anarchist_nomad (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
anarchist_nomad) wrote2006-05-26 07:41 pm
anarchist_nomad) wrote2006-05-26 07:41 pm
Entry tags:
The Sequel(s)
For the most part, this entry is really just an update on some things mentioned in previous entries this month.
Finally, not related to any recent post, I have talked before about the state of particle physics in the United States and how it is being choked to death by inadequate funding. The situation is quite unfortunate, as there have been a couple of very important discoveries in the past ten years (dark energy and neutrino mass being the top two that come to mind) and there is reason to suspect that more are coming in the not-too-distant future. However, due to lack of funding, the number of particle physicists at national laboratories is decreasing and, after the BaBar experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center ends in 2008, Fermilab will be the only remaining particle physics lab in the United States. Furthermore, after the Tevatron accelerator shuts down circa 2010, there will be no significant particle accelerator in the US. Europe has the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) getting ready to begin and Japan has committed the equivalent of $1.5 billion into the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC), which is currently under construction. However, the next-generation machine in the United States should have been the Superconducting Supercollider (SSC) and it should have been running by now. But it was killed in Congress thirteen years ago.
In a few years, I will have to find a permanent position for myself somewhere. Whether or not I return to the United States will largely come down to two factors: Politics and jobs. If the political situation in the United States does not improve, I am not likely to return. However, even if it does,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cheshcat and I are not going to settle somewhere that we cannot both find jobs in our chosen fields. Unless the state of particle physics in the United States changes from its present course, I seriously question whether I will be able to realistically expect living there to be a wise career choice.
Anyway, this afternoon I went to a special seminar on the report of the EPP2010 committee, where EPP stands for Elementary Particle Physics and 2010 is the date for the decadal report. The committee was comprised of very prominent particle physicists, as well as distinguished scientists from other fields (e.g., astronomy, medicine) and some non-scientists (e.g., a former undersecretary of the army who also served as CEO of Lockheed-Martin, an economist who was president of Princeton College). Given my position as an "American" particle physicist in the very early stages of his career, this report was particularly interesting for me to hear. It makes some strong statements and notes that particle physicists are an exemplary model of international cooperation -- apparently, this aspect of our work, which I take for granted, impressed many of the non-particle physicists on the panel. The committee also recommends an increase of at least 2% per year, for the next seven years, if the US is to remain a significant player on the world stage of particle physics... and an increase of 10% per year if the US wants to play a leading role. In today's funding environment, I find it hard to believe that this will happen... but I am glad that the truth is being put out there so starkly and hope that it will have an impact. The report also calls for the US to invest heavily in the International Linear Collider (ILC), which is the next big project being planned and will cost several billion dollars to complete. The country that will host the ILC is not yet chosen, but Fermilab is likely to be the site if it is indeed constructed in the United States.
I am highly skeptical that the ILC will be built at all, and it is not a given that it will be in the US. However, I am coming to accept that if the ILC does not happen in the US, either because it never gets built or gets built elsewhere, then particle physics in the United States is doomed to a slow death and particle physicists in the United States will mainly be travelling to contribute to projects elsewhere. The prospect of having to travel abroad to an experiment does not bother me. So far, I have worked on no projects in the United States. My thesis work was done on the Super-Kamiokande experiment, in Japan (because the US would not fund a similar experiment), and my first post-doc was done on the Pierre Auger Observatory, in Argentina. In both of these cases, I had domestic options to chose from and decided against them. Even now, I live in England but must travel to Italy to work on my experiment. So I am not afraid of having to travel to do my work. What does concern me is that, if funding continues to dry up, the prospect of finding a permanent job and the ability to contribute to those projects elsewhere will become more difficult. Working at Fermilab and watching project upon project get cancelled has made me cynical. The next few years, in which EPP2010 recommends the US spending $500 million on research and development for the ILC, will be quite telling.
