Friday, July 31, 2009
The LHC took a public relations lead by providing background footage for Angels and Demons http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN09/wn022009.html , but it still cant smash particles. Now
researchers have found flaws in different electrical connections that could limit the LHC energy.
Depending on how serious the problem turns out to be, it could delay restart of the accelerator, now slated for November. Meanwhile, the Tevatron at Fermilab is still the highest energy
accelerator in the world -- and it knows it.
Public support is vital to both labs. Fermilab, the underdog in the race, countered Angels and Demons with the lead story in Sunday's Parade magazine. Granted a brief reprieve by the
problems at the LHC, plus a heavy dose of stimulus money, Fermilabs Tevatron is smashing particles day and night, according to the author Stephen Fried. Parade, more noted for fawning
over celebrities and royalty than looking at science, claims an astounding 71 million readership. Writers would kill for such numbers.
CERN is funded by an international consortium of 60 countries; Fermilab, only by the US. Science will win either way; if the Higgs is there, both labs will find it, providing solid
confirmation.
Much has been made of Collins oft-stated belief in evolution. An op-ed in Monday's New York Times gives a very different picture. Sam Harris, best- selling author of "The End of Faith,"
quotes from a series of slides Collins used in a lecture on science and belief at UC Berkeley. Consider Slide 2: "God's plan included the mechanism of evolution to create the marvelous
diversity of living things on our planet. Most especially, that creative plan included human beings." If you listen closely you may be able to hear me screaming, "There is no plan!"
That, for God's sake, is the wonderful beauty of Darwinian evolution!
Forget the landing-on-other-worlds stuff. According to the New York Times this morning, a panel of the Augustine committee favors a plan for human space flight that would go beyond
low-Earth orbit, but avoid the deep-
gravity wells of the Moon and Mars. What's left? The article suggests
Lagrange points, asteroids and the small moons of Mars. Were gonna send people to Lagrange points? For all the potential importance of Lagrange points, their intrinsic interest is zero.
Is this just an indirect way of saying there is no role for humans in space?
A colleague in the UK pointed out that several articles this week hailed as good news studies showing that depleted world fisheries recover when fishing is stopped. This less than
remarkable result should be read as a showing that there are too many people eating fish. Its another signal that world population has grown beyond its sustainable limits.
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