🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <22528@dog.ee.lbl.gov> sichase@csa1.lbl.gov writes:
>The reason that we don't [wait until new technologies are developed to
>build the SSC] is that the particle physicists are in a race against
>time.

     Really?  Who else is working on a machine that is likely to produce
similar results to the SSC?  I know about the CERN proposal but the
Europeans have to convince their own governments of the wisdom of their
proposal before they can go ahead.

>If more and more scientists move into high-energy physics, this is an
>indication that HEP is where the action is.

     Yes, but the previous poster's point is that the "action" in
High-Energy Physics (HEP) is artificially created by government
largesse.  If there were less money in this area, young physicists would
take their talents elsewhere.

>Would you like to decide from you armchair what each of us should work on
>according to *your* sense of what's interesting or important?  

     I think that those of us who pay taxes should be allowed some say
in where our dollars are spent.  Of course, I'm just an interested
bystander in the SSC debate since I'm a Canadian.  (At least so far I'm
just a bystander...)  I never understood this "just give us
semi-infinite amounts of money and we'll bring in the Nobel prizes"
attitude which some scientists seem to display.  As a society, we need
to support the sciences just as we need to have funds in support of art
and artists.  I have never heard of an artist who expected to be
showered with the sorts of money which physics (among others) seems to
demand.  The sciences of course play a special role in our highly
technological society and our governments have generally given us
preferential treatment because of this.  I'm not saying we should count
our blessings, but we should ask ourselves how much we can expect
without generating a backlash.  Mega-projects are just another symbol
around which anti-science sentiment in our society (and there is much of
that) can rally.
     Some mega-projects are worth the bother, others aren't.  I honestly
don't know which category the SSC falls in.  I can't say I'm as enamoured
of HEP as some others clearly are; I suppose that I oppose Canadian
participation in the SSC (as I opposed the kaon factory) on a sort of a
gut feeling.  As a taxpayer, I believe I have that right.

				Marc R. Roussel
                                mroussel@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca