Two years ago, science stood still as physicists working at CERN, home of the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator on the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, announced the discovery of the elusive “god” particle. This particle is the nickname for the Higgs boson, the last sub-atomic particle to comprise the Standard Model of physics. The Standard Model helps explain how the universe works.
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| Higgs particle detected inside the ATLAS detector at CERN. |
The Higgs boson, called the “god” particle because its everywhere but never seen, gives other sub-atomic particles their mass. The man it’s named after, Peter Higgs, won the Nobel Prize in 2013 for his work in predicting its existence. But oddly enough, physicists could have discovered it much sooner. And in Texas of all places.
That’s right—in the big red, “fundamentalist,” Lone Star State.
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| Abandoned SSC building circa 2008. |
Twenty one years ago, October 21, 1993, Congress put science on its chopping block. Potentially the biggest atom smasher this side of the Atlantic, the Superconducting Supercollider, had its funding cancelled. It was supposed to be much larger than the one at CERN, but apparently, no one could comprehend the use for the 14.7-mile gopher hole just outside Waxahachie, Texas, dug to contain it. The SSC could have given a new understanding of particle physics, propelling science into the 21st century. Instead, scientific knowledge took a back seat to American economics, and would have to wait 19 years. More than 15,000 jobs and 45,000 contracts worth $850 million were lost in a 282-143 vote in the House of Representatives back then in order to save money for more important things like the second Gulf War, the war on terror, and a consequence of that war, this country’s side project, PRISM.
The shape of the future and a possibility for profound knowledge of the universe were a loss to American science, as well as the prestige to go along with it. Most people in this country are too concerned, however, about the cost and quality of living than better understanding the universe by smashing atoms. In fact, science has already improved the quality of life by atom smashing done in the 1940s. Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg and his research group at the University of California at Berkeley are famous for creating plutonium, the main ingredient in atomic bombs. While developing plutonium, Seaborg’s group also created the element americium.
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| Americium inside a household smoke detector. |
It had no practical use at the time, but many years later this element became the main component in ordinary household smoke detectors, a device which certainly improved the quality of life, as a result from research done around 70 years ago.
Work currently performed in the genetics field is possible because of the rediscovery of DNA. Richard Roberts and Phillip Sharp won the Nobel Prize for their 1977 discovery of “junk” DNA. They found that genes are not made up of single sections of DNA but discrete chunks broken up by stretches of other DNA which have no function.
This discovery created a foundation for current genetic work to correct genetic disorders.
Discoveries like this are possible because someone cared enough to do the research and realized its future benefits. This country lacks an appreciation of science and scientific research because it suffers from a profound case of science illiteracy. This can only be remedied with more emphasis on science education starting in grade school. Once people understand basic science they can understand and appreciate the benefits of scientific research.
Back in 1993, I attended San Antonio College, a two-year community college, to learn and hone my journalistic chops. While there, I learned 25 students received scholarships from the National Science Foundation’s Alliance for Minority Participation program that year. These scholarships provide minority students a rare opportunity to improve their basic science knowledge to prepare them for a bright future. A continued lack of appreciation for research, however, might send that future right down the same 14.7-mile gopher hole.
So what eventually happened to that hole?
In 2012, Magnablend, a company that specializes in custom chemical manufacturing, blending, and packaging for the oil and gas industry, along with other industries, bought the old site and finished building and expanding its plant there a year later. The area bounced back economically, but what happens when the oil, gas, and possibly the water, run out in the next 40 or 50 years?
I guess that’s for another blog.
Further reading:
http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/how-texas-lost-worlds-largest-super-collider
http://businessfacilities.com/magnablend-reopens-former-superconducting-super-collider-facility-in-waxahachie-tx/
http://science.howstuffworks.com/higgs-boson1.htm
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hidden-treasures-in-junk-dna/
