One Astronomer's Noise

If you haven’t already heard today, the Large Hadron Collider was started up beautifully earlier today in Europe. I anxiously await the fantastic results that the experiments will bring! And if you weren’t convinced by the report that clearly stated that the LHC will NOT destroy the Earth, since natural cosmic ray events happen regularly with much higher energies in our atmosphere and WE’RE STILL HERE, then these tests should hold no fear for you. Personally, I think that those who are seriously angry at scientists and ignore these studies and think that we would honestly, seriously, jeopardize the life on this precious planet for such an experiment are missing the whole point.

Jorge Cham talks about his visit to CERN in a five-part comic series, part two of which was posted earlier today. Amid the jokes about the life of a scientist, his cartoonified host, Benoit, talks about the reason for doing this type of work and points out that “we’re knocking on the door of reality.” When asked why he agreed to give Jorge a tour, when he hasn’t even heard of PhD Comics before, he replied “Well, it’s interesting to work on this stuff, but it’s also interesting to share it.” That, ladies and gentlemen, is the essence and the beauty of science education.

P.S. My summary of and reactions to the Hitchens-Turek debate are forthcoming and will be fantabulous… or something.