11th hour thoughts concerning this morning's Higgs announcements
For those of you not on Facebook at the moment, a little something I wrote as an extension of yesterday's post. Biting my nails and waiting for 2 AM. About to get dressed and drive off to the lab for this viewing party we're having.
People have asked me what I feel about recent developments regarding the Higgs search and the state of high-energy physics, so I thought I'd write a little bit about it.
As most of you know, the LHC is making a big announcement at 2 AM (Chicago time--we're having a pajama party at Fermilab to watch the webcast). The entire scientific community and most of the Internet is buzzing with the rumors that they've pinned it down at last. Of course, they've been putting out pseudoannoucements ('we're another 0.0005 sigma closer' sort of things) for months, and so have we at Fermi. I went to the press conference for Tevatron Higgs results at Fermilab yesterday morning (http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/breaking/2012/07/02/signs-of-higgs-grow-at-tevatron-experiments-yet-no-discovery-all-eyes-on-july-4-lhc-announcement/ )--while it was more accessible than the last few I've attended it was still difficult, and while it was more hopeful than I feared it was still somewhat deflating.
It really is remarkable how much the Tevatron collaborations, CDF and DZero, have managed to do with the limitations they've got--the astounding extra work and sophistication in statistical analysis methods (for it is a statistics game, when you get to this kind of physics), eking extra certainty out of the data they've got to work with, really is very impressive. But it becomes apparent that's the limiting factor: we don't have as much data to work with as the LHC does. And that's what's going to decide this issue.
I feel a combination of envy and pride, along with the sinking knowledge that, had we had the money to do so, and the political priorities, it absolutely would have been discovered in the U.S. first. Perhaps you remember something called the Superconducting Supercollider? Oh, expensive, ill-fated pipe dream...but it had such promise, and power far beyond even the LHC. Even the Tevatron was still breaking record after record when it was shut down last year, while performing beyond everyone's expectations, for nothing except lack of funding.
I mean, a scientific discovery is a victory for humanity no matter where it's done. But politics is part of science whether one likes it or not, and so is partisanship, and so is basic human pride. I want it to be "our team" that "wins." And it's one thing if it's a fair fight, someone has to get there first...but I fear it's all too obvious that science is not valued in this country as it could--and, I would say should--be. We could have done it. We didn't.
Apparently Dr. Peter Higgs himself is on the list of invitees. I guess that should tell you something.
But not to get carried away, or to be a complete downer, I do await later tonight with bated breath and a shiny-eyed sort of hopeful optimism. CERN is certainly acting as if they have something incredibly important and cohesive to say, whether it's that the mass of the Higgs has been determined to a statistically significant level or, even more interestingly, if it hasn't. Surely the contributions so many of us have made will add up to *something* that will stand for decades to come. The question is, what?
We'll find out soon.
I hope all this buzz and fervor will lead to increased prioritization and interest in science by our politicians, our educators, our children, and the rest of us, going about our daily lives, walking down the street, thinking critically about our surroundings, thinking carefully about ourselves. Science is not confined to professional scientists in specially designed facilities...it absolutely affects everyone, every day. Good science helps us stand up for ourselves; bad allows us to be taken advantage of. It is thus our duty to educate ourselves. Our beliefs about science lie beneath the decisions we make; our understanding of what we perceive; the ways in which we think about the world we live in and our relationships to it.
The discoveries we make in the laboratory, at the ends of microscopes, telescopes, photomultiplier tubes, bubble chambers, sight glasses, scales...the ideas, the dreams, the insights, the inventions...they spark other ideas, dreams, insights, inventions; they help us figure out new ways to make lives easier; to ease pain and suffering; to better shepherd our world and its resources; to shape and protect our bodies and our minds; to recover from mistakes; to live longer and more happily; to extend the boundaries of what is possible; to treat each other with greater kindness, understanding, and love. Basic research--fundamental research--helps us advance not only technologically, but socially, artistically, even, I would argue, morally. We find new things we never imagined. We find out how to make a better world. The discoveries we make--"upon the shoulders of giants"--will be checked and built upon by others, may go into the annals of immortality, or may be laughed and and corrected by future generations. You can never know the end at the beginning--can't only support what you think will bear the kind of fruit you want, can't discount the seemingly ridiculously minor and esoteric studies as impractical, unimportant. Not in the kind of complex, interwoven, interdisciplinary world we live in.
