Social Thoughts

 

Is it really worth all the money??

Many people just cannot see or justify any legitimate reason for spending billions of dollars (the newest proposed linear accelerator estimated to cost $6 billion) to build a particle accelerator. The point behind using these multi million dollar "atom smashers" to smash together things which you cannot see, to get things which you also cannot see, they do not see. They see nothing to be gained by the quest at the unknown. Why not spend the money instead on medical research, education, social programs, or just save the money and give the American public the tax cuts they are always craving.

Some do believe that there is something to be gained in this research but feel that the constant desire to keep updating existing accelerators, and build new ones is not needed. They ask why does it have to be the "best one." Build a "pretty good" one and save money. In the end they can see no results that effect there lives so they feel that the gain of the unknown is out wayed by their pocket books.

The other side is made up of those who live to discover the unknown. They want to push the envelope, and argue that this push also pushes society forward. Many of our technological advances come from first science needing them, and the technology is then adapted for public and private uses. At CERN's new Large Hadron Collinder. which is currently being built, IBM will be providing a vitalization software. Just like in past years CERN will be used as a testing ground for new computer technologies. To quote Tom Hawk, a general manager at IBM, "The CERN project could serve as a test bed for Storage Tank software, which is largely unreleased. Financial-services companies, for example, need help unifying customer records across systems developed at companies now joined through mergers and acquisitions. Implementing Storage Tank at CERN could teach IBM how to scale the technology for business customers. CERN has been a proving ground for other now-mainstream information technologies--most notably the World Wide Web, invented there in 1990. CERN also helped Hewlett-Packard and Intel develop the Itanium architecture in the early '90s."

The other thing to consider is the international ties brought together by the work done on particle accelerators. Most particle accelerator projects are international, fostering ties between nations that might not normally meet on the same ground in all cases. Depending on which point of view you take this can be considered a potential breach of national security. Or it can be considered a chance to develop trust among nations which have traditionally had tension between them.

One other things worth mentioning, work with sub atomic particles has lead to many advances in x-ray and medical scanning techniques.

 

For a look at a new requested linear particle accelerator you can check out this article.

 

 

 

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