The infinite value of faintly glowing papers
July 13th, 2012 at 7:42:20 AM
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The other day someone asked me about the Higgs Boson. I think I managed to convey an adequate explanation of what the hell the God particle is, no mean feat considering I don't quite get it myself. Anyway, this person also asked me "So what's it good for?"
This is a question that comes up a lot when tlaking about scientific research. There's the famous counter-question posed by Michael Faraday when he was asked what his discoveries were good for: "What use is a newborn baby?" Meaning you ahve to wait and see what develops.
Along with the common question, there's a related one. Usually ti comes off like "Why are they wasting huge sums of money on finding obscure particles, rather than using that money for somethign useful like finding the cure for cancer?" The tone of the question often implies no money at all is spent in researching cancer, BTW, which is far from being true.
When confronted with that, I often ask them if they know what was one of the first tools that served both to diagnose and treat cancer. Usually they don't know. And then I tell them a story:
Over a century ago there was a scientist who methodically studied the fluoresence caused by cathode rays on papers covered with various chemicals. What the hell was that good for? Well, this man had a darkened room and a hood where he put his faintly glowing papers and looked at them. One day he noticed one peper outside of the hood and not in the apropriate angle to the cathode, was faintly glowing. So he tried to determine why. And what the hell is that good for?
Well, this man's name was William Roentgen. By playing with faintly glowing bits of paper, he discovered X-rays. These were one of the first tools for diagnosing and treating cancer. not very well, and not very effectively, of course, but far better than the noting which existed before, except for surgery in a few cases. Roentgen also was awarded the very first Nobel Prize for physics.
Since his time, X-rays have grown into ever more sophisticated tools in medicine and other fields, though they're still sued to find tumors, and may aid in some kinds of cancer treatments still.
So what's the use of the Higgs Boson? What's the use of studying faintly glowing papers? Or putting two magnifying glasses together? Or moving a copper wire inside a magnetic field? Or shooting radiation at a thin gold leaf? Or smashing two pieces of metal together?
This is a question that comes up a lot when tlaking about scientific research. There's the famous counter-question posed by Michael Faraday when he was asked what his discoveries were good for: "What use is a newborn baby?" Meaning you ahve to wait and see what develops.
Along with the common question, there's a related one. Usually ti comes off like "Why are they wasting huge sums of money on finding obscure particles, rather than using that money for somethign useful like finding the cure for cancer?" The tone of the question often implies no money at all is spent in researching cancer, BTW, which is far from being true.
When confronted with that, I often ask them if they know what was one of the first tools that served both to diagnose and treat cancer. Usually they don't know. And then I tell them a story:
Over a century ago there was a scientist who methodically studied the fluoresence caused by cathode rays on papers covered with various chemicals. What the hell was that good for? Well, this man had a darkened room and a hood where he put his faintly glowing papers and looked at them. One day he noticed one peper outside of the hood and not in the apropriate angle to the cathode, was faintly glowing. So he tried to determine why. And what the hell is that good for?
Well, this man's name was William Roentgen. By playing with faintly glowing bits of paper, he discovered X-rays. These were one of the first tools for diagnosing and treating cancer. not very well, and not very effectively, of course, but far better than the noting which existed before, except for surgery in a few cases. Roentgen also was awarded the very first Nobel Prize for physics.
Since his time, X-rays have grown into ever more sophisticated tools in medicine and other fields, though they're still sued to find tumors, and may aid in some kinds of cancer treatments still.
So what's the use of the Higgs Boson? What's the use of studying faintly glowing papers? Or putting two magnifying glasses together? Or moving a copper wire inside a magnetic field? Or shooting radiation at a thin gold leaf? Or smashing two pieces of metal together?
Donald Trump is a fucking criminal