New discoveries are like children--you don't know, from the beginning, what they'll be like, but they have the potential to be everything, and so you must give them every possible chance. You are never guaranteed to make an important discovery when you start to look. But it is our duty to try. To get lost, and find what we were looking for in the journey. To hope that we may still discover something to save the world.
On this day of American Independence, it seems appropriate to quote something I've quoted many times before, from Fermilab founding director Robert R. Wilson's 1969 testimony to Congress. I'll raise my glass to this great country that has given me so much, to this wonderful place I work that has given me so many opportunities, to the long line of humanity who have made it possible for us to be waiting--and working!--in safety and comfort, for the Next Big Thing. May we do them all justice.
***
SENATOR PASTORE. Is there anything connected in the hopes of this accelerator that in any way involves the security of the country?
DR. WILSON. No, sir; I do not believe so.
SENATOR PASTORE. Nothing at all?
DR. WILSON. Nothing at all.
SENATOR PASTORE. It has no value in that respect?
DR. WILSON. It only has to do with the respect with which we regard one another, the dignity of men, our love of culture. It has to do with those things.
It has nothing to do with the military. I am sorry.
SENATOR PASTORE. Don't be sorry for it.
DR. WILSON. I am not, but I cannot in honesty say it has any such application.
SENATOR PASTORE. Is there anything here that projects us in a position of being competitive with the Russians, with regard to this race?
DR. WILSON. Only from a long-range point of view, of a developing technology. Otherwise, it has to do with: Are we good painters, good sculptors, great poets? I mean all the things that we really venerate and honor in our country and are patriotic about.
In that sense, this new knowledge has all to do with honor and country but it has nothing to do directly with defending our country except to help make it worth defending.
People have asked me what I feel about recent developments regarding the Higgs search and the state of high-energy physics, so I thought I'd write a little bit about it.
As most of you know, the LHC is making a big announcement at 2 AM (Chicago time--we're having a pajama party at Fermilab to watch the webcast). The entire scientific community and most of the Internet is buzzing with the rumors that they've pinned it down at last. Of course, they've been putting out pseudoannoucements ('we're another 0.0005 sigma closer' sort of things) for months, and so have we at Fermi. I went to the press conference for Tevatron Higgs results at Fermilab yesterday morning (http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/breaking/2012/07/02/signs-of-higgs-grow-at-tevatron-experiments-yet-no-discovery-all-eyes-on-july-4-lhc-announcement/ )--while it was more accessible than the last few I've attended it was still difficult, and while it was more hopeful than I feared it was still somewhat deflating.
It really is remarkable how much the Tevatron collaborations, CDF and DZero, have managed to do with the limitations they've got--the astounding extra work and sophistication in statistical analysis methods (for it is a statistics game, when you get to this kind of physics), eking extra certainty out of the data they've got to work with, really is very impressive. But it becomes apparent that's the limiting factor: we don't have as much data to work with as the LHC does. And that's what's going to decide this issue.
I feel a combination of envy and pride, along with the sinking knowledge that, had we had the money to do so, and the political priorities, it absolutely would have been discovered in the U.S. first. Perhaps you remember something called the Superconducting Supercollider? Oh, expensive, ill-fated pipe dream...but it had such promise, and power far beyond even the LHC. Even the Tevatron was still breaking record after record when it was shut down last year, while performing beyond everyone's expectations, for nothing except lack of funding.
