Re: The Biggest Experiments in Science

From: Uncle Al (UncleAl0_at_hate.spam.net)
Date: 03/30/05 

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 00:40:24 +0000 (UTC)

Spiros wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I am posting to this group as it is moderated and i shall hopefull
> avoid cranks and glean some sensible and authoratative information.
>
> I work for a newly formed TV production company that is at the
> development phase of a programme based on what currently costitute the
> biggest experiments in science. "Biggest" in this sense relates not
> only to scale but also to the the extent to which they are probing the
> fundamentals of physics and existence.
>
> The ones that i have researched to date and which semm to fit this
> framework are as follows:
>
> 1) The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN
> 2) The ITER nuclear fusion project
> 3) The Cassini / Huygens project to determine if life could exist on
> Titan
> 4) Laser Interferometer Wave Observatory (LIGO)
> 5) The Pierre Auger Observatory - high energy cosmic ray experiement
>
> I would appreciate feedback on this choice. Please bear in mind that
> although bigger experiments are being proposed the above either all
> exist, or will soon to as funding has been allocated.
>
> Also bear in mind that I work in TV and too many equations tend to
> make me want to reach for yet another gin and tonic.

http://einstein.stanford.edu/
 Gravity Probe-B. Does the spinning Earth grab space?

The very biggest experiments can fit on a benchtop. If you had two
lumps of stuff that fell differently you would kill General Relativity
(that assumes everything local falls identically in vacuum - the
Equivalence Principle). You might also take down the Standard Model
and quantum mechanics. Folks have wondered if different chemical
compositions fall differently for 400+ years,

http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/eotvos.htm#b22
 historical list

The apparatus has become wonderfully clever and sensitive - the size
of your fist shielded inside a water heater,

http://www.npl.washington.edu/eotwash/
 Eric Adelberger and Blayne Heckel - masters of the art
http://www.physics.uci.edu/gravity/
 Riley Newman - cryogenic Eotvos balance in a missile bunker
http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~kostelec/mov.html
 Alan Kostelecky

Jun Luo at the Department of Physics, Huazhong University of Science
and Technology, Wuhan PR China is breaking new ground. He is
comparing test masses of *identical* chemical composition but opposite
atomic lattice handedness. Does a left hand fall identically to a
right hand? The first experiment had a modestly interesting outcome.
Alas, no Web page,

Vox 0086-27-87556653
Fax 0086-27-87542391
junluo 'at' mail.hust.edu.cn
junluo 'at' public.wh.hb.cn 

-- 
Uncle Al
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
 (Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals)
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/qz.pdf