Wonderful to see your blog again. I remember leptoquarks!
Glad to read that you remember. I regularly chat about leptoquarks on chain, because of the interest they attract in the field. There is a clear correlation here. You seem however to be the only one who remembered ;)
Not now, not immediately maybe. But, "how our universe functions at its most fundamental level" may come in handy some day🙂. When Marie Curie did her experiments with pitchblende, did she know what the world would do with her knowledge? Did she envision x-rays, nuclear energy, nuclear bombs? Did she envision particle physics? The advancement of knowledge is a step into the unknown. It is in human nature to explore and go forward. We don't always know where those steps will take us.
Of course that's true. In the present case, there is however no way to know what would be the added value in 100 years, which is why I only referred to the (very) short term. In fact, that's the reason why when we perform a costs-benefits analysis of a particle physics project, it is impossible to account for potential applications. There is just no way to know (when this will occur and what this will bring). We can only talk about the present.
Advancing knowledge. It has taken the human race pretty far, hasn't it?
Definitely! So much has been done in a few 100,000 years.
Another great blog. Thank you!
Thanks for your comment and passing by!