I mean, a scientific discovery is a victory for humanity no matter where it's done. But politics is part of science whether one likes it or not, and so is partisanship, and so is basic human pride. I want it to be "our team" that "wins." And it's one thing if it's a fair fight, someone has to get there first...but I fear it's all too obvious that science is not valued in this country as it could--and, I would say should--be. We could have done it. We didn't.
Apparently Dr. Peter Higgs himself is on the list of invitees. I guess that should tell you something.
But not to get carried away, or to be a complete downer, I do await later tonight with bated breath and a shiny-eyed sort of hopeful optimism. CERN is certainly acting as if they have something incredibly important and cohesive to say, whether it's that the mass of the Higgs has been determined to a statistically significant level or, even more interestingly, if it hasn't. Surely the contributions so many of us have made will add up to *something* that will stand for decades to come. The question is, what?
We'll find out soon.
I hope all this buzz and fervor will lead to increased prioritization and interest in science by our politicians, our educators, our children, and the rest of us, going about our daily lives, walking down the street, thinking critically about our surroundings, thinking carefully about ourselves. Science is not confined to professional scientists in specially designed facilities...it absolutely affects everyone, every day. Good science helps us stand up for ourselves; bad allows us to be taken advantage of. It is thus our duty to educate ourselves. Our beliefs about science lie beneath the decisions we make; our understanding of what we perceive; the ways in which we think about the world we live in and our relationships to it.
The discoveries we make in the laboratory, at the ends of microscopes, telescopes, photomultiplier tubes, bubble chambers, sight glasses, scales...the ideas, the dreams, the insights, the inventions...they spark other ideas, dreams, insights, inventions; they help us figure out new ways to make lives easier; to ease pain and suffering; to better shepherd our world and its resources; to shape and protect our bodies and our minds; to recover from mistakes; to live longer and more happily; to extend the boundaries of what is possible; to treat each other with greater kindness, understanding, and love. Basic research--fundamental research--helps us advance not only technologically, but socially, artistically, even, I would argue, morally. We find new things we never imagined. We find out how to make a better world. The discoveries we make--"upon the shoulders of giants"--will be checked and built upon by others, may go into the annals of immortality, or may be laughed and and corrected by future generations. You can never know the end at the beginning--can't only support what you think will bear the kind of fruit you want, can't discount the seemingly ridiculously minor and esoteric studies as impractical, unimportant. Not in the kind of complex, interwoven, interdisciplinary world we live in.
New discoveries are like children--you don't know, from the beginning, what they'll be like, but they have the potential to be everything, and so you must give them every possible chance. You are never guaranteed to make an important discovery when you start to look. But it is our duty to try. To get lost, and find what we were looking for in the journey. To hope that we may still discover something to save the world.
On this day of American Independence, it seems appropriate to quote something I've quoted many times before, from Fermilab founding director Robert R. Wilson's 1969 testimony to Congress. I'll raise my glass to this great country that has given me so much, to this wonderful place I work that has given me so many opportunities, to the long line of humanity who have made it possible for us to be waiting--and working!--in safety and comfort, for the Next Big Thing. May we do them all justice.
***
SENATOR PASTORE. Is there anything connected in the hopes of this accelerator that in any way involves the security of the country?
DR. WILSON. No, sir; I do not believe so.
SENATOR PASTORE. Nothing at all?
DR. WILSON. Nothing at all.
SENATOR PASTORE. It has no value in that respect?
DR. WILSON. It only has to do with the respect with which we regard one another, the dignity of men, our love of culture. It has to do with those things.
It has nothing to do with the military. I am sorry.
SENATOR PASTORE. Don't be sorry for it.
DR. WILSON. I am not, but I cannot in honesty say it has any such application.
SENATOR PASTORE. Is there anything here that projects us in a position of being competitive with the Russians, with regard to this race?
DR. WILSON. Only from a long-range point of view, of a developing technology. Otherwise, it has to do with: Are we good painters, good sculptors, great poets? I mean all the things that we really venerate and honor in our country and are patriotic about.
In that sense, this new knowledge has all to do with honor and country but it has nothing to do directly with defending our country except to help make it worth defending.