ENS NEWS N° 38, Intro: A eureka moment
The Oxford English Dictionary states that the term eureka comes from the Greek word heurēka, meaning 'I have found it'. Archimedes cried out eureka when he discovered a method for accurately determining the purity of gold. The term has since become synonymous with memorable moments of enlightenment, triumph and euphoria; moments that signal a potentially epoch-defining turn of events. Eureka moments have invariably provided a springboard for pushing back the boundaries of accepted knowledge and blazing new scientific trails. When the apple famously landed on Isaac Newton’s head, when Ernest Rutherford first confirmed the splitting of the atom, or when Albert Einstein finally nailed down his theory of relativity, a chain reaction occurred that helped reassess accepted knowledge and challenge theories once written in stone.
The legacy of these early pioneers is great, but how relevant are their achievements within today’s context? Do they still resonate and teach us something, or are they simply nostalgic echoes of past glories? Well, opponents of nuclear energy regularly claim that nuclear energy is a tired and outdated energy source with no future and we often see how more “sellable” anti-nuclear news stories tend to dominate the media headlines. So, while it is important to remind people of how nuclear science has changed the way we understand the universe, revolutionised how we harness and deliver energy, developed new therapeutic applications that save thousands of lives every day and helped mitigate the crippling effects of climate change, we must also emphasise that it is still a hotbed of innovation where the eureka moments of tomorrow are being forged today.
That task was made easier by a recent discovery worthy of Newton, Rutherford and Einstein, that thrust nuclear research under the scientific spotlight. Such was its impact that it even forced the world’s media, at times rather grudgingly, to give it the oxygen of front-page publicity. For forty-five years nuclear physicists had striven to prove the predicted presence of a sub-atomic particle that could explain how matter attains its mass and indicate how the universe may have been created. The presence of such a particle had first been proposed by a group of scientists back in 1964. Award-winning Belgian physicists, Robert Brout and François Englert (the latter recently celebrated his eightieth birthday), both from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, and Peter Higgs, a British physicist from the University of Edinburgh, predicted its existence in a series of famous scientific publications. Their pioneering research was, amazingly, based on hand-written calculation because computers didn’t exist then. It triggered an epic search, of Holy Grail proportions, by teams of researchers around the world. They were hunting for the elusive “Brout-Englert-Higgs boson” - later referred to simply as the “Higgs boson.” Then, on 4 July 2012, scientists working at the CERN, the European Centre for Nuclear Research, in Switzerland, claimed they had discovered a new particle consistent with the Higgs boson. It had been discovered thanks to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest particle accelerator.
The final identification of the Higgs boson was indeed a eureka moment. It made global headlines and raised global implications. Some textbooks will have to be rewritten and some preconceived ideas and misconceptions revisited. Many ENS NEWS readers may well have been personally involved in this research and must have shared a common sense of elation at the news of this career-defining discovery.
What the nuclear scientists at CERN, and elsewhere, have achieved, and what the discovery of the Higgs boson signifies for the future, are hardly symptomatic of an outdated energy source that is rooted in the past; a spent force when it comes to innovation. While physicists, theologians and philosophers continue to debate the Big Bang theory, the Higgs boson should provide the nuclear science community with a new platform for advancing both the conceptual and real boundaries of research to a whole new level. That community is eternally grateful to the pioneering work of Brout, Englert and Higgs, as well as to that of numerous others whose names may be less well-known but whose contribution is no less significant. The fruits of that work, and of that of successive generations of researchers, have given new impetus to nuclear science. And long may it continue….until another eureka moment lights up the universe.
The last edition of ENS NEWS for 2012 starts with the traditional Word from the President, in which Marco Streit provides an overview and personal appreciation of what happened during the past quarter. Information and analysis on the mobility of young nuclear professionals is then provided by the results of survey recently carried out by ENS.
In the ENS Events section information on flagship conferences like ENC2012, PIME2013, ETRAP2013 and RRFM2013 illustrate just how busy the ENS events calendar will be in the coming months.
Among the many stories sent in by our members is a technical product profile relating to a gamma ray tracer used at the Garigliano NPP that is being decommissioned in Italy, a report on the 50th anniversary of the Belgian Association for Radiological Protection, information on a CENEN Summer School course and news of an ambitious laser technology research project that is being carried out jointly in Romania the Czech Republic and Hungary.
On the YGN front, two different appraisals are given of the recent successful TopFuel 2012 conference, in Manchester (UK). There are also reports on the 2012 International Youth Nuclear Congress (IYNC) that took place in Charlotte (USA) and on the activities of the Slovak Nuclear Society at a Summer Music Festival.
The European Institutions section presents a personal insight into the work of the European Commission’s Site Management and Nuclear Safety Unit, in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Finally, the World News section features a story on the 4th FEM’ENERGIA Award, which recognises the achievements of women in promoting gender development in the nuclear sector and a profile of NUCLEARTV, a multi-media and social media platform for the nuclear community.
I know it is only November, but since ENS NEWS N° 39 is not due to be published until next year I would like to take this opportunity to wish readers a very Merry (and early) Christmas and a happy, prosperous and healthy New Year!
Mark O’Donovan
Editor-in-Chief, ENS NEWS
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Mark O’Donovan
Editor-in-Chief, ENS NEWS
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