Week 9 Review

Galaxies, Space, Distances, Black Holes… who cares? On Friday we had a short discussion at the end of the period centering on the question, does all this really matter? Does it really matter if there is a black hole in the center of our Galaxy? Does it really matter how our universe evolved, the big bang, the expansion and so on. Some of my class mates simply state that all this really does not matter. If our Milky Way is on a collision course with Andromeda, who really cares? It will not happen in our life time, so why thinking about it?
Those are all very valid points but… where would we be if we never crossed the Atlantic Ocean west bound? Many will argue it is not the same thing, but it is! During the dark ages in Europe, when questioning just about anything of authority, especially linked to religious believes was a certain death sentence, some still questioned. It certainly would have been much easier for Copernicus to stick with the common believes of those days and keep the Earth in the center of the universe. But he couldn’t! It did not work, the observation did not agree with the model. So he asked the question why, and he came up with a very unpopular answer in those days.

For whatever reason, we will always ask questions. Why is the universe expanding? What about a black hole. How about that string theory with 6 additional dimensions? Not all of us have that need to know, and that is OK. But all of us (most of us?) benefit from those who asked the question, starting with the question what happens if we sail west. I admit sailing west was a good thing for us Europeans, but not the best thing for the natives of the Americas.

The cost of CERN is about 3 billion dollars. So what will we get out of CERN? Will we find the elusive hadron particle? Will we be able to confirm additional dimensions? May be not! May be all what CERN will do is answer a few questions but ask many more! Even if we find the elusive hadron particle, and suddenly everything falls into place how will that help in our other challenges we face, such as war, hunger, health etc. CERN will not help the unfortunates on our planet. But 3 billion dollars would have made a big change in the life of some of the unfortunate on our planet.

I am not sure what the right answer is. I am not sure if knowing that the universe is expanding, and the sun will run out of fuel in 4 billion years really matters. But for me it is important to know those things. Even if I am not a scientist on the leading edge of discovery, I feel richer having the knowledge and the ability to understand what they are talking about. I want to know if the string theory is a valid theory. It will not change my life, but I still want to know. I also want us to continue to explore space. I do think we are doing it wrong! Exploring space is such a huge task, a task that will take many generations to accomplish, and for that we should work as a united force. Not in competition with each other. Similar to the CERN experiment. CERN is an experiment that has the support of over 100 countries, hundreds of universities and over 10,000 scientists. The track is built in two countries, France and Switzerland, it is a common effort with an outcome that will benefit everyone. We need the same vision on space exploration.