I love tech. No, that’s not quite right — I’m enthralled with technology’s potentials. Unfortunately, those potentials, at least in my life, generally mean gizmos and gadgets that are far too complicated and time consuming to learn so all the wonderful “potential” remains unrealized. It takes a commitment of time and energy to learn new “stuff”, like how to change the clock in your car when the time changes.
I’ve been watching the story of the Large Hadron Collider since construction started. I’ve watched it not because I anticipated a mini black hole to gobble up the earth and our solar system, but because although I don’t like to learn about how things work, or how to make them work, I love it when others put in the time and effort and I benefit in some ancillary fashion.
Even given my enjoyment and support of scientific endeavors that expand our understanding and knowledge base I laughed when I read today’s article on the new [profanely expensive] collider…
‘Experiment May Help Cure Cancer’
The world’s most expensive and biggest ever experiment could help cure cancer, fight bird flu and solve the problem of radioactive waste, a leading scientist has told Sky News.
The world’s most expensive and biggest ever experiment could help cure cancer, fight bird flu and solve the problem of radioactive waste, a leading scientist has told Sky News.
The £4.4bn Large Hadron Collider fires protons round a 17-mile-long tunnel at close to light speed in order to smash them in to each other.
The giant machine, buried 100m under the ground near Geneva, Switzerland, is supposed to re-create conditions seen after the Big Bang, the event that many scientists believe gave birth to the universe around 14 billion years ago.
[...]Firing protons into tumours could kill them without damaging surrounding tissue, Dr Parker said.
He added that the research surrounding the collider and its results could also show scientists how to tailor-make substances that will fight diseases such as bird flu.
And if scientists do learn to control protons, they could use them to make lethal radioactive waste harmless by altering its internal structure, Dr Parker told Sky’s David Bowden.
After I stopped laughing, for some unknown reason, I suddenly remembered how the computer was going to do away with paper in the work place. My office alone is responsible for the razing of several acres of forest every month so I’m still waiting for that bit of tech potential to be realized.
Instead of the world being gobbled by a mini black hole, the LHC is going to cure every ill and problem plaguing humanity. I can start looking around for something other than avian influenza to occupy all of the spare time I don’t have because it’s even going to solve that problem. And, no doubt just as efficiently as the computer made offices “paperless”.
SZ
{ 2 comments }
Jay S. 09.11.08 at 8:55 am
The thought of what awaits us/these scientists is beyond titillating but I am even more enthralled that someone actually thought this thing up and built it.
I had the rare pleasure of a behind the scenes visit at Fermi lab this past summer and meeting with a physicist/engineer who built some of the components used in this “machine”. He told me many of these components were built on the fly as necessitated by the part or component created before it this scientist told me. In many ways it created itself he said. I was in awe of this person and the scraps of aluminum and wires strewn all around the lab. Also, looking at this “gizmo” and all it’s hand made parts, then knowing that it was to be sent to Geneva to soon help unlock secrets and mysteries of the beginning of time, was quite surreal and a true gee whiz moment for me.
I just wish more people could really appreciate this wonder that is about to unfold.
SophiaZoe 09.11.08 at 7:07 pm
Jay,
Yes, fundamental understanding will be greatly expanded by the super-collider, and that is “exciting stuff” indeed. How practical that understanding will be has yet to be known.
And as a frustrated “child of the stars” I cannot help but get giddy at thoughts of quantum teleportation and photon drives. Perhaps something my grandchildren will see in their lifetimes….
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