/sci/ - Science & Math

>>7991827
PET scans are an application of antiparticles. Would be pretty cool if some physicists here gave other technological applications of subatomic physics.

>>7991827
Pretty much.

It keeps thousands of scientists from unemployment though.

As an ex-physicist I can confirm that Particle Physics and the Standard Model are just a meme and led to me changing scientific disciplines

>>7991827
>finding subatomic particles that are completely useless

Useless now, but what about in 1000 years? Future scientist will be glad past ones did the groundwork for them. None of the fancy tech shit people are so proud of today would be possible without forward thinkers scribbling out the basics on parchment centuries ago. You're either an idiot or just jealous that you won't live long enough to see something come of it.

>>7991854
>change scientific disciplines

This makes me belief that you were just an undergrad... so you were never a physicist.

I mean, if you actually changed your field after getting your PhD then fuck do you have a lot of free time and money just lying around.

Is astronomy completely useless? Billions of dollars wasted, finding planets and stars that are completely useless. They just sit in a dictionary.

Is LIGO completely useless? Billions of dollars wasted, finding gravitational waves that are completely useless. They just sit in a dictionary.

Is Biology completely useless? Billions of dollars wasted, finding species that are completely useless. They just sit in a dictionary.

Is Math completely useless? Billions of dollars wasted, finding new theorems that are completely useless. They just sit in a science journal.

The worth of science shouldn't be measured by short-term returns, particularly in the case of something like CERN. The idea is to get a more complete picture of how the universe works, not to make a radical breakthrough. Is there is some kind of radical breakthrough, that's great and should be celebrated but that's not the primary aim.

There's also the possibility that someone down the line will make a breakthrough thanks to the knowledge obtained by CERN. Looking at it that way it only makes sense to obtain as much knowledge as possible.

>>7991827
Lets be honest, the only science that matters is the science that can help industry make products like better drogas

>>7991854
>Particle Physics and the Standard Model are just a meme
Can we have at least one board where people can have intelligent conversations instead of calling things they don't like autistic or memes?

>>7991869
LIGO and astronomy are useless. What good do finding planets, stars, and gravitational waves do us? We could be using all that money to build tech that is actually useful.

>>7991885
>my way of thinking is better than yours
Sorry m8 I just prefer common sense to elitism.

>>7991869
Everything in your post is correct, except for the math part.

Mathematicians are literally problem solvers. They are not wasting money making up retarded theories about le string theory meme or le quantum meme, they just keep inventing new systems where they can solve problems.

In that way, mathematicians will always be useful because there will always be bigger problems to tackle. When relativity was starting to surge, curved spaces were already 100% figured out so that physicists could run with them.

Funding pure mathematics in academia is like funding statisticians in business. You don't REALLY need to have people carefully analyzing trends because if you were lucky, you will always hit the trends right when they came, that is how it was done for hundreds of years. But having that small statistics department just running simulations, calculations and collecting data (that you may not need right at this moment), keeps your business floating with more security.

Even though you don't need that data, there will be a time when sales are down and the first thing you will do is go to your statisticians and ask them how to get back some momentum.

>>7991889
>We could be using all that money to build tech that is actually useful.
enlighten me

>>7991893
>t. math undergrad

>>7991892
Calling an entire field oh physics a meme doesn't even tell us what problem you think there is with it. You just sound like someone randomly picking things to insult to sound intelligent.

>>7991896
What's to enlighten? We could be using all this money for new technology, such as newer technology to help us for a mars mission, etc.

>>7991900
>>7991893
>muh math

You've wasted your life. Teach high school or become an engineer.

>>7991900
Indeed.

You may think I'm biased because of that but take my analogy back to academia. The moment physicists realize that the universe is actually a 50 dimensional space projected down to 3 dimensions, the first thing they will do is ask their mathematicians how the fuck do you work in 50 dimensions.

And we will happily say
>replace n=50 :^)

>>7991908
>new technology such as newer technology

>>7991923
Okay, that was a pretty bad mistake on my part. It was pretty funny though.

>>7991885
At least he's being a skeptic.

Retarded freshmen are en force on /sci/ today.

>>7991827
>Billions of dollars wasted
It's euros, actually. No wonder you can't grasp the significance of what's being done at CERN.

>>7991862
>you were never a physicist.

I have a Masters in Physics and a PhD

How about you, faggot?

>>7991912
Physicists will just invent some new maths for that and the mathematicians will struggle to keep up
See: path integrals, renormalisation

>>7992118
Pure math undergrad.

But then you changed fields after more than 8 years in academia, so other than a doctor, it also makes you a moron.

>>7992129
>undergrad.
Don't ever (You) me again

>>7992131
>I was born a few years earlier than you, therefore I am better

Give it time, I'll probably be more succesful than you. Mainly because I chose a non-meme field were I can stay and leaves me huge room to specialize in pretty much anything.

>>7992131
Can I still (You) your wife's son

>>7991908
You literally just said finding other planets is a waste of money. Now you want to go to Mars.

>>7992131
(ゆ)

>>7992113
Isn't it CHF ?

>>7992151
Most nations that are major contributors to CERN use euro's

>>7992151
Nope, the euro has been CERN's "official money" for industrial procurement for quite some time now. With France and Germany being, by far, the two largest contributors, that shouldn't surprise you. The geographic location of CERN's headquarters is pretty much irrelevant.

