In Defence of the LHC

Something I have to get off my chest here, and its the constant bashing by the ignorant of the Large Hadron Collider. Whilst I am excited at the new possibilities that this awesome piece of engineering will offer I still hear the same grumbling from the anti-science mob "It costs too much" "It's not going to affect me" "could they not spend the money on something more worthwhile?" etc.

To those who say it costs too much, this project was undertaken with participation from 40 different countries - Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan Republic, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan. Costs being split (not equally) among them, Also what price do you put on building something never before attempted?. CERN is also a nuclear physics research group so what else are they going to do?. People like to just lump them with the general term "scientists" but the are a distinct breed of scientist, physicists and these are the tools of their trade.

"Its not going to affect me" to these guys I ask do you feel the same about general relativity theory ? some have said yes, that general relativity has no impact on their day to day lives. Yet I notice they all use cell phones, most have GPS in their cars as they drive home, some watch satellite TV, all of us pay attention to the weather forecast. So how are all these linked?. Satellites, All the way up there in the sky and keeping them up there would be much more difficult if we did not understand that planets warp the space around them. The deeper understanding we have the orbital mechanics around us had directly impacted out life in a huge way. The LHC is now going to push our understanding further answering the questions such as what is mass? are there extra dimensions? how exactly does gravity work?. The possibilities that await us as a result of these discoveries are endless and could impact us in every area of our life.

But it saddens me that every scientific endeavour now is met with a shoulder shrugging "so what" attitude. But put it like this for £6 billion 40 countries came together and put together the worlds largest machine. The LHC now employs over 100 different nationalities all brought together in the spirit of discovery. If you are a US citizen then the Iraq war as of 2008 cost near on $450 billion the LHC costs $9 billion. So for a 0.02% of the Iraq war you can push the advance human knowledge on the grandest scale yet.

Bargain of the century.

Scientists , more useful than any ex-Lord Provost.

The following is an email sent to the former provost of Aberdeen, Jim Reynolds. As seems to custom these days people take stabs at CERN and the LHC without taking time to fully understand what it is and the incredible discoveries that await.


Mr Reynolds,

I couldn't help but read with a lot of dismay your ill-informed, anti-science rhetoric in your "Second Big Bang is A Waste of Cash" today's (5th April 2010) Evening express. You seem to dismiss one of greatest engineering and scientific achievements in human history, namely the LHC built by CERN. Lets look at your article step by step.

"I thought the world was going through recession and money was tight, yet scientists have spent over £6 Billion on a machine to re-create the Big Bang"

Well a number of problems here, if you had done some research first you would have found out that that the building of the LHC was approved back in 1995, and the first passing of the particles through the LHC began in September 2008. Also over 40 countries were involved in the construction with each country contributing to the cost. This is hardly a new thing that scientists cooked up over night.

"What an absolute waste of money who cares what happened 13 billion years ago"

Is there a cut-of date for how far into the past scientists can research?. Also the LHC is about more than the Big Bang it is an attempt to understand the fundamentals of space, time, mass energy. If Einstein was with us right now he would be excited beyond words, but hey you an Ex-Provost would tell us what do these damned scientists know about anything?. We stand on the brink of discovering what makes up mass, how quantum mechanics and general relativity interact, are there extra dimensions to space? and many other profound discoveries await us but you think this is a waste of time and money?. Please I would like to see you tell that to the hundreds of brilliant minds that brought this into reality. Would you have scoffed at Copernicus when he discovered helio centrism? would you tell him who cares if our planet orbits the sun?

"Who gives a hoot if our great, great granny was an ape?"

Now you are showing how truly ignorant you are of science, and that you are in no position to be so scathing. Firstly the LHC has nothing to do with you poorly worded attack on evolution. The LHC deals with physics and Evolution is Biology, a basic secondary eduction would tell you this. Also we humans are apes, not separate from ape we share a common ancestor with modern day apes extensive research but those pesky scientists you seem to have so little time for confirms this. Also if you don't give a hoot about evolutionary biology then I'm sure you wouldn't object to never having another vaccination. Vaccinations only came about through our understanding that viruses evolve over time and change, but then again who gives a hoot?.

"Their latest test which was carried out last week was obviously timed to coincide with Easter"

This is worrying as you have now gone from anti science into plain conspiracy mode. The latest test were performed because the LHC has to shut down in the winter to save the costs of running it. And are you suggesting they should avoid doing tests just because of Easter would you advise them not to test in case in clashed with Ramadan ?

"Could it be they merely wanted to Disprove the existence of God?"

How this is linked to the work at the LHC I have no idea , a great many scientists believe in god and science does not make any comment on the supernatural pro or con. Science draws conclusions based on the evidence it discovers and has an excellent track record of discovery and expanding human knowledge.

But then again discovery, knowledge and understanding reality who really gives a hoot ?

Answer - Humanity.