Forum Topic: The Large Hadron Collider and American Scientific Involvement
The Large Hadron Collider, as many of you know, is a huge and expensive undertaking for the European Union, that is up and running and will soon begin actually conducting trial experiments. While it is expensive, it also adds tremendous amounts of prestige to Europe, as well as having the potential to change all human life as we know it. It speeds to atoms up to ninety nine point nine repeating percent the speed of light, faster than has ever been possible, and smashes them together to separate it into its smallest and most essential components.
The grandest possible outcome of this atom-smasher is to find what is most commonly known as the “God Particle” or the single main component that is the building block of all elements and all matter. Such a discovery would open limitless doors of scientific discovery, including the possibility to define dark matter, and add deeper understand to black holes and what exactly causes them. Despite this huge potential, American involvement is not entirely up to par with other countries of the world.
Of course engineers from around the world, including Americans, helped on its planning and construction, as well as having a hand in its operation, America abandoned its own campaign to build a super collider. The American attempt, the Superconducting Super Collider, would have been a net loss for the country, and with government funds and private investments more interested in profit and business than scientific and human advancement the plans were tossed after just two years in the workings.
The issue posed here is one of international standing and national pride. America appears to be slowly sliding in comparison to Europe and Asia in educational prowess, as well as being seen as a greedy and individualistic society. With the world becoming more and more connected due to increased technology, global standing and relations make a country’s standing as a world-citizen more and more important, not to mention backing up the natural claim that America is still the Earth’s number one super power.
America could have benefitted greatly in the long run from accepting the loss in building the Superconducting Super Collider and should have stuck through it. Such discoveries used to be the norm for our country and its time to re-allocate our funds to education as academics are becoming more important to strength than the size of a national military or at times even its gross domestic product. At the very least the youth of the country should put it on their shoulders to take a vested interest in the scientific world and be the change that brings our nation back to number one and returns the respect that comes with it. So, please, invest in the future of the sciences in America. Educate yourselves, if you have any curiosity about physics, astronomy, geology, biology or any ology you can think of, fulfill it and satisfy it. Apply it and bring America back to the ranks of the academic elite.
Outside links:
http://www.mywire.com/a/ScienceNews/National-greatness-versus-real-national/7934507?&pbl=261
http://kapio.kcc.hawaii.edu/upload/fullnews.php?id=52
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