Theoretically Scientific Borders

The infinitely small and large have always amazed me. The size, vastness and space of the universe are just as incomprehensible to me as are the unimaginably small particles that make it all up. In The Times this morning I read that the Large Hadron Collider had finally swung into action. This is pretty cool physics though I must admit I don't understand much of it at all.

In reading the article I found the following sentence of particular interest.

Physicists from around the world watched the developments at the LHC live on the Cern website, while live weblinks to Fermilab in Chicago, Florida State University, Tehran and Zurich were beamed into the LHC control rooms.

Specifically the bit about Tehran, the capital of Iran. I find it interesting that CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, would have a live weblink connecting it to Tehran. Now I know that nuclear in this sense does not mean nuclear bombs but rather the smaller bits that make up atoms, protons, quarks and the other smaller pieces, and yet to be discovered ones, that make up the world of particle physics.

I still find that this is all dashed with a bit of irony. Here is a European Lab, funded by the nations of Europe, connecting directly with Iran, a state whose government the Europeans are fundamentally at odds with, on the day of the start-up of the their most important experiment in years, if not ever.

Well, the good news in all of this, is that while CERN is funded by governments it appears, via this action, to still be interested in the advancement of science more than in politics. And for that we should applaud it. Just like the immense 27 kilometre long tunnel - the LHC - crosses boundaries (it lies under both Switzerland and France) it would seem that science and education also cross boundaries.

As always, when you remove politics from the equation, the common interest of humans will shine through. Just as this is true in sport, it is true in science. It would seem that Europeans and Persians both share a genuine curiosity and camaraderie. How about that?

Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

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