“Nature is a lot smarter than we are,” says theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate Gerard ‘t Hooft n his contribution to the #mylinearcollider campaign. As a theorist, it’s in his interest to figure out how the laws of nature work, and no matter how hard we think about them – we need experimental evidence for our theories, he says. A linear collider could give us many details, and after all the quest to find out how nature works has been beneficial for mankind.
His colleague Steven Weinberg from the University of Texas in Austin agrees that a linear electron-positron collider like the ILC could explore physical processes with great precision. “The detection of even small departures from theoretical predictions can open up a whole new world of previously unknown physics,” he says. “A linear electron-positron collider can be a wonderful instrument.” Weinberg also supports Japan as a host site for the linear collider. He points out that while the data produced there will benefit the whole world of physics, the host country in inevitable receive the greatest benefit in the form of technological spin-offs and a well trained new generation of scientists. He thinks Japan is a “natural” host and that “it is time for Japan to begin to play a leading role in accelerator technology. It would be very wise for Japan to host the project and very wise for the whole world of science to support it because of the data and the insights that this kind of accelerator will produce.”
Recent Comments