US Congress meets Quantum Universe
Have you ever tossed a ball at a wall, playing a game of one-man catch? As you tossed that ball again and again and again, have you ever thought about the chance that it could go right through the wall? According to quantum mechanics, this is a real possibility. "It's a small probability, but it is there," said renowned physicist and author Brian Greene, who addressed the Congressional Research and Development Caucus Advisory Committee in Washington, DC, on May 9.
After explaining the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, and string theory all in the span of an hour, Greene also summed up the process that physicists use to answer some of the universe's deepest mysteries. "We slam stuff together and see what happens," he said. Referring to the construction of the Large Hadron Collider, Greene explained how scientists can look at the debris from the particle collisions to learn if such ideas as dark matter, supersymmetry, and extra dimensions are real. "This machine will test many things," he said. "If this experiment bears fruit, think about what that means. Every time we put our minds to it, we have been able to make progress. We have never hit a wall, and I believe that some day we will understand the fundamental forces of the universe."
Greene's talk, "Reaching for Einstein's Dream: The Quest for the Deepest Laws of the Universe," headlined an event hosted by Congresswoman Judy Biggert and Congressman Rush Holt, members of the Science Committee in the US House of Representatives, to launch the new High Energy Physics Advisory Panel publication Discovering the Quantum Universe, a companion volume to the Quantum Universe. Holt is one of two physicists in Congress; the other is Vernon Ehlers of Michigan.
The director of the Department of Energy's Office of Science, Raymond Orbach, presented the report, which explains the discovery opportunities at the Large Hadron Collider and the proposed International Linear Collider. "We are living in a world that we still don't really understand," Orbach said. "We don't know what happened at the beginning of the universe, and the ILC– referred to as Einstein's telescope –will allow us to go back in time and see what happened. This is a wonderful time for us to be alive. There are so many questions of wonder and beauty that exist, and we have a shot of answering them."
Elizabeth Clements
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