for the physicists

[KrazyHorse]

Suckers.

You guys are on the hook for over a half bill

[Drake Tungsten]

One need only look at the members of the US government to realize that we're a nation of suckers.

[a.kitman]

when i see scientist talking about it on the telly they seem pretty excited about it. is there no chance at all that this will lead to usefull inventions?

[KrazyHorse]

I didn't say that. Any time you have a huge, technologically challenging project there will be unintended benefits. That doesn't mean that the actual goal of the project is something worthwhile. Much of the US space program is fundamentally useless. Have there been important discoveries made in the process of doing useless things like landing men on the moon? Sure. Doesn't mean that you should pay to land men on the moon.

[KrazyHorse]

In other words, the useful discoveries are not going to come from the actual results that we get. They're going to (have already?) come from designing and building the damn thing.

[Theben]

We've already picked the low-hanging fruit.

Holy ****, we gave you guys the power to wipe the Earth completely clean of life, and you ask us "what have you done for us lately"? Greedy bastards.

The ability to instantly replace it with something else more to our liking.

[Jon Miller]

We are still trying to apply nuclear physics.

Actually, we are still trying to apply atomic physics.

Particle physics applications are a long long way off.

JM

[KrazyHorse]

JM is completely correct. They are trying to apply knowledge of interactions at energy scales of a few MeV. We are attempting to discover what goes on at energy scales of a few hundred GeV to a few TeV. That is 10^5 - 10^6 times more energetic. Think about that for a few seconds.

There will be no applications of current particle physics research for at least the next 50-100 years (or more).

[Elok]

Question: If you put a human being, say Gilbert Gottfried, in the LHC before turning it on, what would happen to him? Would the particles moving at insane speeds rip actual holes in him (and if so, how big)? Would they pass through invisibly but cause substantial damage en route so that he later died of massive internal hemorrhaging or something? Or would they just pass through invisibly? Or would the presence of Gilbert Gottfried within the tube prevent the LHC from functioning at all?

Also, if you dropped a ton of pure sodium into the Pacific ocean, how freaking awesome would it be?

[Kuciwalker]

Question: If you put a human being, say Gilbert Gottfried, in the LHC before turning it on, what would happen to him?

He would suffocate and die because it's supposed to be a vacuum. Also he might outgas enough (I don't remember how big it is) that they couldn't create enough of a vacuum to turn it on.

[Aeson]

So put him in a space suit? (These are the types of questions we really should be answering. Elok )

[Drake Tungsten]

Can we divert funds from the LHC to pay for the dropping of a ton of sodium in Lake Michigan?

[Elok]

Question: If you put a human being, say Gilbert Gottfried, in the LHC before turning it on, what would happen to him?

He would suffocate and die because it's supposed to be a vacuum. Also he might outgas enough (I don't remember how big it is) that they couldn't create enough of a vacuum to turn it on.

Eh, that works for me too. Put him in there.

[Jon Miller]

Note that in the early 90s we spent over 1 billion making a whole for a superconducting supercollider in texas which we than filled in...

JM

[Kuciwalker]

JM, Lori is going to ban you, and you'll deserve it.