Big changes in our understanding big scientific questions coming

Full Title is: Our Place in the Universe Will Change Dramatically in the Next 50 Years—Here’s How

I am not sure if I will be alive next year much less in 50 years BUT... There are some interesting things coming down the road of scientific discovery.

Three new colliders will change the game in the coming decades. Chief among them is the Future Circular Collider (FCC)—a 100km tunnel encircling Geneva, which will use the 27km LHC as a slipway. Instead of protons, the colliders will smash together electrons and their antiparticles, positrons, at much higher speeds than the LHC could achieve.

Unlike protons, electrons and positrons are indivisible, so we’ll know exactly what we’re colliding. We’ll also be able to vary the energy at which the two collide, to produce specific antimatter particles, and measure their properties, particularly the way they decay, much more accurately.

I did not realize they were planning on building Three new particle colliders... Can't wait for all the conspiracies about opening a doorway to demons etc etc !

the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, launching in 2021, will revolutionize the way that we detect habitable exoplanets.

Unlike previous telescopes, which measure the dip in a star’s light as an orbiting planet passes in front of it, James Webb will use an instrument called a coronagraph to block the light from a star entering the telescope. This works in much the same way as using your hand to block sunlight from entering your eyes. The technique will allow the telescope to directly observe small planets that would ordinarily be overwhelmed by the bright glare of the star they orbit.

The spectrometer aspect of a distant planets atmosphere really is amazing considering the distances involved. I hope it works as advertised .

A new mission called Europa Clipper, set for launch in 2025, will confirm whether a sub-surface ocean exists and identify a suitable landing site for a subsequent mission. It will also observe jets of liquid water fired out from the planet’s icy surface to see if any organic molecules are present.

This mission and the following missions are something I would like to see. I would bet there really is a liquid ocean under the ice on Europa.. Thermal vents and the possibility of some type of life forms are a pretty good bet IMO.
singularityhub.com...

a reply to: 727Sky

Sadly Clipper wil only do a number of fly-bys, does not have a lander. One serious issue seems to be Jupter's radiation belt, limiting the time a probe could remain operational around Europe and other moons.

Well, it kind of looks more like small changes in the way we approach big scientific questions. I don't see anything that is likely to reveal things we'd have never guessed anytime soon.

a reply to: 727Sky

I don't know about opening doors to demons, but with the colliders we're now changing the scientific paradigm a little bit and getting into uncharted waters. Whereas once the paradigm used to be..."We're going to conduct this experiment, and this should be our expected result" Now the paradigm seems to be changing to..."Let's see what happens if we do this!"...which is a completely different mindset.

Back during the development of atomic weapons in the 50's there were questions about whether a thermonuclear detonation could be stopped, but even then they had expected results. When we start dealing with things like antimatter and god particles, we know very little about these things nor how they behave. Case in point, the Castle-Bravo nuclear test in 1954 had an actual yield 3 times larger than expected, which resulted in the contamination of the Bikini Atoll and vast areas of the Pacific. This was completely unexpected due to unforeseen and continued reactions with elements in the atmosphere. Another example would be the Argus high atmospheric tests in 1958 where radio and radar transmissions were significantly disrupted from low yield devices detonated in space. If something like this took place today all hell wold break loose.

Now we're messing around with some of the basic building blocks of the universe. This is a whole different paradigm. I personally don't think this is a good idea until we understand more about what to expect. Equally, I think these particles we are trying to generate (from the experiments) aren't available for us to observe for a reason. This is not an area of discovery where you want an "OH S#!" moment!!

People debate the Drake equation when it comes to the existence of intelligent life in the universe. And, without speculating on that subject, I am of the firm belief that intelligent life, regardless of where it is or what form it takes, will follow the same general developmental path. They will first try to understand the physics of the world around them, and then they will reach a point where we are now. Frankly, it could be that one experiment where intelligent life just goes **Poof**.

Just a thought.

ETA - S&F!

I have a sneaking suspicion that the human race will go extinct sometime this century. Our technological capacity has begun to far outpace our wisdom to wield it.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

This is not an area of discovery where you want an "OH S#!" moment!!

Agree. There is a whiff of arrogant dismissal that comes from certain quarters when concerns like this are mentioned. Are we really so sure of what will happen if they succeed in recreating conditions that haven't existed since some very small amount of time following the Big Bang?

The other thing about the particle research that bothers me is my suspicion that the countries funding this research are hoping to find something that can be used a super-weapon. No country doing the research will officially state that (of course), but the "particle collider race" lends that impression.

Cheers

That seems like an excellent use of billions of dollars.

Interesting find
a reply to: 727Sky

I have speculated if more advanced collider/accelerators have been built in secret alongside the publicly known accelerators/colliders...
The secret versions, due to having so many potential unknowns associated would involve more dangerous testing for portal-interdimensional doorways or wormhole time-space bending technology T.AR.D.I.S like time machine tech. If "they" get here this way can "we" get there that way tech.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Well said. I concur.