For the record, anyone getting bored by all the talk of physics that has beset this journal lately can blameblaisepascal and company for
asking me to write more about my work. For those who did ask, I hope that the recent commentary is interesting. If not, and you are being bored to tears by all this talk of liquid refrigerants and cryostats, just remember that experimental particle physicists have to do an awful lot of stuff (e.g., hardware construction, electronics, software, data analysis) before we reach any of the exciting physics results.
- First, in this entry, I talked about how the mailboxes all say "E II R", but how I had spotted an older one bearing "G VI R" from King George the Sixth's reign (1936 - 1952). polyfrog chimed in, pointing out that he had seen an older box, bearing the brand "G V R" (King George the Fifth reigned from 1910 - 1936). Well, I took a dinner break yesterday to grab some take away and, by chance, noticed a mailbox very near to the building where I work. I've seen in dozens of times, and it does have a large "E R" on it. However, I noticed last night that the small Roman numeral between the letters was not the usual "II". Nope, this box said "E VII R". Well, there has not been a Queen Elizabeth the Seventh yet... so either this mailbox has had access to the Tardis, or some other time travelling device, or it was put there during the reign of King Edward the Seventh, who ruled prior to George the Fifth, from 1901 - 1910. Now I have to keep an eye out for a mailbox bearing "V R", for Victoria Regina, who reigned before Edward the Seventh. There won't be a numeral, since she was the first (and, so far, only) Queen Victoria. I'm such a geek, I know.
- Next, for those of you living in the United States, you can breath a sigh of relief, as your currency seems to have halted its nose-dive into the toilet. In this entry, I talked about how the dollar had plummeted from an exchange rate of $1.745/pound when I arrived in England -- two months ago today -- to about $1.845/pound. After that entry, the dollar continued to drop, hitting a low value of $1.891/pound on the same day that cassiopia arrived here. That's a 7.7% loss of value in a fairly short time! I am quite glad that I changed my cash before that, otherwise I would have lost a couple hundred dollars! Since then, however, the dollar has stabilized a bit... and even recovered some of its value. As of this evening, the exchange was back down to $1.857/pound:
I'm really such a geek... I know! - Third, in last night's entry, I talked about attempting to cool down the K-400 cryostat with liquid helium. Although we found the reason that we were unsuccessful last night, we tried again today... and still had no luck. The problem of last night is definitely solved -- its symptoms are gone -- but there is some new problem, and we are not sure what it is yet. We used up all our helium blowing cold gas, with no significant accumulation of liquid in the cryostat. This is too bad, because the liquefier down the road is acting up again, plus there is a holiday weekend, so we will not get any more helium until Tuesday, at the earliest. Since I am leaving for Italy on Wednesday -- the tickets are now purchased -- I will not be able to cool down the cryostat before going to Gran Sasso. This is somewhat of a disappointment. However, I am gaining an appreciation for how complex these cryostats are... and how difficult it is to work with them. When properly cooled down, they are colder than the universe. That's pretty darn cold!
Finally, not related to any recent post, I have talked before about the state of particle physics in the United States and how it is being choked to death by inadequate funding. The situation is quite unfortunate, as there have been a couple of very important discoveries in the past ten years (dark energy and neutrino mass being the top two that come to mind) and there is reason to suspect that more are coming in the not-too-distant future. However, due to lack of funding, the number of particle physicists at national laboratories is decreasing and, after the BaBar experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center ends in 2008, Fermilab will be the only remaining particle physics lab in the United States. Furthermore, after the Tevatron accelerator shuts down circa 2010, there will be no significant particle accelerator in the US. Europe has the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) getting ready to begin and Japan has committed the equivalent of $1.5 billion into the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC), which is currently under construction. However, the next-generation machine in the United States should have been the Superconducting Supercollider (SSC) and it should have been running by now. But it was killed in Congress thirteen years ago.
