‘The World Wide Web Is A Child Of The Hunt For The Higgs Boson’

When the discovery of the Higgs Boson was announced earlier this year, there’s no denying it was exciting news. Well, more so for scientists with the ability to put the find into context. For the average person? It’s a bit harder to understand. The find won’t be changing our daily lives any time soon… or indeed ever. But the journey to discovering the Higgs Boson? That’s reaped a few rewards, as CERN’s Troels Petersen explains in this TEDxCopenhagen talk.

The presentation, filmed on September 18 and published on October 4, attempts to frame the magnitude of the discovery not so much in what it means, but the time, effort and resources required to make it happen. He also highlights one of the side benefits of the project, which I’m sure you’re familiar with:

In the process of building these cathedrals of science and coordinating so many people — who, by the way, aren’t organised by one organisation, well, CERN — but there isn’t one boss who can say ‘You’re fired, you’re not doing your job’.

No, people work on what they want to work on … this common goal is what’s driving it. And in the process of building this, CERN has invented the World Wide Web and in some respects, the World Wide Web is a child of the hunt for the Higgs Boson.”

Yeah, I’m definitely happy to let science continue what it’s doing.

[YouTube]


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