Live data from Hacker News

CERN accepts $1B in private cash towards Future Circular Collider

physicsworld.com

41–50 of 126 posts

Re: CERN accepts $1B in private cash towards Future Circular Collider

#41
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cancer treatment goes back to particle physics research at CERN, the Web was born there, cloud was previously known as Grid Computing at CERN, Three examples of how humanity would not be as we know it today without CERN. As Alumni, there are many other changes that trace back to CERN. We don't sit only on the H1 beer garden and go skiing.

> Cancer treatment goes back to particle physics Are you speaking about proton therapy? I don’t think there’s any evidence that works better than alternatives

What do you mean by 'any evidence that works better Than alternatives'?

It can deliver radiations to the brain that will peak at the exact position of the cancer, and reduce irradiation in sane tissues. The 'better' is 'less irradiation to sane tissues' that in turn reduces the risk for new cancers.

Note: I'm not expert on the matter, but I had technical visits to IBA and know several PhDs that work there

Re: CERN accepts $1B in private cash towards Future Circular Collider

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe we can just have the AI hardware make the discoveries for us!

A thousand gpus running a thousand LLMs will one day soon give us the next shakespeare. It will all be worth it in the end. Maybe we can try putting in on a blockchain.

> Maybe we can try putting in on a blockchain.

Anything less would be a wasted opportunity!

Re: CERN accepts $1B in private cash towards Future Circular Collider

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cancer treatment goes back to particle physics Are you speaking about proton therapy? I don’t think there’s any evidence that works better than alternatives

What do you mean by 'any evidence that works better Than alternatives'? It can deliver radiations to the brain that will peak at the exact position of the cancer, and reduce irradiation in sane tissues. The 'better' is 'less irradiation to sane tissues' that in turn reduces the risk for new cancers. Note: I'm not expert on the matter, but I had technical visits to IBA and know several PhDs that work there

> What do you mean by 'any evidence that works better Than alternatives'?

I mean exactly that, clinical trials demonstrating that proton therapy is superior to radiation therapy. This is not a question about the physics but about how patients respond (and whether the expense of delivering proton therapy outweighs the expected marginal benefits).

Re: CERN accepts $1B in private cash towards Future Circular Collider

#45

As someone who supports pure science research, I would be interested to understand if any of the discoveries of CERN (and related projects) in the last 50 years (say) have proved to have practical application. (Specifically, "discoveries", not technology developed in support of the research)

Before your edit:

The world wide web: https://home.cern/science/computing/birth-web

certain medical imaging: https://home.cern/news/news/knowledge-sharing/medipix-partic...

grid computing advances: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00104...

PIMMS: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4724719/

Medicis: https://home.cern/news/news/accelerators/cern-accelerates-me...

FLASH radiotherapy: https://home.cern/news/news/knowledge-sharing/cern-chuv-and-...

---

After your edit:

No, not yet, but those are long tail efforts. The technologies are the short term yield.

Re: CERN accepts $1B in private cash towards Future Circular Collider

#46
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cancer treatment goes back to particle physics Are you speaking about proton therapy? I don’t think there’s any evidence that works better than alternatives

What matters is that exists, and is another possibility for treatments. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4724719/

I disagree that any new possibility for treatments should be lauded. The theoretical side of things is fine, but many new treatments are far more expensive than existing options without offering improved outcomes.

This is orthogonal to your point about CERN being useful.

Re: CERN accepts $1B in private cash towards Future Circular Collider

#47

As someone who supports pure science research, I would be interested to understand if any of the discoveries of CERN (and related projects) in the last 50 years (say) have proved to have practical application. (Specifically, "discoveries", not technology developed in support of the research)

With that kind of fundamental science I would expect no practical applications but guidance for researchers that work on practical applications.

There are many ideas on how the universe works, right? Knowing which ideas are closer to the truth must be helpful to people who work on nano scale stuff, like chips so fine that quantum effect are considerable.

It must be somewhere between knowing if there's alien life or not AND knowing that atoms can be split at sub particles at will.

Re: CERN accepts $1B in private cash towards Future Circular Collider

#48
post #36
post #5

“Eric Schmidt, who founded Google” no he didn’t

That kind of reporting is awful. How is it they can’t either go to Wikipedia or one of the LLMs (despite hallucinations, tend to get simple things right) and get some corroborating evidence before making such basic mistakes on an article?

You are right. ChatGPT doesn’t catch this, instead catches things like CERN having 25 member states instead of 24.

I would have expected it to catch it but it did not. I’m sure pro version would have though.

Re: CERN accepts $1B in private cash towards Future Circular Collider

#49

it's already a black hole for funding

Said the grumpy grandpa, shaking his hand at the cloudy sky. I dont know what value that comment contributed, funding research is always a long shot. And often times it fails, but that is kinda its purpose, we dont know what we dont know.

your comment made me smile like a grandpa :)

Also lighten up! oh... damn black hole...

Re: CERN accepts $1B in private cash towards Future Circular Collider

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe we can just have the AI hardware make the discoveries for us!

A thousand gpus running a thousand LLMs will one day soon give us the next shakespeare. It will all be worth it in the end. Maybe we can try putting in on a blockchain.

“ Perhaps my old age and fearfulness deceive me, but I suspect that the human species - the unique species - is about to be extinguished, but the Library will endure: illuminated, solitary, infinite, perfectly motionless, equipped with precious volumes, useless, incorruptible, secret.”
Post reply on HN