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Physics World Highlights - August
IOP
PWD-AUG
Wed, 1 August 2007
Coming up this month in Physics World . . .
Fears over factoids
When it opens next spring, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN particle-physics lab in Geneva will be one of the biggest and most impressive experiments in the history of physics. So why then did a recent documentary in the BBC's Horizon series about the collider rehash fears that it could create mini-black holes that could destroy the Earth? After all, argues Oxford University physicist Frank Close, several committees of eminent physicists have all but ruled out such a disaster ever happening.
Writing in this month's Physics World, Close criticizes the programme for focusing on such fears, which were also highlighted on the Horizon website. "Physicists who recall superb Horizon documentaries of the past will have been disappointed that such a marvellous project as the LHC should have been sensationalized in this way," he says.
Close is also disappointed by an earlier episode of Horizon that claimed that one reason for sending humans to the Moon is so that we can mine to for helium-3 as a fuel for fusion power back on Earth - a claim that has also been presented to US congressional committees. Apart from not even knowing if there is any helium-3 on the Moon, Close explains that it would be impossible for this isotope to be used as a practical energy source. Physicists, he argues, must stamp out such factoids before they become accepted as facts.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in this month's issue, Physics World columnist Robert P Crease looks at a related topic -- the role of "expertise" in scientific controversies particularly those where the public is involved. Who picks the experts to rule upon such controversies and can we trust their judgement? Crease previews a conference on expertise later this month that is being organized by Cardiff University sociologists Harry Collins and Robert Evans, who go so far as arguing that expertise is "the most pressing intellectual problem of our age".
Also in this issue:
- US gold mine wins contest to host underground lab
- End of an era for Germany's HERA accelerator
- Science and religion: physicists discuss God
- Reza Mansouri: an interview with one of Iran's top physicists
- Cambridge physicist takes on new role in Pakistan
- Testing the elements of the Big Bang
- Quantum ballistics: towards tiny transistors
- New experiments probe the low-energy frontier
- - ENDS - -
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Notes to editors:
Physics World is the international monthly magazine published by the Institute of Physics. For further information or details of its editorial programme please contact the editor, Dr Matin Durrani on +44 (0)117 930 1007. The magazine's Website physicsworld.com is updated regularly and contains physics news, jobs and resources. Visit http://www.physicsworld.com.
For copies of Physics World and advance copies of the articles reviewed here contact: Charlie Wallace in the press office, The Institute of Physics, Tel: +44 (0)20 7470 4896, email: charlie.wallace@iop.org
The Institute of Physics is a scientific membership organisation devoted to increasing the understanding and application of physics. It has an extensive worldwide membership (currently over 35,000) and is a leading communicator of physics with all audiences from specialists through government to the general public. Its publishing company, IOP Publishing, is a world leader in scientific publishing and the electronic dissemination of physics.
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