In a few years, I will have to find a permanent position for myself somewhere. Whether or not I return to the United States will largely come down to two factors: Politics and jobs. If the political situation in the United States does not improve, I am not likely to return. However, even if it does,
cheshcat and I are not going to settle somewhere that we cannot both find jobs in our chosen fields. Unless the state of particle physics in the United States changes from its present course, I seriously question whether I will be able to realistically expect living there to be a wise career choice.Anyway, this afternoon I went to a special seminar on the report of the EPP2010 committee, where EPP stands for Elementary Particle Physics and 2010 is the date for the decadal report. The committee was comprised of very prominent particle physicists, as well as distinguished scientists from other fields (e.g., astronomy, medicine) and some non-scientists (e.g., a former undersecretary of the army who also served as CEO of Lockheed-Martin, an economist who was president of Princeton College). Given my position as an "American" particle physicist in the very early stages of his career, this report was particularly interesting for me to hear. It makes some strong statements and notes that particle physicists are an exemplary model of international cooperation -- apparently, this aspect of our work, which I take for granted, impressed many of the non-particle physicists on the panel. The committee also recommends an increase of at least 2% per year, for the next seven years, if the US is to remain a significant player on the world stage of particle physics... and an increase of 10% per year if the US wants to play a leading role. In today's funding environment, I find it hard to believe that this will happen... but I am glad that the truth is being put out there so starkly and hope that it will have an impact. The report also calls for the US to invest heavily in the International Linear Collider (ILC), which is the next big project being planned and will cost several billion dollars to complete. The country that will host the ILC is not yet chosen, but Fermilab is likely to be the site if it is indeed constructed in the United States.
I am highly skeptical that the ILC will be built at all, and it is not a given that it will be in the US. However, I am coming to accept that if the ILC does not happen in the US, either because it never gets built or gets built elsewhere, then particle physics in the United States is doomed to a slow death and particle physicists in the United States will mainly be travelling to contribute to projects elsewhere. The prospect of having to travel abroad to an experiment does not bother me. So far, I have worked on no projects in the United States. My thesis work was done on the Super-Kamiokande experiment, in Japan (because the US would not fund a similar experiment), and my first post-doc was done on the Pierre Auger Observatory, in Argentina. In both of these cases, I had domestic options to chose from and decided against them. Even now, I live in England but must travel to Italy to work on my experiment. So I am not afraid of having to travel to do my work. What does concern me is that, if funding continues to dry up, the prospect of finding a permanent job and the ability to contribute to those projects elsewhere will become more difficult. Working at Fermilab and watching project upon project get cancelled has made me cynical. The next few years, in which EPP2010 recommends the US spending $500 million on research and development for the ILC, will be quite telling.
For the record, anyone getting bored by all the talk of physics that has beset this journal lately can blame
blaisepascal and company for asking me to write more about my work. For those who did ask, I hope that the recent commentary is interesting. If not, and you are being bored to tears by all this talk of liquid refrigerants and cryostats, just remember that experimental particle physicists have to do an awful lot of stuff (e.g., hardware construction, electronics, software, data analysis) before we reach any of the exciting physics results.
no subject
For those of us who live in the US, why would we care about the exchange rate? After all, we live in the US. Are the fluctuations of an international economic delusion likely to have anyy effect on my life?
no subject
Thanks! That's good to know... I don't want to be a cynic.
However, when it comes to funding for particle physics in the US, I tend to lean in the direction of cynicism... or maybe just pessimism. These days, when I hear about an exciting new project, I pretty much assume that it won't get funded. This attitude comes largely from my time at Fermilab, where I watched project after project get cancelled. Right when I arrived at the lab,
For those of us who live in the US, why would we care about the exchange rate? After all, we live in the US. Are the fluctuations of an international economic delusion likely to have anyy effect on my life?
