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BIG Science… Required to achieve sustainability

Mayda M. VelascoOct. 31, 2013

+Big Science necessary to achieve sustainability…

Crucial for renewable energy Like fusion, fission, solar energy, biofuels,

etc.

Development of new materials

Understanding of climate change

Etc…

Side comment: We do have climate change

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Without BigScience new sources of energy, like fusion, will not happen.. Big impact to our future

+Let’s discuss “Basic Science” 1st : Answers fundamental questions

what? how? why?

Pursues scientific ideals accuracy, purity, correctness

Formalises unifying theories expressed in the language of mathematics

Accumulates convincing evidence by repeatable scientific experiment

Pursued for the sake of scientific glory “Knowledge for the sake of knowledge”

Far in advance of commercial need

+ Also used as a Measures of International Standing -- Authorship Trends --

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http://www7.nationalacademies.org/internationalstudents/

+ Up to the World powers…7

+ We need to check what is the latest at the national level… a lot has changed in the last decade

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+Basic Science Big Science

A term used to describe a series of changes in science which has occurred in industrial nations during and after WW II, when the making of science shifted from individual or small group efforts, or “Small Science,” to relying on large-scale heavily funded projects

“Scientific Glory” : Born from National Pride and Security…

+First Big Science Project in the United States - Manhattan Project

During World War II, Pres. Franklin Roosevelt started a secret government project to develop the world’s first atomic bomb. This secret weapon program employed more than 130,000 people over 30 different research and production sites and cost $2 billion ($24 billion in today’s dollar). Oak Ridge Facility in Tennessee

Calutron at the secret Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Used to enrich uranium fuel required for nuclear weapons. (Source: DOE)

+Since then, National Labs have become common in the USA. Ex. In Illinois:

Laboratories and Institutes join to create a large central lab, which later attracts an increasing number of users

Ex: Fermi National Accelerator Lab. in Batavia, Il

The big centres may evolve and also have industrial character, which requires professional public relation activity

Ex: Argonne National Lab., Downers Grove, Il

+Some Characteristics of Projects in Big Science

Last for decades (Proposal, Construction, Commissioning, Operation, Upgrades…)

Involve thousands of individuals interdisciplinary teams of scientists, engineers, technicians

Pursuing broad, but coherent vision for the advancement of science (problem-directed goals)

Extensive instrumentation (accelerators, telescopes, super-computers, etc.)

Work is often distributed

Processing of large volumes of data

+Characteristic of Big Science

Big budgets: Increased government support meant scientists were no longer required to rely on philanthropy or industry

Big staffs & laboratories: The number of practitioners of science on any one project grew “controversy”: assignment of credit for scientific

discoveries (e.g. the Nobel Prize system allows awarding only 3 individuals in any one topic )

Big machines: The use of many machines, e.g. many sequencers used during the Human Genome Project, enormous particle accelerators

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Big Science

Few Examples

+Space Race (1957 to 1975)

It is debatable whether "science" was much of a part of the Space Race, there’s no doubt that it definitely filled the "Big" part of "Big Science.” The USA spent approximately $100 billion competing with the Soviet Union in space exploration.

1957

1969: Astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the moon, photo taken by N.Armstrong (Photo: NASA)

+Human Genome Project (1990-2003) The Human Genome Project is a

project to sequence the entire 3 billion chemical base pairs that make up the human DNA and identify all the estimated 20,000 to 25,000 genes that make up our genome.

Analysis of the data is ongoing till today.

Ethical, legal and social cost are still under debate.

$3 billion

+International Space Station (1995) The ISS is a joint collaboration

of space agencies of several countries … Is not so much a scientific project as an exercise of engineering prowess and political will!

The European Space Agency estimates that the entire station costs €100 billion over a period of 30 years. Critics pointed out that the amount of science being done is paltry as compared to the sums of money being spent, but its advocates defended the program as a necessary first step towards manned exploration of space.

Future… privatization of such facilities!

Space Shuttle Atlantis docked to Russian Mir Space Station in 1995 (Photo: NASA)

+Hubble Space Telescope(1990-2010)

True Scientific Instrument… cost over $3 billion

Discovery of: Dark Energy Earth like Planets

New knowledge and measurements on Planet formation Age of the universe Dark Matter

+Super Kamiokande (2001) Every second, 50 trillion solar neutrinos pass through your body

The Super-K is basically a tank filled with 50,000 tons of ultra-pure water, buried some 1,000 m (3,280 ft) underground ( >$1 billion)

• New measurements • Lifetime of the proton• Validation of models describing the Sun

and Atmosphere• Discoveries (Nobel -- 2002)

• Neutrinos have mass• Oscillate

+Very Large Array (1980) Radio astronomy observatory in New

Mexico is composed of 27 radio antennas in a Y-shaped configuration. They are programmed to work together as a single instrument.

