back to article Lotsa lasers an option for the Next Big Physics

If you thought the world of big physics was drawing to a close with the confirmation that yes, the Higgs boson appears to be a boson and appears to be a Higgs, think again: CERN's boffins, along with thinkers of deep thoughts from École Polytechnique, Southampton University's Optoelectronics Centre and Jena are imagining what …

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  1. Bill Posters
    Coat

    Awesome

    Haven't even finished playing with their new toy, let alone upgrading it and already looking ahead to the next one.

    Progress... can't stop it.

    (For pity's sake please don't build it anywhere near the ocean, don't want any sharks getting their fins on the frickin' lasers.)

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Awesome

      Many smaller sharks, more widely distributed. In practical terms, this allows them to be contained across several lakes, as opposed to one big ocean.

      1. Elmer Phud

        Re: Awesome

        "Many smaller sharks, more widely distributed. In practical terms, this allows them to be contained across several lakes, as opposed to one big ocean."

        then you'd need a few with reflective fins to concentrate several beams into one which could then be joined with other similar groups and . . .

        I see another Bruce Willis film on its way.

        (what you doin' wid dat laser, Willis?)

  2. Turtle

    Thinking, Thinking...

    "CERN's boffins, along with thinkers of deep thoughts from École Polytechnique, Southampton University's Optoelectronics Centre and Jena are imagining what the world's next generation of particle accelerators may look like."

    The reality of the situation is that if these "thinkers of deep thoughts" don't think of some ways to make sure that the next generation of particle accelerators is on the cheapish side, then the only experiments that these "thinkers of deep thoughts" are going to be conducting are "thought experiments".

    1. Crisp

      Re: Thinking, Thinking...

      Strangely enough, there seems to be no end of money from the military when it looks like scientists are close to blowing things up in new and interesting ways.

      1. Alan Brown Silver badge

        Re: Thinking, Thinking...

        These days "new and interesting" tends to mean "smaller and more exactly targetted"

        Eg: Why drop a 20 ton bomb on a bunker when a 1kg UAV might be able to fly in the air ducts and deliver the payload exactly next to $BADGUY? Especially when $BADGUY hides his bunker under a civilian air raid shelter packed with 200-500 bystanders. Even military bods understand bad publicity.

      2. mhenriday
        Holmes

        Re: Thinking, Thinking...

        Hardly surprising - what is research into the nature and origin of the universe compared with the ability to murder people at a distance ?...

        Henri

  3. Neoc

    Particle Accelerators...

    ...with frickin' laser-beams!

  4. El Zorro

    I'm sure this has been done before

    http://i.stack.imgur.com/4nuWw.jpg

  5. MrXavia
    Thumb Up

    Similar tech to HiPER then?

    http://www.hiper-laser.org/

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Don't cross the streams!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    lasers all round

    "Lotsa lasers an option for the Next Big Physics" .. Lotsa lasers are an option for everything ..

    1. Wzrd1 Silver badge

      Re: lasers all round

      Bleh, 100 GeV. Let me know when they're talking 20+ TeV.

      Then, we'll talk about modifying it into a particle entanglement unit that is part of the Hand of Omega and start the Eye of Harmony project.

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