PhysMath Central Blog
The title refers not to some ethereal thought experiment with antimatter, but rather to the existence of 'physics' outside of the realms of high-energy physics. The Incoherent Ponderer was upset with the recent Scientific American special report on The Future of Physics which seemed to focus exclusively on terascale/LHC physics:
I guess I am tired of arrogant statements like "physics" = "high energy physics", which is how a lot of popular media characterizes it. The irony, however, is that with ILC construction in serious peril, and with LHC not even operational yet (unclear what, if anything, they will find) - the REAL "future of physics" is arguably with biophysics, condensed matter or "materials" physics and AMO. I would expect that large particle collider experiments being phased out, with more useful data coming from cosmology (=astronomy).
At the same time, experiments in low-energy physics (condensed matter, optical, molecular, biophysics, materials and chemical physics) will continue to ramp up at an increasing rate.
It will be interesting to see how the proportion of students opting for a career in high-energy physics changes with the LHC switch-on and the potential non-appearance of the ILC over the coming 10 years.
Posted by Chris Leonard at 14:34 Comments (1)
Posted by CCPhysicist on January 19, 2008 at 07:40 PM GMT #