It is not a secret that I love chess, and that whenever I have the chance to play some online blitz -in the absence of better competitions or tournaments- I plunge happily into it. However, my results vary, as sometimes my mind cannot be taken away from the program that won't run or this or that administrative forms still waiting to be filled.
I did not think I would need to explain here things that should be obvious to any sentient being, but the recent activity I detect on Facebook and other sites, and the misinformation spread by some science popularization sources and bloggers around the conclusions reached last week by the European Strategy Update for Particle Physics (EUSUPP), a 2-year-long process that saw the participation of hundreds of scientists and the heavy involvement of some of our leading thinkers, forced me to change my mind.
Fundamental science works by alternating phases of interpretation and refutation. When interpreting the result of experiments, physicists spend their time sweating shirt after shirt in the attempt of formulating economical and coherent explanations of observed phenomena. If the process converges, they formulate a theory which works well, whereby they celebrate for a little while. Then a second phase starts, when hypotheses are formulated on how to refute the shiny new model, finding effects and observatons that do not fit in the formulated framework. And so on.
For the past 11 years I have blogged for Science2.0 (formerly Scientific Blogging), and I have considered this site my true personal web page, too - the articles I have published here for over a decade are a much better representation of who I am, what I do, and of my personal expertise than anything else I can ever think of putting together in a web site.
The text below is the sixth and last part of what could have become "Chapter 13" of the book
"Anomaly! Collider Physics and the Quest for New Phenomena at Fermilab", which I published in 2016.
The text below is the fifth part of what could have become "Chapter 13" of the book
"Anomaly! Collider Physics and the Quest for New Phenomena at Fermilab", which I published in 2016. For part 1
see here; for part 2
see here; for part 3
see here; for part 4
see here.
No superjets in Run 2
Travel With Two Infants
A Nice Little Combination
The Strange Case Of The Monotonous Running Average
Turning 60
