The world, a la Eliot, may very well end with a whimper, but did it start with a bang? An international band of scientists, currently engaged in a path-breaking experiment to establish the truth or falsity of concepts that have so far been in the realm of hypothesis, might soon come up with an answer. The Large Hadron Collider, which cost around two and a half billion pounds to build, has been designed to replicate the conditions that existed just after the presumed ‘big bang’, the gargantuan explosion that is thought to have created the universe. Scientists involved in the project, sponsored by twenty nations under the banner of European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), hope that the LHC would prove to be a key to unlock the secrets of the origin of the universe. In addition, they also hope that the experiment will throw greater light on the constituents of the universe, answer riddles such as what makes it expand, as well as predict its future. The LHC, which will fire beams of proton to collide at unprecedented speed, will empower scientists to smash the components of atoms to see how they are made. Scientists are also hopeful that they might discover new components such as `superpartners’ which could make up the dark matter that holds galaxies together, as also the enigmatic Higgs boson particle, which is theorized to give mass to all other particles.
Touted as the largest scientific experiment in human history, the project has had the blessings of renowned scientists such as Stephen Hawking, who dubs it “vital if the human race is not to stultify and eventually die out.” But scientific investigations have always had their share of critics and the LHC is no exception. In fact, prior to the commencement of the experiment, a law-suit was lodged at the European Court for Human Rights seeking to prevent it. The doomsday prophets, some ironically scientists themselves, expressed fear that the machine, by generating temperatures of more than a trillion degrees centigrade, could create mini black holes which might tear the world apart! Fortunately for science, the Court heeded the responses of pro-project scientists who deemed it absolutely safe and rejected the application, enabling CERN to commence experimentation as scheduled. However, there are some who have criticized the expenses incurred in building the LHC on the ground that the findings, whatever these might be, will have no practical use or value. Such criticism is patently absurd, for pure science has always been the springboard from which utilitarian science has taken off. If the LHC, by unraveling some of its mysteries, help mankind to have a greater understanding of the structure of the universe, it would be well worth the expense. source: assam tribune editorial 12.09.08
Touted as the largest scientific experiment in human history, the project has had the blessings of renowned scientists such as Stephen Hawking, who dubs it “vital if the human race is not to stultify and eventually die out.” But scientific investigations have always had their share of critics and the LHC is no exception. In fact, prior to the commencement of the experiment, a law-suit was lodged at the European Court for Human Rights seeking to prevent it. The doomsday prophets, some ironically scientists themselves, expressed fear that the machine, by generating temperatures of more than a trillion degrees centigrade, could create mini black holes which might tear the world apart! Fortunately for science, the Court heeded the responses of pro-project scientists who deemed it absolutely safe and rejected the application, enabling CERN to commence experimentation as scheduled. However, there are some who have criticized the expenses incurred in building the LHC on the ground that the findings, whatever these might be, will have no practical use or value. Such criticism is patently absurd, for pure science has always been the springboard from which utilitarian science has taken off. If the LHC, by unraveling some of its mysteries, help mankind to have a greater understanding of the structure of the universe, it would be well worth the expense. source: assam tribune editorial 12.09.08
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