The Last Day Of Summer

Posted by MadScientist (Düsseldorf, Germany) on 10 September 2008 in Cityscape & Urban.

If you can read this, then chances are good that these folks at CERN didn't screw things up and found their beloved Higgs Boson, the world formula, dark matter, or whatever.

Three billion Euros for a twenty year project - physicists know how to bankroll their work! We know almost nothing about the deep sea, we poorly know how to predict earth- or seaquakes, we don't even know exactly if it's us who ruins the world climate or something else. Howsoever, we don't know how to cope with the climate change. We're lousy in curing Alzheimer, AIDS, cancer or other serious (or less serious) diseases. We don't know how to handle nuclear waste, but politicians ask for reviving nuclear power due to the rising energy costs.

We walked on the moon and then lost courage. We had breathtaking visions, but what are the visions of today? Several wars, including the 'war on terror' made us fearful. We're hiding ourselves, we see the billions floating away, we spy on noisy children, German economists are discussing if 132 Euros in a month will be sufficient for a jobless person's life. Visions? We reached for the stars, but then we turned inwards. Up to now, we didn't find much.

I think it's no wonder why physicists are searching for the 'God particle' in the smallest of all dimensions. We've lost control of the big things, so let's turn towards the small ones. Photos of shiny giant magnets, tremendous cable trees and clean tunnels and tubes where the particles will collide are suggesting this kind of control. There seems to be meaning and reason, somewhere it's hidden between all these nasty particles, and it makes us forget all these unsolvable other problems. You know what? They won't find God particles, they just will drown in data. But it will suffice for the next project proposal. For the next, bigger collider in twenty years.

This picture was taken yesterday. Only a few hours later rain was coming back, giving us a feeling of experiencing the last day of summer. Perhaps we'll get some more sunny days. Nobody will know this exactly. Not even if they will find the Higgs Boson.

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Comments (13)

Linerberry from Sumner, Christchurch, New Zealand

Wow some narrative! Really gets one thinking and raises awareness...!
What a stunning shot...the composition and lighting are second to none. Just a great perspective and well, awesome ms!

10 Sep 2008 9:05am

@Linerberry: Thanks a lot! You can already feel the advent of autumn here, so I'm trying to catch every ray of sunlight.

Evelyne Dubos from Le Mans, France

I like point of view & composition. But for me i think it's a little under-exposed (you can see that on curves of contrast) and this picture with nice light deserves to be more luminous... just my opinion... :-)

10 Sep 2008 11:49am

@Evelyne Dubos: I shot this shortly before sunset and I liked that mood in the beginning dusk. I also wanted something that matched the words in my post of today, showing bright light on our everyday life but darkening clouds above us.

MaryB from Staffordshire, United Kingdom

A powerfully written narative MS and one I agree 100% with. I awoke this morning and was glad that I and the world was still here! only to find that the experiment hadn't taken place yet!
The image really fits well, we need to look after our world and the people on it first, It's a beautiful place, it's a priority that these people have either forgotten or choose to forget.

10 Sep 2008 11:59am

@MaryB: A very good point! Actually I don't think that this experiment will damage our physical world (mankind isn't that powerful in my opinion), and I'm really not against big science projects. But not in particle physics. Physicists of former times had nothing but mathematics and their brain to push science further. Today we need milti-billion projects for insights that are relevant to just a very small community. But where's the benefit?

Isao from isère, France

jolie ambiance lumineuse, et j'aime bien la composition !

nice atmosphere light, and I like the composition !

10 Sep 2008 12:31pm

@Isao: Thanks so much, Isao! Hopefully autumn will provide some more sunny days!

Veronelle from Lens, France

tres belle ambiance crepusculaire, mais ce que j'aime c'est la trainée dans l'eau que fait le bateau

10 Sep 2008 12:40pm

@Veronelle: Thanks very much! That's a quite common scene, the Rhine is quite crowded! :)

akarui from Kagoshima, Japan

Beautiful perspective. There is a beautiful light. I don't think that you can increase the exposure because you have allready pure whites in the picture. May be have a try with the mid tones and look at the clouds to have them brighter.

10 Sep 2008 1:06pm

@akarui: Maybe, but I wanted my picture to match the mood of my written post: you can have a bright and shiny everyday life but the clouds of an uncertain future are always above us.

Ronnie 2¢ from London, United Kingdom

Interesting perspective in both your image and the narrative . . as to the Project, is it not just part of asking 'how' in order to better know 'why'?

