We are all concerned about the potential dangers of the LHC, creating black holes and weird stuff, that sounds like science-fiction.
WE all Hardly. I and 99.99% of all physicists are not in the least worried. The worries indeed do sound like science fiction.
Assumming a 100% security in this project and we aren't all eaten by a sudden black hole created there.... What are the potential uses of the findings expected from the Large Hadron Colider?
The Higgs boson question is the most looked for answer. If found, presently accepted theories will be greatly strengthened. If not found, presently accepted theory will have to be changed.
Possibly more insight into dark energy.
What will be the practical use be and in what term? (5-10-20-50 years?)
Possiblely none (Most likely none for at least 50 years.)
But that is the essence of research into the unknown. If the results were know, it would be engineering.
Einstein did not have practical uses in mind for special relativity but you cannot build a cathode ray tube without an understanding of it. The GPS system would be useless without the correct application of the general theory of relativity.
Superconductivity was entirely unexpected. Modern semi-conductors were unthought of 60 years ago.
What REAL things, besides physics theory, proving certain theoremes and that scientific stuff can we expect from it.
Directly - none
I mean, new power sources? No
Would this pontentially bring us the energy independence from oil? No
Ultra-small nanno-devices? NO
Longer lifespans? Not likely but maybe
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by: ozoPosted on 2008-08-09 at 17:50:30ID: 22198256
Well, if the only findings are expected findings, like finding the Higgs boson, then we don't really learn much new, we just confirm what we already thought.
More interesting would be unexpected findings.