The Atom Smasher

Many people are familiar with the manifestation of physical principles at work, the simplest example being perhaps gravity that enables us to stand firmly on ground. But we may only have a hazy idea when it comes to the theory underlying the principle, let alone being able to explain how it works. In fact, the surest way to kill a conversation is to invoke physics in a social setting, unless one is among like-minded people, like physicists.

Sure, wet get a dose of physics in high schools. Some may even have taken some introductory physics courses in the college. But that's as far as it goes, within the confines of academic environment.

Take that up another level, say, particle physics, even a Ph.D. holder in engineering like me will start rolling the eyes and spotting a glazed look. But that does not prevent me from being awed by the breakthroughs achieved by the science elites of the world, through my reading of Physics Today, a monthly magazine received as part of my membership in the American Society of Civil Engineers. Not that I'm able to grasp the gist of the articles therein, which I normally just gloss over anyway, but I do like reading some of the features like Letters, which is replete with witty remarks in fluent prose. Apparently, physicists, at least those who write to Physics Today, are excellent writers too. Occasionally, there are articles that deal with topics that intersect with my professional field such as fluid dynamics. Invariably, my interest is piqued and I pore through them.

Talking about physicists, one of my favorite bloggers happens to be a physicist, an astro-physicist to be exact, teaching at U. Southern California. Clifford's blog, Asymptotia (read his blog for his take on the blog title, which on first encounter seems like a variant of Asymptotic, a mathematical concept that we learn in high schools meaning increasingly approaching but never touching), deals with all matters science, but primarily from the human interest's angle. His recent blogs have been on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) [Hadrons are a bound state of quarks such as protons and neutrons], and the excitement engendered by the very first test conducted therein on Sep 10, 2009, 10.28am.

The good people at Google has done it again, this time in commemoration of the momentous event described above.

Sequestered at 100m underground near the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, LHC is essentially an elliptic tunnel reaching a length of 27km. It's the culmination of decades of planning of the international community of physicists under the aegies of European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). According to its website, LHC “is a particle accelerator used by physicists to study the smallest known particles – the fundamental building blocks of all things. It will revolutionize our understanding, from the minuscule world deep within atoms to the vastness of the Universe”. I'm sure some of us will wonder what aspects of our life can be unraveled by particle collisions approaching the speed of light. But make no mistake, it's huge. As some may incline to marvel, in like fashion to the first lunar landing in 1969, “One short trip for a proton, but one giant leap for mankind!”

But what caught my attention in the euphoria that followed is the negative ramifications, perceived or otherwise, that have appeared in the popular press. First, the safety issue. Speculation was rife that the event would spark off a micro-black hole, swallowing the entire earth in its wake. These doomsday scenarios have been categorically refuted by an international panel of independent scientists appointed by CERN based on the reasoning that the force field generated is so minuscule that the worst it can do is to impart a few holes in the tunnel. The recent spate of of earthquakes hitting Iran, China, Japan, and the Pacific islands is at best coincidental. I'm sure the scientists know what they are doing.

In US, the sentiment among the scientists is perhaps tinged by the diminished role of American scientists in this scientific endeavor. Billed as the rise of Eurocentrism in scientific research, some perceive the event as a signal of impending brain drain, sounding the death knell on the primacy of American scientific enterprise as we know it.

The way I see it, we live on the same planet. It really doesn't matter where the breakthroughs take place as long as they are done by the best minds, wherever they reside.

Now to those who are poetically inclined, read the LHC poem penned by Yvette Cendes (who else but another physicist) here (thanks to Clifford for the heads up).