What's New Robert l Park Nov 28, 1009

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park    Friday, 27 Nov 09   Washington, DC

1.  LHC: THE LARGE HADRON COLLIDER IS COLLIDING PROTONS!
We said last week that the LHC began circulating protons around its 27 km 
race course.  This week, ahead of schedule, protons were actually 
collided.  The energies were somewhat below the record held by the Tevatron 
at Fermilab.  By Christmas, however, if all goes well, collision energies 
should reach 2.4 TeV.  It still has a very long way to go to reach the 14 
TeV design energy in its search for the Higgs boson.  Each increase in 
energy magnifes the mechanical stress on giant superconducting magnets that 
bend the proton trajectories.  In a radio interview on Wednesday, I was 
asked how this research will benefit society. It will not put food on our 
tables, provide energy for industry, cure disease or smite our enemies.  It 
will, however, take us a step closer to understanding the natural laws that 
resulted in our existence, exposing many popular beliefs to be 
superstitions.

2. FAITH: DO WE NEED TO HAVE ANOTHER TALK?
On Wednesday in the NY Times an op-ed by Nicholas Kristof remarked on a new 
crop of books dealing with the war between science and religion.  He 
describes this latest crop as "less combative and more thoughtful" than 
those by Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and the like.  
He hopes this "marks an armistice in the religious wars."  I hope not.  
Kristof is particularly taken by Robert Wright's "The Evolution of God."  I 
like it too.  Wright is smart, and a really good writer, but he needs to be 
more like Dawkins, Hichens and Harris.  In his latest book he explores how 
religion has gotten "better" over time.  People are no longer burned at the 
stake in the name of religion.  No, now they are now blown to pieces with 
improvised explosive devices or flown into the side of public buildings.  
Different religion -- same God.
 
3. OVERPOPULATION: A RESULT OF TOO MANY INNUMERATES.
Last week, Brendan O'Neill, innumerate editor of the online publication, 
Spiked, thought his side of a debate on population to be so brilliant he 
published it with the title: Too many people? No, too many Malthusians.  
Could Brendan O’Neill be related to Gerard K. O'Neill, the Princeton 
physicist who in 1977 published "The High Frontier: Human Colonies in 
Space?"  O’Neill proposed erecting "islands" in space at the L5 point 
between the Earth and the Moon to serve as colonies on which to offload 
Earth's excess population.  He envisioned giant cylinders, closed at the 
ends, rotated about the axis to simulate gravity for people living on the 
inner surface.  He thought each island could support 1 million people.  In 
the 33 years since, Earth's population has grown by 3 billion.  We would 
need 3 thousand of these gigantic space colonies to offload the excess 
population.  Today, the hugely expensive ISS has trouble keeping 6 alive. 

4. MALTHUS: A HERO BEFORE HIS TIME.
Born in 1776 in Surrey, Thomas Malthus was well-educated in mathematics, 
but served as a gentle country parson, keeping the census in his parish.  
He observed that most animals bore offspring far beyond mere replacement.  
This would result in exponential growth of the population, eventually 
overflowing the boundaries of productive agriculture.  His simple reasoning 
was dismissed by the mathematically challenged, and still is.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.
Opinions are the author's and not necessarily shared by the
University of Maryland, but they should be.
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