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CERN accepts $1B in private cash towards Future Circular Collider

152 points by zeristor

by mike-the-mikado

7 subcomments

As someone who supports pure science research, I would be interested to understand if any of the discoveries of CERN (and related projects) in the last 50 years (say) have proved to have practical application.
(Specifically, "discoveries", not technology developed in support of the research)

by throwaway198846

1 subcomments

As a non physicist I like the idea of a moun collider more - more compact (thus should be cheaper) as well as something which haven't done in similar energy scales and therefore more likely to need new technology in building it and finding something new.

by notepad0x90

2 subcomments

I try to keep up with this stuff, but I wish to a layperson like me, the benefits of this was communicated more clearly. Even something like the JWT, I'm still not seeing the benefit. It's really awesome, don't deny that at all!
But I'd rather see more investment put into developing space-faring capabilities. Being able to transport lots of goods and people into space, and start manufacturing in space.
I've heard it said that research into this stuff will inevitably benefit all manners of other sciences, but hoping for a byproduct isn't the same as direct investment.
I'm just asking in earnest if priorities are aligned properly. I'm sure many of these experiments and projects would be more useful if they were actually built in space! Even for space agencies, it's all sorely disappointing. Their focus is on research and experimentation, which wouldn't be a problem if there were plans that were getting executed with some vision or goal of actual progress in capabilities. Their planning is also too long-term.
Why did artemis take 3 years? is it just to boast about being able to go back to the moon? By now this should have taken 3 months after over half a century. My point is not to be dismissive of the complexities, but to say that the state of things is being accepted as-is from what I'm seeing. Is there any actual solid plan to reduce at least launch times that factor?
It would be amazing if humans launched enough infrastructure into space, that there were would be foundries and factories entirely in space, reducing the dependence on transporting heavy things from earth into space.Spacecraft and space station components could largely be manufactured by mining raw materials and manufacturing with them without depending on earth's resources directly. That's probably not realistic, but what I'm decrying is not so much lack of action, but lack of vision (outside of scifi), planning, and focus.
That said, I'm just hijacking this to bring up that point of discuss. This is private cash, and I'm glad someone is donating to CERN for this research. I wish all the stuff I said could be funded with tax dollars. lay people need to see a vision, a plan, even if it can't be achieved in our lifetime, political will comes afterwards.

by sva_

3 subcomments

Maybe this one will finally make a black hole that ends it all
https://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

by arthurfirst

1 subcomments

it's already a black hole for funding

by assaddayinh

1 subcomments

What changeable vectors are there except to scale up the energy levels? Can particles be altered prior to collission with the existing system to observe interesting effects?

by dharma1

3 subcomments

“Eric Schmidt, who founded Google” no he didn’t

by naasking

3 subcomments

What a waste. So many more science experiments with better expected ROI could be funded for the money needed for the FCC, and we're not even expecting any significant new insights from it.

by user3939382

2 subcomments

This should have a $1T budget not a B. We waste so much money on low efficiency computing infrastructure and energy that should be going to this.

by z3ratul163071

0 subcomment

FCC is "physics" equivalent of easter island statues. Useless resource sink with no perspective productive outcome whatsoever.

by Fh_

4 subcomments

These projects are extremely expensive and the findings can alter humanity itself. That's why private donors sounds a bit sketchy