I am immensely pleased to see this. Antimatter will prove to be a very useful - albeit dangerous as all .... - item for a number of applications, in part due to its complete conversion of equal matter/antimatter masses into pure energy with no "products" remaining. We just need to figure out how to make it on demand at the point of use Studying the differences between hydrogen/antihydrogen is just the first step - and a very cool one.
I am all for antipasto... and waffle on everything else.
Anyday now CERN may put a kink in the space time continuum and we will suddenly be relocated in the Jurassic period.
Hello!
Good one. When they were first starting preparations for the big set of systems that they have there. Those are the ones that were supposed to for example confirm the Higgs Boson, and possibly investigate the circumstances surrounding the First Three Minutes, several people with less common sense then a few others complained loudly and wrongly along those lines. And we are still here.
The Higgs Boson has been found (we think) and the rest of the studies are ongoing.
On that note - has anyone considered the implications of finding the Higgs boson? This being the "particle" that imparts the quality of having Mass to Matter.... And since mass is what - in sufficient quantities - distorts the fabric of spacetime, creating curvatures around the mass and generating the effect we perceive as gravity... What might come from us being able to manipulate the Higgs field? Might we finally be able to start to manipulate gravity itself? Imagine if we are now with the Higgs boson, where humanity was back when we first identified the electron. Have I been watching to much Sci-Fi, or is there a real possibility that we could be doing some unimaginably amazing things with this ever expanding knowledge of this new particle?
Hmmm... The only problem I have with science chasing the creation of the universe is that they might inadvertently find the means for destruction of it instead.
Intellectually it is all great fun and very stimulating. But then someone actually wants to exploit the knowledge in unanticipated ways and deep concerns creep in. It is an intellect versus greed dilemma.
On that note - has anyone considered the implications of finding the Higgs boson?
This is a little off topic, but I found one the other day. The Higgs boson walked in to the local church. The priest said, "we don't allow Higgs bosons in here."
And the Higgs boson replied, "But without me, you can't have mass!"
Hmmm... The only problem I have with science chasing the creation of the universe is that they might inadvertently find the means for destruction of it instead.
Intellectually it is all great fun and very stimulating. But then someone actually wants to exploit the knowledge in unanticipated ways and deep concerns creep in. It is an intellect versus greed dilemma.
Your concern is justified.
Knowledge is neutral..it is how one chooses to use it that matters.
As a species we have the means to end our existence in any number of ways...and have had it from the beginning of the species.
And as a species we have the means to lengthen our existence if we choose to.
For bad men to succeed, good men need to do but nothing....
Albert Einstien supposedly said, "If I had known what people were going to do with my science work, I'd have become a cobbler."
Bad men are predatory opportunist. New innovations are fertile ground for their hunting. Good men are held back by their own ethical and moral restraints, and often have to play catch up.
This is a little off topic, but I found one the other day. The Higgs boson walked in to the local church. The priest said, "we don't allow Higgs bosons in here."
And the Higgs boson replied, "But without me, you can't have mass!"
As you are probably aware I'm an avid collector of awful jokes, may I please borrow that one
I think a lot of people have been interpreting my question of "what if we have a handle on manipulating gravity itself" as being a fear-based question. It's not. I'm painfully aware of humankind's penchant for finding the most horrific, basal way of using a new innovation to crack more skulls open, but we've lived under the threat of nuclear annihilation now for over 60 years and we've managed to survive. So in truth, my thought is more along the lines of our potential ability to create gravitational warps - warp drive, wormholes, antigravity fields... stuff like that. If we can learn to get the Higgs field to wiggle according to our will, just as we have learned to get electrons to wiggle as we will them... I see an incredible, unimaginably bizarre but a "it'll all make sense to us once we're in it" future, as bizarre as iPhones would have seemed in 1847... it's actually a hopeful view. I think the fear thing's been done sufficiently for long enough. It's part of our ape-kind origins, and has served us well, but I'm more hopeful than fearful where these kinds of things are concerned. I think we're on the edge of a threshold of understanding that has no parallel in human history, and I like to imagine what it might bring to us. If, of course, we don't destroy ourselves first...
I would put a twenty on the notion that the egg heads at CERN will accidentally cause an inadvertent beam dump while the thing is at full throttle and blow themselves and the place to smithereens before they create a situation that will be a danger to human kind or the world. Those bending magnets when fully energized store enormous amounts of energy. They go boom when they get turned off improperly. As far as anti-matter is concerned, eighty atoms of anti-hydrogen will not destroy the integrity of the planet. The amount of energy that is needed to create that anti-hydrogen far outweighs the amount that will be released when they annihilate with hydrogen. Until zero point energy is found (if it even exists), there will be no way to use anti-matter for evil or good.
