Re: The Biggest Experiments in Science

Spiros wrote:
>
> Uncle Al <UncleAl0@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:<42499E38.C3ABA453@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>...
> > 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.
[snip]

> The issue I suppose is that to make good compelling TV for the masses
> means that you need the "wow" factor.

You cannot stay in business unless you move product. The mob is
tremendously hard to sell with reality for being State-certified
uneducated in everything, numbed by eye-popping special effects, and
trained to have an attention span of about five seconds.

> Although New Scientist is often
> derided as being a bit populist and ready to jump on any old bandwagon
> for the sake of a good headline they write the sort of articles that
> get the 99.999% of the population who run away at the mere mention of
> physics, interested.

The vital engine of print journalism ultimately rests upon
entertainers and Page 3 girls. More's the pity.

> Translating this sort of stuff onto screen will
> hopefully make people realise that the billions that are being spent
> on these projects are in no way wasted and will hopefully inspire a
> few people to take up the sciences (an area which is sadly dwindling
> in the UK , which is where I am from).
>
> I think the EP experiment definitely fits the criteria of potentially
> revolutionising physics, but I suppose i was being slightly ingenuous
> when I said that scale was not important.

The general public would not care. It merely hangs there like the
Sword of Damocles, in the dark, in vacuum. If it did work big time
the public selling point would not be General Relativity overthrown,
it would be quartz crystals. New Age rock shops will be cleaned out.

> The viewing public (I am
> hoping this programme will go to a major a major UK terrestrial
> channel and not be stuck away on Nat Geo) do like a a big machine,
> they like big numbers and they want to see lots of scientists running
> around in white coats with clipboards.

Rotating red strobes and big white plumes of liquid nitrogen vapor.
Sudden panic amongst the troops. A newborn *thing* trying to pry
itself loose from the electronics. Brave folks in weird suits running
to kill it with quantum rifles and Heisenberg nets.

There's that zeta-pinch thingie at Sandia National Laboratories. The
pulse generator is in a big pool of ultrapure water as insulation.
When they pluck the magic twanger it's Hell on Earth.

> Saying that I love the story of Gravity Probe B and this is now in our
> potential list.

It also tests the Equivalence Principle. Two pairs of fused silica
gyroballs are spinning 10,000 rpm anti-parallel. They are each plated
with a thin layer of pure niobium cooled to superconductivity. The
fused silica housing is essentially stationary (less than 1 rpm).
This demonstrates that spinning and stationary matter fall
identically, and that (spinning) superconductors fall like ordinary
matter. A lot of antigravity hype is thereby killed by
demonstration.

> I hope your Eotvos produces a non-null result, physics seems to have
> reached a bit of an impasse over the last 20 years and could do with
> something elegant coming along to sort it out. As a non-scientist
> things Like M-Theory do not seem to have the appropriate elegance that
> befits nature. (That will get me flamed no doubt!)
>
> Kind regards

The full parity Eotvos experiment will started, run for three months,
and finished this year. The results are what they are. At the moment
we are scouring the planet for flawless untwinned optically
left-handed quartz to get things going a couple of months before
custom-grown stuff can come out. Minimum 3 cm in all dimensions for
the rough, 6-10 pieces. There isn't any! Who could have imagined the
hardest part of all this would be looking for rocks in Brazil?

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

.

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