EoW November 2008

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Magic in the mountains...
With the possible – and justified –
exceptions of cancer cures and space
exploration (though even the latter
doesn’t ignite the same enthusiasm it once
did) scientific advances seem rarely to get
the general media attention they deserve.
What a refreshing change, then, that the
first attempt to circulate a beam through the
entire 27km of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider
provoked radio and TV programming and
acres of newsprint not confined to the usual
scientific journals.
CERN’s already produced some impressive
technology. Established in 1954, its ENQUIRE
project spawned the network we call the
World Wide Web, and CERN scientists have
Nobel prizes in physics for advances in
computing and particle physics, but I’m sure
the organisation has never received so much
public attention as it did on 10th September.
About time too.
Perhaps if science could generate more
media excitement, then the decline in
students studying (in the UK) science
subjects beyond the age of fourteen (and
the consequent shortage of teachers and
researchers in these subjects) would begin to
be addressed. Would the public’s attention
have been captured to the same degree if we
hadn’t been threatened that the End of the
World is (or just might be) Nigh? And does
it matter, if the end result is more people
enthused by science and the unseen powers
that move us?
Professor Stephen Hawking was among
the scientists and philosophers invited to
explain the magic of wimps, dark matter and
the hunt for the hypothetical Higgs boson.
If his voice simulator can laugh out loud I’m
surprised it didn’t when he was asked about
the possibility of the universe disappearing
into a black hole within minutes of the LHC’s
activation. However, he treated the question
with respect; it is, after all, a theory and it’s
the proving and disproving of theories that
brings about advances.
Arthur C Clarke asserted that any sufficiently
advanced technology is indistinguishable
from magic. The Large Hadron Collider
has all the ingre-
dients – it even
nestles inside a
mountain, where
all the best magic
comes from.
Physics is magic.
We can all use a
little magic.
Gill Watson
The International Magazine
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