A collider is a machine that accelerates a beam of particles for scientific research in the particle discipline of high-energy physics. If the particles are compared to an airplane, then the collider is the engine of the airplane and the runway of the airport.
Colliders accelerate charged particle beams to the speed of light and collide with them through a magneto-electric effect, then synthesize new particles or break them down into other matter for research purposes.
Particle physics is one of the most advanced academic research, if any country can build a state-of-the-art particle collider, it is equivalent to have a key to open the door of particle science.
Currently, the particle collider that has yielded the most scientific results is the Antiproton Collider built by the European Center for Nuclear Research in 1981, and in recent years some scholars at home and abroad have begun to advocate for China to build one even bigger than the European one.
But Yang has repeatedly and publicly opposed China's establishment of the collider, so why did Yang's old-timer oppose it?
When the Cultural Revolution was just over, China's research in particle science was still in a semi-empty state, and some scholars expressed the hope that the country would mobilize its strength to build a particle collider. However, due to the special situation of the country, the financial and construction conditions did not allow this proposal to be shelved.
With the continuous improvement of China's comprehensive national strength, there is now a certain scientific and technological ability and economic capacity to build a large-scale ion collider. Many netizens feel that if our country can build a particle collider, it can give our physics community unprecedented development, Yang Zhenning old-timer opposed China to build a particle collider is to curb the development of Chinese physics. Some even rated him as ? a stumbling block to China's physics community?
But the real situation is not so.
First of all, the collider is not as simple as everyone thinks. The collider may look like a machine nominally, but it is actually more difficult than building a large building.
In the 1990s, at the forefront of physics research in the United States began to build superconducting supercollider, when the U.S. economy is already very developed, but due to the construction of the collider spend too much, the U.S. reached a scientific cooperation with other countries, so that everyone *** with the fund-raising, but even so, the project was finally stopped because of funding issues, after all, the real construction price far exceeded the budget. The real construction price far exceeded the budget target.
To the U.S. economy and the level of science and technology, is completely capable of building up a very advanced collider, but considering the current human research on particle science is still in the preliminary stage, the United States also do not know to continue research will have a what kind of results, so the final U.S. still chose to stop.
Moreover, combined with the actual situation of our country, this is the first to do the first to suffer, not to mention our country in today's more important things need to do.
While China's current construction capacity is relatively sufficient, but there are still a lot of infrastructure is not perfect, rather than spend so much money to build a collider, it is better to improve some of the domestic infrastructure, after all, now in China's poverty alleviation is the primary goal, and now some of the rural areas of the road has not yet been repaired, and the poor families of the dilapidated housing has not yet been transformed.
Instead of spending the money on some international high-end scientific and technological research that has not been explored, it would be better to temporarily change the basic life of the people, science and technology is also to change the life, it would be better to start the more important things to do first.
And although our country in some directions of physics academic research has gone in the world's leading position, but in the high-end physics research, our country does not have the rest of the world to be advanced, and our country can be invested in high-end physics research on the funding is limited, the same scientific researchers and the construction of the power is also limited.
If we spend all of our research funding and construction power on building the collider, we will inevitably compress other aspects of research funding and research power, which is not conducive to the coordinated development of high-end research.
But when our country is able to walk in the forefront of the world, there are enough research funds and high-end scientific research power, to build a collider is still possible, after all, even if the collider project fails will not affect other aspects of scientific research.
But now, it is clearly not feasible.
Finally, there is a lot of uncertainty in particle research, and it is very likely that if you go through the trouble of building a collider, the science and technology and theories will be outdated by then.
Take the simplest example.
Computers were larger than a room at the time of their invention, and were very difficult to operate, even requiring several people to operate them at the same time in order to perform some relatively simple calculations. But as technology has evolved, computers have become smaller and smaller, and more and more powerful. The computing power of an ordinary cell phone is now many times greater than that of the first computer, and when computers were first invented, it was hard to believe that technology would ever develop to such a point.
If our country spends 10 years planning to build a collider, it's possible that 5 years from now a relatively high end particle acceleration technology will emerge that will cut the cost and size of the collider in half or more. By then the half-built collider will be a bad project.
Even if they continue to invest money and manpower to build the collider, by the time it's finished it will be an obsolete product of the scientific community and can only be preserved as a cultural relic.
Comprehensively speaking, in terms of the current state of international particle research, it would be too much for China to take the initiative to build a collider.
In summary, the construction of a collider is a little bit too chicken-shit for the current state of international particle research. It is true that building a collider can yield some relatively high-end research results, but there is no need for our country to be the first to cross the river by touching the stones, nor is there any need to suffer this loss.
Yang Laoqian as a high-end physics titanic figure, naturally understand the pros and cons of building a collider, since Europe and the United States do not want to do this, there is no need for our country to go first to take this risk.