On hadron colliders, dark matter and black holes

[jfrazierjr]

And if all else fails, Switzerland will have the worlds largest indoor dog walking park.....umm that cost 3 billion pounds....I hope the dogs really appreciate the expense....

[Micco]

I think the HLC is exactly the right thing to be doing as a joint world project. The benefits will be very similar to the race to the moon...lots of secondary and tertiary technologies that will drive the next economies and improve the human condition. If we are very lucky we'll figure out some real fundamental knowledge that will change everything (like figure out how to tap into ZPE!)

I think a manned mission to Mars needs to be on the short list of the next great joint ventures. We need to get some breeding pairs off the planet before it is devoured by black holes!

Seriously, I'm somewhat if a lay-fan of Stoichiometric Electro-Dynamics. Any chance we'll learn more about that huge energy constant sticking on the end of all those complex unifying theories? (Understanding that, being a particle physicist, you probably are not a fan of SED...)

[torstan]

Well Zero Point Energy and enormous wealths of free energy are generally considered to be myths, but it's well outside my field so I can't really take them on from much of a point of knowledge. I do know that you don't get any serious seminars about them, so I think they can probably be kept in the cupboard with the perpetual motion machines. However that is a sociological rather than scientifically based view. I'm afraid for a fuller answer you'd need to ask someone else (or I have to brush up on a few of the other areas of physics).

[jfrazierjr]

I think the HLC is exactly the right thing to be doing as a joint world project. The benefits will be very similar to the race to the moon...lots of secondary and tertiary technologies that will drive the next economies and improve the human condition. If we are very lucky we'll figure out some real fundamental knowledge that will change everything (like figure out how to tap into ZPE!)

I think a manned mission to Mars needs to be on the short list of the next great joint ventures. We need to get some breeding pairs off the planet before it is devoured by black holes!

Seriously, I'm somewhat if a lay-fan of Stoichiometric Electro-Dynamics. Any chance we'll learn more about that huge energy constant sticking on the end of all those complex unifying theories? (Understanding that, being a particle physicist, you probably are not a fan of SED...)

Well Zero Point Energy and enormous wealths of free energy are generally considered to be myths, but it's well outside my field so I can't really take them on from much of a point of knowledge. I do know that you don't get any serious seminars about them, so I think they can probably be kept in the cupboard with the perpetual motion machines. However that is a sociological rather than scientifically based view. I'm afraid for a fuller answer you'd need to ask someone else (or I have to brush up on a few of the other areas of physics).

OH OH OH.... I want my ZPM. I wanna power a flying city or an Antarctic super weapon. Gimme, gimme, gimme.....

[Micco]

Interesting. I'll have to go dig up the references to it, but about two or three years ago I did quite a bit of reading on some research being done by the Physics Department at Cal State. They were investigating Stochastic Electrodynamics as a unifying theory. It appears from the Wikipedia Article that "classical" physicists are still quite opposed to the notion. Not like that hasn't happened before.

All four papers are today recognized as tremendous achievements—and hence 1905 is known as Einstein's "Wonderful Year". At the time, however, they were not noticed by most physicists as being important, and many of those who did notice them rejected them outright. Some of this work—such as the theory of light quanta—remained controversial for years.[26][27]

But, of course, I'm not seriously comparing Haisch to Einstein (but you never really know, do you?) Ironically, SED is fundamentally based on Plank's arguments against quantum mechanics in his series of papers entitled The Theory of Heat Radiation.

I understand that the "Zero Point Field" is considered to be in the land of crackpots, but I found the SED theories to be very intriguing and possessing a certain elegance that Particle Physics is sorely lacking. Call me a simple engineer (you'd be right), but I just don't believe that the universe is as complicated as particle physics demands. While (as an engineer) I value empirical learning, I am left wholly unsatisfied with the results when the objective is ab initio understanding based on first principles. But that's just me.

None-the-less, HLC will at least keep the particle physicists busy with the pretty lines...and maybe we'll discover that there really is "mana" available to power our spells after all! Just let me know when that HLC comes up with a good explanation of the Casimir effect!

[torstan]

Note its the LHC not the HLC.

I'll have to look into those now. Any references you have would be good and I'll see if I can give a more intelligent answer than 'it's not my field but it smells fishy'!

Other news - first beam has made it around the LHC. That was the stated goal for today. Now they will try to get the second beam in the opposite direction.

[Valarian]

I think they can probably be kept in the cupboard with the perpetual motion machines.

You mean strapping buttered toast to the feet of a cat doesn't work?

[torstan]

I have to say that was always my favourite one. Unfortunately as cats are quantum beasts (c.f. schroedinger) they never stay where you put them. The cat/toast machine is fundamentally unstable.

[Micco]

but it smells fishy'!

It is definitely fishy!! But that doesn't mean it's not possible. And I found it strangely compelling in a science fiction type of way. So my interest is likely more "hope" than anything else. I'm also a skeptic in the true sense of the word...I am skeptical of both the quacks and of those who dismiss them out-of-hand.

The elegant explanation of the Casimir Effect is what has me wondering, somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind, if maybe these guys are on to something.

[NeonKnight]

DON'T LOOK AT THE CAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You'll KILL it!!!!!!!!!!!