Q-C native working on ‘big bang’ machine
Deep beneath the border between France and Switzerland, the world’s top scientists are studying tiny pieces of matter to find the answers to some of the biggest questions in the universe.
Samuel Silverstein, a 1985 Bettendorf High School graduate, is among them.
He has played a key role in the much-hyped launch of a massive, underground particle collider activated Sept. 10. The technological marvel, which took 12 years to build, resides in a 17-mile, circular tunnel. Inside the collider, scientists will crash beams of protons into one another to study minute, subatomic particles that were first created after the so-called “big bang,” which many believe was a massive explosion that formed all matter.
In this troubled world, it’s an $8 billion experiment funded by 60 countries, all for the purpose of better understanding how we got here.
“There are fundamental questions about the very origins of the universe we live in and how it works, and we CAN get answers to them, so we try,” Silverstein said in an e-mail interview from Sweden, where he teaches physics at Stockholm University. “The (collider) is all about exploration and discovery.”
The effort is being spearheaded by the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva, the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. More than 2,500 physicists from 39 countries work there.
Silverstein’s role in creating the “big bang” machine was helping develop what’s known as a calorimeter trigger. A calorimeter is an essential part of any particle physics experiment and measures the energy of the particles.
“We are looking for very rare processes, so we collide proton bunches 40 million times per second in order to get less than 100 per second that are actually interesting,” Silverstein said. “To apply a crude analogy, we are getting a haystack of data thrown at us each second, and need to pick out as many needles as possible before they fly past.”
To some, the collider experiment seems mysterious. To others, it’s controversial. Still others claim it’s a big waste of money.
Some feared that when scientists turned on the collider, the world would end.
“The universe is filled with high-energy cosmic rays that have regularly collided with the earth and every other heavenly body, producing proton-proton collisions much higher than those at (the collider) for billions of years,” Silverstein said. “If there was the remotest chance that (the collider) could make a stable, earth-destroying black hole, we would see stars and other massive objects in the sky disappearing.”
Arguments also were made that an attempt to recreate the “big bang” was an effort at disproving creationism, but Silverstein said science and religion are best kept separate.
“I don’t think science and religion really have anything to do with one another,” he said. “One seeks to develop a coherent model of the world based strictly on observed facts, while the other is inherently based on belief without the need for proof.”
As for money, Silverstein thinks the $530 million the United States pumped into the project is a drop in the bucket. He reasoned that the contribution, divided by more than 300 million Americans, “wouldn’t even cover a visit to Starbucks.”
Don Schaefer, a former physics teacher at Bettendorf High School who retired in 1990, is proud of Silverstein.
“He was an outstanding student,” he said. “He was in a special group.”
He noted that many of his former students have gone on to do big things. “I remember him being at the top of the line. I’m glad he went on and found something on the cutting edge.”
Indeed, Silverstein said he loves being part of such a global effort. He pointed to lunchtime at the collider to make his point:
“You order and pay for your lunch in French, then walk past rows of long tables where groups of people are chatting in English, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese. In a mixed group, people usually switch to English so that everyone can understand.
“Nationalities don’t matter — it’s the science that’s important.”
David Heitz can be contacted at (563) 383-2202 or dheitz@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.