Physics Research Funding: Best Bang for the Bucks?

With CERN in the news for the fairly mundane reason of a major part of it being shut down for upgrades, this might be a good time to ask why it’s important, and how important it is compared to other big science projects.

Some people outside of science but with some popular-level curiosity, with main interests in spiritual and metaphysical matters, have some weird notions about CERN. None of their concerns have any substance. But first, what is the substance of CERN? (And why does CERN get all the conspiracy theory attention, and not SLAC, where I worked? We SLAC techs are jealous!)

CERN is a useful tool for plucking at the strings of the quantum fields making up the smallest parts of physical reality, but becoming less important with time, is how I look at it. Imagine being given a strange musical instrument. Tap it, tug on it, blow on it, tap it somewhere else and there’s pleasant ringing sound. Keep tapping it and exploring, and find more places that make sounds at various pitches.

With atoms, we can use microwaves, light, x-rays, electron beams and so on to “tap” them. We map out all kinds of frequencies that atoms produce or absorb. Early 20th Century quantum mechanics was developed to explain this in detail. It worked quite well. We understand atoms very well these days.

Observe next the few phenomena that can’t be explained at that level. Tap harder! Discover nuclear physics: pi mesons, K mesons, Delta hadrons, etc. Make theories, find one…