Damn, all this thinking is making me sweat. Better go reapply my anti-perspirant.
Studying Hydrogen vs. anti-Hydrogen is exciting because I think it's going to be possible to turn an atom into it's antimatter counterpart by some simple operation.
For example, a Proton consists of two Up Quarks and one Down Quark. A Neutron consists of two Down Quarks and one Up Quark. Knock one of a Proton's Up quarks hard enough, with, let's say, a stray Muon, and voila! It's now a down quark. And guess what? Now you've made a Proton into a Neutron. Specifically, an ultra-cold Neutron, which basically meanders around aimlessly until it gets absorbed by something.
Quantum physics is full of stuff like that - change some sub-atomic something-or-other into another something-or-other and you change the whole thing.
I'm betting on the idea that we will discover that if you change something currently unknown - possibly something in the Higgs field - of a regular particle, you suddenly change it into its anti-particle. Then, suddenly, we will have a HUGE energy source available, and the reaction participants will only be activated once they're in the reaction chamber. No need for exotic generation, storage or transport. Regular matter in, zap it with some sort of beam, half the matter particles become antimatter, and voila! Big old boom. Energy released, harvested and employed. Means as yet unknown... but that's the beautiful reality of the history of technology... we figure out that "means unknown" part.
Quantum physics is bizarre and beautiful, and occasionally terrifying. But I'm betting that we figure out the good stuff and manage to make it work for us rather than against us. And I'm pretty certain that we're closer to some massive breakthroughs than we'd comfortably bet. Who's up for some warp drive?
Well, so far, there's nothing in the energy department invented by mankind that we haven't also seen in the universe at large.. electron beams, antimatter annihilation, x-rays, maser, even laser has been observed. We haven't seen anything indicating that gravity can be manipulated, and I suspect that if it were possible we should have seen it already, out there somewhere. But there's no hint of it.
JordanCClark
Posts: 198
Comments
Erlend
Now, that would be a story!!
Seriously, it boggles my mind when they talk about (unambiguous) detection of 80 atoms. Way cool!
Anyday now CERN may put a kink in the space time continuum and we will suddenly be relocated in the Jurassic period.
Hello!
Good one. When they were first starting preparations for the big set of systems that they have there. Those are the ones that were supposed to for example confirm the Higgs Boson, and possibly investigate the circumstances surrounding the First Three Minutes, several people with less common sense then a few others complained loudly and wrongly along those lines. And we are still here.
The Higgs Boson has been found (we think) and the rest of the studies are ongoing.
Intellectually it is all great fun and very stimulating. But then someone actually wants to exploit the knowledge in unanticipated ways and deep concerns creep in. It is an intellect versus greed dilemma.
This is a little off topic, but I found one the other day. The Higgs boson walked in to the local church. The priest said, "we don't allow Higgs bosons in here."
And the Higgs boson replied, "But without me, you can't have mass!"
Your concern is justified.
Knowledge is neutral..it is how one chooses to use it that matters.
As a species we have the means to end our existence in any number of ways...and have had it from the beginning of the species.
And as a species we have the means to lengthen our existence if we choose to.
For bad men to succeed, good men need to do but nothing....
Bad men are predatory opportunist. New innovations are fertile ground for their hunting. Good men are held back by their own ethical and moral restraints, and often have to play catch up.
Damn, all this thinking is making me sweat. Better go reapply my anti-perspirant.
Joe
For example, a Proton consists of two Up Quarks and one Down Quark. A Neutron consists of two Down Quarks and one Up Quark. Knock one of a Proton's Up quarks hard enough, with, let's say, a stray Muon, and voila! It's now a down quark. And guess what? Now you've made a Proton into a Neutron. Specifically, an ultra-cold Neutron, which basically meanders around aimlessly until it gets absorbed by something.
Quantum physics is full of stuff like that - change some sub-atomic something-or-other into another something-or-other and you change the whole thing.
I'm betting on the idea that we will discover that if you change something currently unknown - possibly something in the Higgs field - of a regular particle, you suddenly change it into its anti-particle. Then, suddenly, we will have a HUGE energy source available, and the reaction participants will only be activated once they're in the reaction chamber. No need for exotic generation, storage or transport. Regular matter in, zap it with some sort of beam, half the matter particles become antimatter, and voila! Big old boom. Energy released, harvested and employed. Means as yet unknown... but that's the beautiful reality of the history of technology... we figure out that "means unknown" part.
Quantum physics is bizarre and beautiful, and occasionally terrifying. But I'm betting that we figure out the good stuff and manage to make it work for us rather than against us. And I'm pretty certain that we're closer to some massive breakthroughs than we'd comfortably bet. Who's up for some warp drive?
-Tor
That we know of. So far...