10 Sep 2008 1:39pm

@Ronnie 2¢: Particle physicists are promising this for decades. They crash their particles, collect the data and finally find out that the elementary particles are composed of even finer particles. So they need stronger machines and make politicians believe that it makes sense to put more millions into their projects. I'm sure this pattern will repeat and that they will demand an even bigger collider within a decade.
I don't want to ask where's the benefit for all this: science is costly and the results might get relevant only decades in the future. But IMHO these experiments are just a waste of money that could be used better in other scientific projects - I already mentioned a few examples. When the only insight of these experiments will result in the repetition of these experiments at an even larger scale, then this is an aberration, the scientific method has to get scrutinized. But money-givers love too much these photos of shiny apparatus, so I think we're just before another reiteration of the science funding cycle.
And for the 'why': Copernicus and Einstein moved the world by means of mathematics and their imagination. I think they moved it further than even the biggest collider will be able to.

Observing from West Cheshire, United Kingdom

MS, lovely image and I like the low sunset light, due to the incoming angle of light the contrast is higher while shadows become darker.

The Large Hadron Collider has started succesfully, we are still alive. But only '1' beam has been used, they now will increase the number of colliding beams so what will happen then, will an uncontrollable reaction be started..? This morning SKY news interviewed Prof. Wolff, he compared the experiment with - mince pies that explode and you find currents and sugar inside. These are the thoughts of a scientist.

What is so important about understanding the Big Bang..? But one thing is sure, the money machine will keep on rolling.

10 Sep 2008 3:14pm

@Observing: It certainly does! Maybe we all got used to spending billions on useless things that it simply doesn't matter if we fund just another project. Of course it will be a tremendous success, of course are European scientists the best in the world, and of course can all this just be the start for even bigger and greater projects.

Let's see how many Nobel prizes and other scientific awards will be given to the involved scientists and the project. I'm really curious.

Ted from South Wales, United Kingdom

Hmmm...should've paid more attention to the teacher in class...seems there's a bit of money to be made from building giant meccano sets & calling yourself a particle physicist!

10 Sep 2008 4:11pm

@Ted: Becoming a scientist is a reliable way to become a poor (wo)man. Money is usually available for equipment only, as a scientist you're paid quite bad - unless you're one of the science stars or you're working at a private university. In Germany you're paid according to the "BAT" tariff, depending on your pay bracket and your age (here's a table) and that's nothing to get rich. If one plans a science career, he has to appear on as many publications as possible and his research topic has to be prestigious. CERN is the ideal playground for aspiring scientific talents, as it's a steppingstone for international careers at elite universities, where they might get a decent salary.

JoeB from Brampton, Canada

Majestic view of the river the walkway looks like it would be full in the summer. A lot of money for the big bang theory are they physicists or starting their own Mutual Fund. Its amazing how money is found for certain projects but not for hunger and disease. All politicians lack vision, they can't see past the next election.

11 Sep 2008 12:51am

@JoeB: I'm afraid that hunger and disease (and war) will accompany mankind at all times. Science may alleviate the misery but certainly not completely. Besides that there's a hunger for insight: man is curious since the beginnig. That's okay, it made our species so successful. But if the hunt for insight gets that costly that only a few projects with maximum prestige are possible, then there's something going terribly wrong. 3 billion Euros is no pocket money, and I doubt that there will be enough insight that will satisfy our curiosity.

Laurent from Lyon, France

strangely you want this picture to reflect your mind but I find this it quiet joyful. No exposure problem to me. Just a bright end of the afternoon light. The one I appreciate between two showers.
To my mind if I had to express my doubts I think I would have choose to take the picture while it was raining

11 Sep 2008 4:32am

@Laurent: Oh, please not! I hate the bridge when it's raining! :-)

dj.tigersprout from San Bruno, CA, United States

wow -- this is truly a wondrous scene, taken at a marvelous height! so much detail and action in this frame... and what a glorious and expansive sky w/ feather clouds! i think brilliant describes both the lighting and the shot perfectly!

11 Sep 2008 5:02pm

@dj.tigersprout: Thanks, dj, I took this photo at one of Düsseldorf's Rhine bridges. The sight is quite okay there. :-)

Twelvebit from Victoria, United States

The war on terror is just a fear mongering campaign to keep everyone well behaved and afraid --and it works beyond all reason and logic. The most successful attack on the US killed about 3,000 people. 20,000 people die every year in this country from slips and falls --about 14,000 from slipping in their bathtubs. We're not spending a trillion dollars a year in the war on slips and falls. You can't get any political mileage from a war on slips and falls. The only thing the "war on terror" has achieved is to create more enemies and make recruitment easier for terrorists. Well, not the "only" thing. It has helped make a lot of politically connected people rich or richer.

16 Sep 2008 6:35am

@Twelvebit: The actual crisis exactly hits these people. Call me mischievous, but grinning at well-dressed people in expensive suits and watch them heading off shamefully is big fun in these days. Everybody's on the run, nobody knows where to depose the money. And it gets fewer and fewer.

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