A very good question, and one that I do not pretend to know all the nuances of the answer to it. Certainly basic fluctuations should not have an effect. I think that the 7% drop in the dollar is more than a fluctuation, though. For these effects, I would guess that, on a simple day-to-day level, a drop in the value of the dollar will not have an impact on your life unless you travel outside of the States. In the longer term, though, it still matters the the economy if your currency goes into the toilet.
For instance, a country with a falling currency may find that its export market will increase, as its cheaper currency makes its goods more affordable in over countries. However, the US is a huge importer, currently running record trade deficits, so I suspect that this will have little effect on that voerall picture. On the other side, a county with falling currency value will find it more expensive to import goods. This may have a stronger effect on the US economy, as the US is a tremendous importer. Everything says "Made in China" (or India, or Korea, or Taiwan, or Indonesia, or wherever the cheapest damn sweatshops are these days) now.
My guess would be that a dropping dollar's greatest effect would be to raise the cost of imports, thus slowing the economy as people buy less. HOWEVER, this is all the musing of a layperson with no actual training in economics. So I could be entirely wrong.
Honestly, the reason I've been looking at the dollar/pound exchange rate for the past two months is that I moved to England and it first mattered to me because I had to change money... and then, when I did not need to change anymore, I kept looking because I am a numbers geek!
no subject
I'd be amused if the ILC ended up being built in Iran, North Korea, or Syria. I'd love one of those countries to thumb their nose at the US in an expensive obscure way.
Meh.
Re: Meh.
Is he right? I don't know. However, if the US is the most likely place for the ILC to be built, then our field is largely at the mercy of Congress choosing to spend billions of dollars on a basic research project. It sounds like the SSC all over again, doesn't it? I don't have a lot of faith that this will happen and, if the EPP recommendation of investing $500 million over the next five years does not happen, then I would guess that the ILC is a dead duck.
Overall, I do feel like the situation in other parts of the world is much better. CERN, for instance, is building the LHC, while the SSC is long dead, with its ghost still haunting us. Over the past twenty years, Japan has put together the world's best neutrino program and is now investing in another major particle physics facility. Even the bit players, like Canada, are ramping up their funding (and therefore their efforts), with tangible goals and results -- SNO helped solve the solar neutrino problem, and the Subdury mine is planned to become a major, permanent, underground multi-experiment laboratory in Canada.
Does this mean that the ILC will be funded by somebody other than the Untied States? I don't know, and there is reason to be doubtful. However, with the state of the field in other countries, I would feel there is a future career in other places, even if no ILC happens. In the States, however, I think that failure to build the ILC is a sign that there is no committment remaining to particle physics, and very little career prospects as well.
Personally, I am not interested in working on the ILC. So it seems odd that I plan to watch the project so closely as an indicator of future career moves. However, it is my belief that a true investment in the ILC will require the total pot for particle physics in the States to grow significantly, with benefits for other, smaller, projects as well. In other words, growing the pie benefits the whole field in precisely the way that the shrinking of the pie with the cancellation of the SSC (or, more recently, the shift of BNL and SLAC and CESR away from particle physics) has hurt the entire field.
Just my thoughts. I'd be interested in hearing yours. By the way, who presented the EPP2010 report at Fermilab?
no subject
Persephone
no subject
no subject
Persephone
no subject
I freely admit I don't understand a WORD most of the time(I am in the arts for a GOOD reason)...however, I enjoy reading about it because it is really obvious that you really enjoy your work.
And yes, you are such a geek...but that's part of your charm! ;-)
no subject
That's good to know -- thanks for the feedback. At some point, I should make a post clarifying what I am doing in more lay terms. Or I could give another "Physics for Pagans" workshop at P**T*** in October. The first two that I gave, on neutrino physics & astrophysics in 2002 and on ultra high energy cosmic rays in 2004, seemed to be well received. Especially the first one, though it doesn't hurt that I was basking in the reflected glow from one of my collaborators winning the Nobel prize two weeks earlier.
And yes, you are such a geek...but that's part of your charm!
Aw, shucks! *turns head demurely*