonstrate the case. Yet you whiiiiine that it's still wrong.

Our modern-day sensibilities about the turnaround of science into practical application is fueled by our history in the previous century as an industry-driven economy. However, as you know, that was an economic phase, and we are now increasingly driven by an information- based and service-based economy -- a deep change that has only really occurred over the last four or five decades. This will also have a pervasive and long-standing effect on the relationship between science and everyday life, just as the industrial revolution did. Get used to it.

Riiight. Revolutionizing spectroscopy in the first couple of years isn't good enough for you, it has to be 'mainstream'. We'll be seeing TeV sources in DVD players Real Soon Now.

You moved the goal posts, because you couldn't think of one either.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

Uh-oh. You are not being politically correct.

/BAH

'Politically correct' is for cowards and idiots.

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PD,

Wow, are you really expecting some electro-weak application. OK I guess you are taking the long view! Since I expect nothing from this in my lifetime (another 30 years if I'm lucky), or even my kids lifetime.

But I do have an example for your view. How about General Relativity. Without which we would not be able to synchronize all our clocks in orbit.

George