Observations at radio wavelengths address some of the most fundamental questions in astrophysics. The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, the Dark Ages before the onset of the first stars or galaxies, the baryonic and dark-matter content of proto-galaxies, the process of re-ionization of the universe by galaxies, and the earliest stages of star and planet formation are all observed using radio techniques.

$80 million in 1972

+National Ignition Facility (2009) The world's largest and highest-energy

laser at LLNL. Started ignition experiments that will focus the energy of 192 giant laser beams on a target filled with hydrogen fuel. NIF's ultimate goal is to fuse the hydrogen atoms’ nuclei and produce more energy than the laser energy required to spark the reaction. This is the same fusion energy process that makes the stars shine and provides the life-giving energy of the sun.

NIF is a program of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

The first large-scale laser target experiments were performed in June 2009 and the first integrated ignition experiments were declared completed in October 2010. … billions

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E=mc2

Science of Fusion well known… New science is in the technology development

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We are just copying nature !

+D-T micro-balloon fuel pellet

+Lawrence Livermore National Lab

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ITER Reactor: Cross Section

ITER Fusion program perfect example of BigSc

+ Fusion Temperature attained Fusion confinement soon(!?)

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Invented in the 50’s by Soviet Physicists Toroidal chamber with magnetic

coils Toroidal chamber with axial

magnetic fields

Most common form of magnetic confinement reactor Most studied

Walls “capture” the heat and pass it to a heat exchanger which produces steam to drive a turbine

ITER International Thermonuclear

Experimental Reactor Being built in France First tokomak fusion reactor that will

become productive

Magnetic ConfinementTokomak

+ Inside JET

+Captured by an ultra-high-speed camera, a pellet of fuel is injected into a plasma at the ASDEX Upgrade Tokomak in Garching, Germany. Photo: EFDA.

Plasma image following the injection of a frozen deuterium pellet

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

JET

+Recent Developments: Sandia National Laboratories

Two Purposes: Weapons research Pursue the ignition of fusion

Z Accelerator (inertial confinement) Uses blasts of X-rays crashing into a hydrogen

(deuterium) capsule at the center 200 trillion watts of x-rays (10 x electrical energy than entire

generating capacity of the world) 15 million degrees centigrade

Cheaper than Tokamaks and Lasers

+National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)

Distributed sensor networks, experiments and aerial and satellite remote sensing capabilities, all linked via cyber-infrastructure into a single "scalable" integrated research platform for conducting continental-scale ecological research.

Two broad goals: (i) understand how land-use change and climate variation affect ecological systems and (ii) forecasting future dynamics

+Large Hadron Collider (2010)

To answer many fundamental questions

$10 billion

“Dinosaurs” from early Universe and otherExotic particles …Parents of today’s dark matter? Many more connections, but let time/data tell us what they are..

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• New state of matter…Quark Gluon Plasma ?

• Mass Generation …Higgs ?

• Unification of Forces…Super Symmetry ?

• Matter-Anti Matter asymmetry…More CP violation?LHC

Energy

LHC Physics Reach

LHC…New Era

+Big Science versus Small Science

Small science is still relevant today as theoretical results by individuals may have a significant impact, but very often empirical verification requires experiments using constructions

Not obvious, very important theoretical work should be consider small science based on the cost of the cost of the computing facilities they use.

+Small Science to Big Science

Change in size and scale Mission orientation, external control University-Government collaboration Bureaucratic norm, or value system New role for the state: “science policy”

Emergence of environmentalism

+Advances in science are coming at a fantastic and accelerating pace, in part because

Big science has spread into new fields

Increasing multi-disciplinarity of science

Advances in science are being fueled by advances in technology and vice-versa

From Big Science to Techno-science

+Big Science to Techno-Science

Change in range and scope

Market orientation, global reach

University-industry collaboration

Entrepreneurial norm or value system

The state as strategist: “innovation policy”

The emergence of green business

+Relevant topics to our main questions are very diverse… BigSc Big Science is affected by and will affect:

1. The economy: Many by-products, but can also act as a stimulus,

etc.

2. Politics: Public policy, international relation, etc.

3. Society: Conflicts with religious believes, industrialized

versus developing nations, etc.

4. Education: Impact on cost of education, change of curricula

(interdisciplinary), level of education needed to have an impact in a given field

+Relevant topics to our main questions are very diverse… BigSc Big Science is affected by and will affect by…

continue:1. Trends in Business models:

Public versus Private Public tax payers pay everyone has access to

by products (example, WEB development at CERN) Private companies intellectual property

patents

2. Military/National Security needs Example: Fighting terrorism

3. Global crisis Example: energy crisis