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A recent ABC News headline reads “High-Tech Leaders: U.S. Risks Losing Edge,” citing lack of significant new investments. The
of innovation is alive, though perhaps on life support here in the
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There was a time, not too long ago, in a state not too far away, when that spark was dancing in the streets…
A great superconductivity research effort was undertaken more than a decade ago in
the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) project. According to John G. Cramer, author of The Decline
and Fall of the SSC, “On
two billion dollars had already been spent, and 14.7 miles of the 54 mile oval
tunnel to house the machine was already dug, the Congress of the
States
Fifteen thousand physicists, engineers, technicians, contractors, and support
workers, the vanguard of the most important project in particle physics, found
themselves unemployed, in many cases unemployable in their chosen professions.”
Cramer, who also authored the book Einstein’s
Bridge (since wormholes, until the 1960s, were called Einstein-Rosen
Bridges), says “The SSC was to be a great technological leap forward, bringing
liquid-helium-temperature superconductivity and ultra-high field magnetism to
new levels of engineering accomplishment, seeding the advance of technology in
such areas as nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, electric power transmission,
high-speed computing, and efficient energy storage.”
An excellent article published by the
explains beautifully not only the basics of operation of the SSC, but also
offers insights regarding real-world applications (the following is excerpted):
How it Would Have
Worked if Completed
“The device would have accelerated beams of protons
(particles found in the nuclei of all atoms) around an 87 km (54 mile) long tube
until they were travelling extremely close to the
speed of light (300,000km/s). Some beams would travel clockwise, others
anti-clockwise; thus they would collide at an energy of 40 trillion electron
volts (40TeV), revealing a burst of tiny particles that special detectors would
analyse.”
Why?
(Note: Original
article links retained.)
“It was hoped that the SSC would ultimately provide evidence
for one of the greatest theories of the century: superstring theory (or
M-theory). M-theory is an attempt at unifying Albert Einstein’s celebrated
theories of relativity,
with the new revolution of
target="_top">quantum mechanics, two theories that seem to be inherently
incompatible. M-theory does this by stating that all sub-atomic particles are
not just ‘points’, but tiny vibrating membranes of more dimensions than it is
possible to see.” The article continued, “There was a possibility that the SSC
would help in research on proton-beam cancer therapy and even an insight into
the structure of the
target="_top">AIDS virus.
Scope
“The
wanted to be at the forefront of cutting-edge science research when the SSC was
first proposed. It was initially seen as having so many political and social
advantages that it was worth the money (that was when its target cost was $8.25
billion). About 7,000 jobs were created by the SSC and contracts were made in
48 of
50 states, while 23,000 students enrolled in mathematics and science courses
that involved the SSC. More than 100 American universities were hoping to be
involved in the SSC’s research. The magnet tests had
passed successfully, the rest of the colliding tunnel was contracted and all
tasks were on schedule. Even
and
signed contracts to get involved.”
Then Congress Killed
It
“Does the SSC provide an insight into the mindset of the
government, or is physics just getting too unrealistically expensive? You
decide: would you have a site for teaching people how to defend themselves
against terrorists ["ProTac
Global Inc., based in
has now bought part of the site for anti-terrorism firearms training"], or a
device that is the most audacious of its kind that would explore the
fundamental nature of space and time itself?”
Unifying relativity with quantum mechanics? Well, okay. While
not particularly useful for The Rest of Us, such an endeavor is certainly not
without reason or value. But insight into the structure of
the AIDs virus?
expects more than 25 million AIDS-related deaths in Africa alone by 2025.
Wait. It gets better.
There’s
come out of this project for The Rest of Us. How about superconductor-based
ships? Quantum leaps in electric motor science? Yes, there are
such as magneto-cardiograms and -encephalograms, new information
infrastructures, magnetic bearings, and magnetic shields.
But Congress killed it.
Well, 150 to 500 ft. beneath the Swiss-French border,
installation of the world’s largest particle physics collider
this past Monday, March 7, 2005 in a project headed by the European
Organization for Nuclear Research (French initials:
It is expected to start on-schedule by the end of 2007.
Hmm. Is it any wonder that
technology leaders say that
losing its competitive edge? That article mentions relative lack of
broadband implementations in the
compared to countries such as
Is a
potentially save the lives of millions? Even our ‘technology leaders’ have
their collective heads stuck in the, umm,
know…