| Kantor said: So have they actually LEARNED anything yet? I don't really see the point of the LHC. Billions of euros for an enormous machine that will prove something which scientists already think is true, which will have no impact on humanity. Then, in a few years, they'll scrap it and build a new one. |
It will answer a lot of fundamental questions to do with Physics. The Higg's boson is hypothesised, but we get some clear evidence for it's existence and how it behaves then we can start addressing some of these questions*. For example it will provide a lot of information for things like supersymmetry (and unified field theory(s)), dark matter, string theory, etc...
I think it will have an effect on humanity. Sure we will one day build a larger particle accelerator, but until then this will provide a lot of information. In fact I seem to recall in a book I read once that to fully understand what happened during the planck epoch we would have to build an accelerator larger than the diameter of the solar system. Obviously that may never happen, but we will always have to look to build a larger one, that's life.
(*Remember, in science it's not enough to say it should exist, you have to be able to prove it)
