Stanford, Hadron and Protein Yawns
Forget the Mall. Forget tinsel. A great story is what pushes back the dark. Particle physics is a riveting tale. A crowd filled the Panofsky auditorium last night at SLAC SLAC.
Kids, teenagers mingled in the exhibits 
parents and grandparents secured seats
Physics is a family affair here in Silicon Valley. In my old home of Schenectady NY, on the Erie canal, the streets are named after Civil War generals of brawny prowess: McClellan, Sheridan, Stuyvesant. Here, street names celebrate brainiac greats such as Coulombe, Gauss, Terman.
Loew, an engaging crowd pleaser, wound through the 80 years tale of the agonies and ecstacies of the Stanford Linear Accelerator and particle physics.
First some ecstasy. Loew characterized the succinct four word sentence announcing the successful operation in April 1947 as "the shortest scientific paper ever written" -
WE HAVE ACCELERATED ELECTRONS
Next, a bit of agony: Hadron had an accident. While protons successfully circulated in the main ring September 10, 2008, a serious fault has taken the collider off line till at least Spring 2009.
According to Loew, Peter Higgs, now in his late 80's has quipped he'll stay alive until the eponymous boson particle is discovered or the theory that predicts it disproved.
Tempered with perspective: even if the Standard Model of particle physics is proven correct, elementary particles likely comprise a mere 5% of the Universe.
Dark matter and dark energy - where "dark" is a four letter version of "still a mystery" - make up the remaining 95%.
Loew packed a rousing tale into the short 60 minutes. He ended with a zinger that showed paths of promise to the young potential scientists in the crowd. New improved X rays are being used to "see" rapid reactions in proteins that occur in femto seconds: a billionth of a millionth, or one quadrillionth of a second. Fast enough to see a protein "yawn."
The bigger faster science engines have created tools to see the God in the details. Now, as always, let heaven and nature sing.
Photo credits: me and my iphone
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