Big Science
An analogy is often made between scientific research and exploration. In High Energy Physics, the accelerator physicists are the ship builders, the theoreticians the map makers, phenemenologists the navigators and the experimentalists are the sailors. The spokesman for the experimentalists is the captain of the ship, a dashing figure with power over life and death during the voyage. Ah, if only we were still in this romantic era..
Exploring in Canoes
The mega collaborations of thousands of physicists, that are being formed, are more like aircraft carriers. A good way of projecting power, but a bad instrument for exploration.
“But you can’t go exploring in a canoe”, I am told when I bring up this point.
Actually, you can. Canoes were exactly what the polynesians used to explore and settle the largest ocean on Earth, the Pacific. Their open canoes carried no more than twenty or thirty people. The European explorers of the modern era had ships that were not much bigger. Each of Columbus’s ships had a crew of about 20-30 people, for example. Sir Francis Drake took a small crew of trusted accomplices in his voyages of piracy. A small team can accomplish many things that a conglomerate cannot.
Lessons of Kamiokande
The only high energy physics experiment to produce a surprise in the last thirty-five years was Kamiokande. It was a collaboration of twenty-three people. Originally they were supposed to look for proton decays, and neutrinos from outer space were merely a nuisance. Contrary to the predictions of many illustrious theorists, the proton did not decay. Many experiments looking for proton decay folded. But then an amazingly rare event happened: a supernova near our Galaxy, something that happens only once every 100 years or so. The Kamiokande experiment was designed and led by a visionary physicist (Koshiba) who was able to immediately re-analyze the data from a new point of view to discover the neutrinos produced in the supernova. Fortune favors the prepared mind, as Louis Pasteur is reported to have said.
Just to show that this is no mere fluke, Kamiokande went on to produce (after an upgrade) the first solid evidence for neutrino oscillations.
Insert Random Aircraft Carrier Joke
From http://www.navy.mil/navydata/navy_legacy_hr.asp?id=174
Believe it or not…this is the transcript of an actual radio conversation between a US naval ship and Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October 1995. The Radio conversation was released by the Chief of Naval Operations on Oct. 10, 1995.
US Ship: Please divert your course 0.5 degrees to the south to avoid a collision.
CND reply: Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.
US Ship: This is the Captain of a US Navy Ship. I say again, divert your course.
CND reply: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course!
US Ship: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS CORAL SEA*, WE ARE A LARGE WARSHIP OF THE US NAVY. DIVERT YOUR COURSE NOW!!
CND reply: This is a lighthouse. Your call.
Note: USS Coral Sea (CV 43) was decommissioned and scrapped 2 July 1993. Other ships’ names appearing have been USS Missouri (BB 63) which was decommissioned on 31 March 1992 and USS Nimitz (CVN 68) which is an active ship.
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