The Power of Big Science - Talk at LSE – Monday 3rd March 2025

So I attended this talk, given by Professor Mark Thompson, the head of CERN (home of the Large Hadron Collider), and it was one of those occasions that offerred a tiny glimmer of hope in mankind’s future.

The fact that so many nations work together, not for military gain, but purely to increase our scientific knowledge, is indeed cause for hope!

Aside from gaining a slightly better understanding of particle physics, I was also pleased to learn that their research is having real world benefits, especially when it comes to treating things like cancer.

Hadrons are far more precise, and less damaging than other particles, and whilst they are good at killing cancerous cells, they leave healthy cells unharmed! They’re even better at imaging than x-rays, because x-rays cause a lot of damage too!

Comparatively speaking, CERN is cheap to run too! It only costs a billion quid a year to run! For a cross border, multinational research facility, that’s pittance! I mean, the UK government alone loses between £50-80 Billion a year to fraud and errors!!

Anyway, despite how good the talk was, I’ve still managed to end on a depressing note. Sigh. Welcome to life in the UK.