We shouldn't do something just because we can.

A thought. Maybe these suspected unknown experiments could take place off the planet earth. Even the moon. Make it a UN agreement to stop all energy experiments with unknown catastropic potential on our home.

We know enough that earth is fragile. We need to respect it.

a additional comment to: Ophiuchus 13

I have also speculated if more advanced satellites, telescopes, orbiters, landers and rovers have been built in secret alongside the publicly known satellites, telescopes, orbiters, landers and rovers.

The secret versions, due to having so many potential unknowns associated would involve more dangerous missions. Missions like detail surveying and evaluation of Exoplanets, moons, local planets and Stars.
As well as their potential inhabitants...

They'll end up cooking up a bomb that can destroy the Universe.

originally posted by: jjkenobi
That seems like an excellent use of billions of dollars.

Tens perhaps hundreds of billions, all to discover what exactly? Surely these people are more practical than to use this money just to discover what the tiniest elements of the universe are. As usual there is something far more tangible at stake. If not a portal then what exactly? Pure science doesn't seem to matter anywhere else very much...knowledge for the sake of knowledge doesn't grow their bank accounts.

I agree folks ; scientific endeavors can be a two edged sword. Fire can keep you warm or burn you at the stake it is always about the application .

If the alien UFO stuff is true, considering all the problems with faster that light speed not to mention hitting a dust particle when moving at speed you gotta figure there is one heck of a lot more to this universe than our current knowledge has revealed.

I do not know how we are going to ever get out of this solar system unless there are big changes in our perceptions of how things work...? Are these colliders a step in understanding and applying some new force we can tap into or is it like the end of the world ? All I can say is I hope any " Oh Sh!t" moment is of the good kind for I do hope our destiny is among the stars and not as some remnant (ie) dust particle after we blow the earth up .

a reply to: 727Sky

I do not know how we are going to ever get out of this solar system unless there are big changes in our perceptions of how things work...? Are these colliders a step in understanding and applying some new force we can tap into or is it like the end of the world ? All I can say is I hope any " Oh Sh!t" moment is of the good kind for I do hope our destiny is among the stars and not as some remnant (ie) dust particle after we blow the earth up .

Well, I would opine we're looking in the wrong place then. We're way out on the 'bleeding' edge of physics with all the science, colliders and quantum study. We're busy figuring out how things can travel faster than the speed of light. But, we're in the dark ages in comparison with figuring out how to disassemble things like the human form down to an subatomic level and reassemble it, correctly, again. None of these 'escape' concepts are even remotely possible with the slightest bits of mass. And, until we have a handle on whether this is even possible (which I doubt), we have the cart in front of the proverbial horse. We have a Ferrari in front of a broken down old mule.

Let's say we discovered how to travel 80x times faster than light tomorrow morning, but only with objects which have no mass. Then what?? Moral issues aside, we can't even figure out how to clone humans yet, which seems to me to be a basic building block of disassembling DNA and reassembling the same again. Maybe just one building block, but a building block all the same. It would take disassembling that same DNA, encoding it into some form of a digital format, and then finding the same exact elements of the original organism to begin with, at a distant location, reassembling those elements and then imprinting that same DNA structure, complete with learned memory, back into the original organism. This is a far larger scientific leap than any scientific challenge mankind has ever faced.

Again, just a thought.

These are very, very exciting times we live in.

These are very, very frightening times we live in.


I love science & have always thought of myself as a backyard scientist (or just a schmuck in training). But when the people that have the 'power' to create or destroy say something along the lines of.. "Let's see what happens"? Well, I get a bad feeling in my stomach.

Outta box-
Also has science considered high accelerated particle seperation?

In theory you would somehow place a particle in a charged location or medium vacuum-beam and pull it apart somehow at the speed of light or near the speed, possibly releasing or producing new types of particles.

This in theory would be an experiment to mimick a scenario of the universe starting from a central energized point and then that point seperating from the pressures and energy present in the preexisting medium (vacuum-beam) it expanded within as the central energized component began to bond with the medium it possibly accelerated through at such a highly accelerated speed spinning all the medium materials it directly bonded with, forming observable universal objects and materials.
😂

a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

I absolutely agree that the "particle collider race" is, in fact, another facet of the arms race.
This, to me, is even more omnious due to the simple fact that our species has never created a tool (or weapon) that we didn't use.
Personally, I can't shake the unnerving thought that the minds behind the collider experiments aren't exactly clamoring in the dark as it would seem. My gut tells me that the scientists in question DO have fairly clear expectations and are striving with unwavering intent toward some very dark objectives.
I sincerely hope my gut is wrong.

originally posted by: sooth
I have a sneaking suspicion that the human race will go extinct sometime this century. Our technological capacity has begun to far outpace our wisdom to wield it.

Don’t worry, our artificial intelligence overlords will keep us in well managed preserves.