71–80 of 153 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"beer"... /ducks
Ok now I’m curious what beer is served at CERN. I am not familiar with any Swiss beer and only a handful of unspectacular French beers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"beer"... /ducks
Ok now I’m curious what beer is served at CERN. I am not familiar with any Swiss beer and only a handful of unspectacular French beers.
The real problem is that theoretical particle physics had hit a local optimum that they can't break out of. String theory hasn't panned out, quantum gravity hasn't panned out, and no one really knows where to go next.
This is a complete misunderstanding of the state of physics. The problem is not theoretical physics, if anything, the problem lies in our technological/engineering prowess that has not been able to follow our advances in physics. The Standard Model has some issues but it's, in principle, a valid effective description of all the fundamental forces minus gravity. The issue is that quantum effects of gravity are negligi…
My Fermilab story: when I was designing my dissertation experiment it became clear that i would need ~$100k in silicon strip charged particle detectors, and that no company would ever microbond the thousands of connections for me due to the low volume. Fermilab gave me detectors that had been QC rejects from the outer barrel of the CMS detector at CERN for free, and bonded them to my boards for essentially materials…
Reminds me of this story: https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-caltech-glassb... There are continuous technical workforce challenges in science because the methods keep advancing. If only there were money it. Instead we have engineers, scientists, and physicians driving Uber and we outsource and offshore the entire scientific supply chain.
We lose techniques all the time but gain new ones. I designed a scientific instrument once that had a long precision bore through it. I designed it with the belief that I needed clearances for a large stiff boring bar to make the feature.
I showed the prints to my machinist, and he told me they were just gonna put it on the five axis and hit the bore on both sides with an end mill. That it was as accurate as how the old guys did it.
It was.
> “We did not write a very good contract for the excavation,” ... “There were all kinds of loopholes in it, and the excavation company made an awful lot of money off of us.”
Another thing that strikes me is, why is construction in the U.S. so corrupt and such a money pit? I don't think I have ever heard of a large construction project being delivered on time and on budget. I understand construction is very difficult, but it just seems out of control.
The real problem is that theoretical particle physics had hit a local optimum that they can't break out of. String theory hasn't panned out, quantum gravity hasn't panned out, and no one really knows where to go next.
This is a complete misunderstanding of the state of physics. The problem is not theoretical physics, if anything, the problem lies in our technological/engineering prowess that has not been able to follow our advances in physics. The Standard Model has some issues but it's, in principle, a valid effective description of all the fundamental forces minus gravity. The issue is that quantum effects of gravity are negligi…
Some categories shouldn't be privatized like medicine, military arms, basic science, road maintenance, and emergency rescue operations. Elon isn't going to work on particle physics without a direct commercial purpose.
Who decides what “basic science” is?
1: It kept a workforce advancing, both at the labs themselves, and at all the suppliers and manufacturers who fed into them. Those mega-budgets weren't buying mega-yachts for the lab directors; they flowed into mega-upgrades for industry, who could score "juicy government lab contracts" and advance their capabilities, which then paid dividends for the rest of the sector.
2: It supplied national prestige. The best and brightest from all over the world would fall over themselves to work in labs here. The moon landing shattered records for the most-watched TV broadcast ever, and a billion people knew America was on top of the world.
Both of these had significant trickle-down effects, which I don't think were fully appreciated until we let them rot on the vine.
I think "science" in the sense that GP uses it, should refer to any research that ticks both of the above boxes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a complete misunderstanding of the state of physics. The problem is not theoretical physics, if anything, the problem lies in our technological/engineering prowess that has not been able to follow our advances in physics. The Standard Model has some issues but it's, in principle, a valid effective description of all the fundamental forces minus gravity. The issue is that quantum effects of gravity are negligi…
Sure blame the experimentalists. If the theorists are so smart maybe they can use their immense brilliance to draw on their chalkboards with femtoscale precision. All joking aside, while you are correct that we don't really have the technological ability to advance on a better theory of Quantum Gravity. But theorists need a rich experimental backdrop for their work to be meaningful. Since this is lacking, theoretical…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"beer"... /ducks
Ok now I’m curious what beer is served at CERN. I am not familiar with any Swiss beer and only a handful of unspectacular French beers.
(2003-2007 period)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"beer"... /ducks
Ok now I’m curious what beer is served at CERN. I am not familiar with any Swiss beer and only a handful of unspectacular French beers.