What if the LHC finds nothing? Tom Whyntie's NESTA FameLab Three Minute Wonder

[gsmonks]

You nay-sayers don't get it. For physics to progress (and provide you with goodies like the technology you're using right this instant) r & d has to take place. It's an investment in the future, and pays for itself in the long run, many, many times over. The next big hurdle is understanding space itself, and the fields within it (such as gravity, magnetism). If you want your grandchildren to have hover-bikes, and your own life extended and increased in quality, you must fund research like this.

[gsmonks]

Super Custard! That explains everything! And ends world hunger, to boot!

[m1aws]

2011: Cern is an utter and absolute failure. The higs bogus particle, Gravitons, ZubZub bee's that fly backwards at 600mph, CO2 based global warming and stating that the duck billed platypus in the jar of formaldehyde was a hoax.

The speed of light is not a constant. It is relative to the conditions it runs through. A famous TV experiment to prove it, constantly gave slow results. They were all baffled at the distortion of reality but moved on, accepting the science.

[LukeCoulson]

Well, I guess, ether way, it'll keep you off the street, sport. (Mr T Whytnie)

[sam101200]

This is not true. The MM experiment was so absolutely simple and elegant (and cheap) that the absence of something actually could prove the opposite. This monstrous contraption is so utterly complicated that any number of a billion reasons could cause the result to show nothing, which doesn't prove anything. It it finds something, it MIGHT have been worth the cost, if it finds nothing, it will be money down the drain.

[janbaer1]

We should stop all scientific research until we can feed everyone who isn't working? Show this by example. Live without anything developed over the past century, giving your excess cash away to others.

[redewenur1]

@ Groudie101: A cutting edge internationally funded, built and staffed scientific facility to bring new knowledge to the workbench of technologists; knowledge unobtainable by other means. You enjoy the fruits of past research - but you still gripe? A measly $10 b over 20 yrs, but you still wet your pants. If you're concerned about priorities as a species, see the global military expenditure for the same period: $20,000 b. You're looking at 0.05% of that figure - 10 B2 stealth bombers for that.

[youme1414]

@redewenur1 Get your facts straight. What did Tom Whynties say that call for your unwarranted blabbing!?

[didles123]

Why do we need to spend billions of dollars to show a lack of evidence for our current theories when they already have lack of evidence as it is?

Let's face it, it's a gamble. If we discover something then it was a good investment, otherwise it was a waste.

[Groudie101]

classic academic elite, pseudo intellectual rhetoric....if 20 years and 10 billion dollars = 0 while people are starving, is seen as necessary for the advancement of science then we need to check our priorities has a species........

[hla27b]

@Groudie101 are you "feeding the hungry" ?

how about sacrificing yourself so that some "hungry" person with more intellectual capacity could exist instead of you?

[vitorfray]

True, never though of it that way!

[singular23]

couldn't agree more!