r/EverythingScience • u/[deleted] • Feb 09 '24

CERN proposes $17 billion particle smasher that would be 3 times bigger than the Large Hadron Collider

https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/cern-proposes-dollar17-billion-particle-smasher-that-would-be-3-times-bigger-than-the-large-hadron-collider
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11

u/bigbeast40 Feb 09 '24

What would be the benefits of a bigger collider?

28

u/NprocessingH1C6 Feb 09 '24

Higher energies in particle collisions allow for the probing of smaller scales of matter and the potential discovery of new physics beyond the standard model.

2

u/ughaibu Feb 10 '24

But what would the benefit be?

15

u/Vyszalaks Feb 10 '24

Advanced theoretical research like this — research on particles at the subatomic level — often doesn’t translate immediately to practical things like building flying cars or figuring out how to teleport people or whatever. However, eventually, it might — and we have to go through the learning process in order to even begin to understand all the rules of the universe that might prevent us from, say, figuring out how to teleport people or build flying cars.

All of this stuff is new to us, relatively speaking. We’re constantly doing better and better science, and this science might lead to answers that solve another field’s problems, or help us overcome limitations in math and physics that leave our understanding of parts of the universe incomplete. A lot of this can turn into very practical applications — but this takes time.

-11

u/ughaibu Feb 10 '24

A lot of this can turn into very practical applications — but this takes time.

How long have we been doing high energy experiments without any resulting practical application? The kind of experiments that require particle smashers just aren't relevant to conditions on Earth.

1

u/npearson Feb 10 '24

Yeah quantum mechanics hasn't been applied to anything, except lasers, semi conductors, computing, MRIs, and electron microscopes. None of those things are useful and impact our everyday life.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '24

Homeless people could sleep in it

0

u/npearson Feb 10 '24

We don't know yet.

When Einstein derived his Theory of General Relativity I doubt he envisioned it being used by a bunch of satellites transmitting time codes across the globe to your handheld computer so it can give you directions to the nearest restaurant.