There is good news and bad news about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that began -- finally -- to smash protons beams together at 99% of the speed of light today below the fields and meadows at CERN's facility at the Swiss-French border. Which news is which? Look below the fold.
Good news (Part 1): The LHC apparently works as designed and considering the time and money that went into the project, that's a good thing. The LHC is likely one of the most complex devices created by mankind, and the fact that it appears to work as planned is a testimony to the conceptual and creative ability of the human mind.
Good news (Part 2): The world did not end, as some had feared. At least, this world did not end, although it is possible that at the moment the LHC turned on, a parallel universe popped into existence, wherein a black hole created by the LHC suddenly swallow a parallel Earth and all with it. Kinda sucks for them.
Bad news: That this marvelous piece of machinery does not exist in the United States. Years ago, we had the chance of building a similar structure here below the somewhat more austere fields of Texas. Congress refused to appropriate money for the project, citing defiict fears. But I suspect that a larger issue was the inability of many Americans to recognize the clear connection between scientific achievement, on one hand, and our material welfare and our ultimate survival as a species, on the other. We live in a country where science is demeaned and undercut at the Federal and state level, where creationists in Texas dictate the scientific content of textbooks nationwide, and where the general level of public awareness of the benefits that come from scientific education and inquiry is embarrassing. We live in a country where for years, manufacturers denied the cigarettes caused cancer, where public officials continue to insist that global warming is a fiction created by scientists seeking to reengineer society, and where most of the population regularly rejects Darwinian evolution as an explanation for the creation of the human species. We stand to lose so much -- at the most basic level, CERN and its affiliates will generate billions of dollars of economic development directly related to the operation of the LHC that could have been ours. More worrisome, however, is that our intellectual leadership will suffer, as, over the many years of its operation, the LHC will attract the wisest minds in science to work at CERN and its related facilites, rather than here in the US. The LHC is a great thing for mankind, but it is sobering proof that we seem to lack the foresight and self-confidence that prior generations of Americans possessed.
It is time that we put scientific achievement back at the center of our national endeavors, and educate our citizens to appreciate the importance and validity of scientific inquiry to our future.
Updated: First trip to the rec list -- thanks so much! Still no black holes in sight.
Update X2: Who would have thought that a diary about particle physics would draw almost 600 comments -- the most on DailyKos yesterday! And the comments make wonderful reading -- sophistictatd explanations of high energy physics, droll discussions of alternate universes and black holes, and lots of Star Trek arcana. Best comment of the day: A visitor from RedState.com would simply not understand what those crazy people at DailyKos are talking about -- what is Schrödinger's cat, anyway? There's a reason why we come here, and it is because smart, thinking people are reading DailyKos, 24 by 7. Good work, Kossacks!