Same thing with ESA, they place all their orders in euros and non-€ countries have to deal with exchange rates themselves.

EU haters be hatin'

>>7992149
>>7992149
I meant planets and stars that are too far away to explore. What's the point in finding them? A mars mission is actually reasonable.

>>7992113
My mistake. I grasp the significance, it's very interesting, but my point still stands.

>>7992138
Oh yeah dude pure math. Fuckton of real world applications beside encryption. Have fun being a real successful programmer/accountant

>>7992159
>>7992163
Oh, cool. as a french, I'm ok with this.

>>7992182
Assuming there are advances upon the current space shuttle tech, long term missions to other star systems, using either cryosleep or having children aboard the ships, who have children of their own, etc., long term missions will be feasible, and possibly necessary, once we use all the earth's natural resources.

>>7992218
That seems fair enough. So it is now established that long distance space travel could be possible. This brings me back to my original point, we could just stop with Cern and create technology for this.

>>7992226
My point was that these so-called "wastes of money" have useful applications.

>>7992214
SKELTAN! BEHIND YOU!

>>7992201
>Have fun being a real successful programmer/accountant

I'm already having tons of fun being a software developer. It will only get better from here.

>>7992239
Besides the subatomic particles such as the Higgs boson, yes.

>>7991827
reminds me of a dumb woman telling that we rather should spend our money in windmills than in development of fusions plants because it will last 50 years till it works.

im pretty happy our ancestors were smart enough to develop things they couldnt use at that time

the benefit from super science is the technology developed to accomplish the goal. they always have other and more practical applications.

How big or small can something be? Every time they smash a particle, something even smaller pops out. What is the basic building block of mater? Keep smashing, I want to know!

>>7991827
Um... are you fucking autistic? Why are you even on /sci/ if you're about as curious as a rock? The very nature of science is explaining how the universe works, not making worthless shits like you better stuff. We make stuff after we learn more about how the universe works.

>>7992748
It's interesting, but it doesn't justify spending a shit ton of money on.

>>7992748
/sci/ is really just /stembiz/.

>>7992748
That isn't the nature of science, and it hasn't been for hundreds of years, smutbutt. The nature of science is to create predictive models that describe phenomena in the universe. Source: my physics PHD

>>7992129
Leave the Physicist alone.

As a fellow with a BS in pure mathematics I have a love/hate relationship with the field. In some ways I cannot see myself frittering away over useless puzzles.

So, I tried to be applied and really hate the hype around data science/big data as most of what I've seen were people using programs (R, SAS, etc) to utilize statistical libraries they don't understand the inner-workings of and then have the guts to call themselves 'data scientist' while claiming to be able to interpret the results. These are the very people who are good with 'business speak' and say things around business oriented processes to sound intelligent, why? Because they understand the interoperability of how a businesses function, can use a few meme words and can use what little they know to create BS that sounds good, but is actually lacking in substance. Do I want to be a associated with that? No.

Then I ventured in to computer science and most people I come across associate computer science to programming. I am strong in the math but was weak in the programming so started to learn a few programming languages to supplement the mathematics. As a noob learning programming I came across strong programmers that are weak in math and then all they want to talk about in CS is software engineering but never the data structures or algorithms or program complexity. So now I'm learning programming (more as a means not an end) and I'm surrounded by a group of people that SEE programming as an ends and never beyond it. Do I want to be a software engineer? NO.

So lately I've been gravitating more and more towards theoretical mathematics because I find it more interesting/enlightening than the above.

I decided I'll probably get a PhD in CS, do some theoretical things, but learn some applied so I am not forced to be in academia.

>>7991827
>>7991854
>>7991869
>>7991883


Holy fucking dogshit you people should be gassed. Fundamental research is vitally important to the world.

>>7993574
>literal autism

>>7993635
Explain to me how finding new subatomic particles are important, and I'll believe you.

>>7993653
Why is anything important?

>>7993661
Some stuff actually helps and advances us

>>7993653
They're important because you're a fucking cuny

>>7993661
Are you even trying to convince us?

Couldn't curiosity be a good reason? Finding answers to questions about the universe we live in is a wonderful thing, it could be really worth it.

7 dollars came out of technological advancement from each dollar invested in CERN

>>7993778
From what? Not being a dick, I just never heard of any money being made.

>>7993653
>>7993679
>>7993702
Applications come much later

>>7993814
Such as?

>>7993822
Electrodynamics
Quantum mechanics
Relativity

>>7993574
>As a noob learning programming I came across strong programmers that are weak in math and then all they want to talk about in CS is software engineering but never the data structures or algorithms or program complexity.
If you don't understand data structures or algorithms you're not actually a good programmer.

>>7993772
Yea, I think all these applications people come up with are usually just excuses.

The building blocks of the universe are also the building blocks of time.

>>7991827
>uses the www
>badmouths CERN
just leave

>>7993830
Then say that right off instead of acting like a faggot in posts like >>7993814

>>7993841
E.g. Space is a strawman built out of instances of time which are merely circular. Alternatively you can say the opposite, time is evidenced by the impermanence of space which is what most people think.

>>7993845
>>7993814 is my first post in this thread...

>>7993852
The nature of time is mysterious, but if we could engineer it...

>>7993853
Sorry I though you were the other guy. The other guy is still a fag.

>>7993864
Time is this many.