Particle physics is a “quarky” science. The largest and most complex machines mankind has ever built are used to investigate matter on the tiniest scale. Space is chilled to temperatures below those found anywhere else in the universe. Cats in boxes can either be alive or dead — or both.
It is a branch of science without an easy-to-understand purpose, filled with men and women asking questions that most people take for granted.
What is gravity? How do things have mass? In short — why does the universe act the way it does?
October is an interesting month for this field. Confirmation of the Higgs boson earned two physicists a Nobel Prize in October 2013, ending a decades-long search conducted by dozens of countries and thousands of scientists and engineers.
Sharply contrasting this achievement, the United States cancelled the Superconducting Supercollider project in October 1993. The SSC was a particle accelerator that would have been several times stronger than the Large Hadron Collider. It would have been built in Texas just outside Dallas, and most physicists agree that it would have found the Higgs years earlier.
This history makes October a good time to consider what step particle physics may take next, and how Texas A&M fits into the international community that drives such discoveries forward. Success with the Higgs Boson may have caught the world’s attention, but it is most likely the first of many discoveries yet to be made.
The future of particle physics can be summed up in one word: “Big.” Accelerators will get bigger, stronger and faster. Computing power and a robust Internet make international collaboration possible. Discoveries will be made, but more importantly, questions will be asked.
We don’t know how the universe is fundamentally ordered. We don’t even know the full extent of what questions need to be asked. But as the science gets bigger, machines like Europe’s LHC and A&M’s Cyclotron will continue to serve a critical purpose — a way for mankind to pose questions to the universe itself.