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February 10, 2012
Lisa M. Krieger: Man with defibrillator demands access to his own heart's information
David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
February 9, 2012
Laura McMullen: 10 Least Expensive Public Schools for Out-of-State Students
Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Caught off-guard? President's Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer gives those who need a reason not to vote for him, a darn good one
Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
February 6, 2012
Jonathan Tobin: Iran Threatens Israel With Destruction, But the New York Times Doesn't Hear It
Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
August 25, 2004
/ 9 Elul 5764
Wouk's fiction reveals facts of science, politics
By
Tom Siegfried
In the famed novelist's latest, answering arcane questions about the origin of the universe could unleash knowledge with unforeseen power to transform modern life
http://www.jewishworldreview.com |
Though truth is often stranger than fiction, fiction often has a way of telling the truth.
Science fiction, of course, often tells the truth about the future. Fiction about science, on the other hand, can reveal interesting truths about the past. And that's what Herman Wouk tries to do in his new novel about "A Hole in Texas."
For those who weren't paying attention a decade or so ago, the hole is near Waxahachie, in Ellis County, where physicists had hoped to construct the grandest scientific instrument in history, a giant atom smasher powerful enough to probe the origins of the universe. Called the Superconducting Super Collider, or SSC, it would have fired bits of atoms at blinding speed around a 54-mile racetrack tunnel, smashing them into one another with enough impact to create particles previously only imagined.
Physicists hoped the SSC would produce an extremely elusive and mysterious particle named the Higgs boson. To oversimplify, the Higgs is the missing piece in the master puzzle encompassing the blueprint for the universe. Without the Higgs, modern science's understanding of the particles and forces making up the cosmos doesn't quite make sense. Without the Higgs, it's hard to explain even why the known particles possess any mass.
Understanding the universe's origin and the physical basis for existence seemed like a good idea in 1988, when Congress voted to build the SSC. But by 1993, with the tunnel only partly dug, political winds had shifted. Congress killed the SSC, and the Higgs remains undiscovered to this day.
Wouk, famous for "The Caine Mutiny" and "The Winds of War," tells of the SSC's demise via fictional characters who suffered because of the government's snub of science. But he places his plot not in the past but present day, in order to examine the possible perils of governmental shortsightedness. In Wouk's world, Chinese scientists report that they have discovered the Higgs boson, throwing the U.S. media into a frenzy over the possible Chinese monopoly on the "boson bomb."
Much of Wouk's tale is right on target, as his characters articulate the goals and dreams of physicists faithfully. And he captures the mix of personalities and political machinations that guide the supposedly dispassionate decisions about science policy. Also, the chief villain in this novel is, naturally, a newspaper reporter (a political reporter out for scandal, bamboozled by the science). On the other hand, Wouk suggests that the discovery of the Higgs boson was covered in The Dallas Morning News with an AP wire story, something that would have happened only over a certain science editor's dead body. And he seems a little confused over the difference between scientific journals and magazines.
Nevertheless, his story sheds a lot of light on society's misunderstandings and mismanagement of modern science. When it comes to science, politicians don't know what they're doing. Of course, when it comes to politics, scientists apparently don't know what they are doing, either. Science and politics are like matter and antimatter, annihilating explosively whenever they meet.
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Wouk's book contains hints about how to narrow the science-politics gap. The main strategy seems to be sending the book's star scientist, astrophysicist Guy Carpenter, to mesmerize an ex-movie star congresswoman with seductive tales of Higgs boson history. With Saganesque style, Carpenter links the quest for pure knowledge pursued by the ancient Greeks with the practical payoffs from modern day technology.
The Greeks jump-started science, he explained, by asking a simple question: What's the smallest thing that exists?
"By seeking and finding an answer we got the Bomb, we got nuclear power plants and submarines, we learned how the sun and the stars shine, and there were huge benefits in medical fallout," Carpenter wrote to the congresswoman.
Today, he said, the Higgs search is at the heart of the quest to answer a similarly deep question: How come anything at all exists?
Answering that question may or may not produce a payback comparable to the spinoffs from understanding the atom, Carpenter acknowledged: "It's the essence of basic research, you see ... , that its outcome is unknowable."
So it was nonsense when a fictional Peter Jennings reported on TV that it was "known" that the "boson bomb ... will exceed the destructive power of the H-bomb, as the H-bomb exceeds gunpowder."
In fact, Higgs bosons would be worthless for making bombs. If you want to outblast H-bombs, you need to make Q-balls, hypothetical blobs of "SUSY" particles (short for supersymmetric). Many physicists believe that SUSY particles lurk throughout the universe. But to produce them on Earth, you'd need a giant atom smasher, like the one that Congress killed. So it's not nonsense to suspect that answering arcane questions about the origin of the universe could unleash knowledge with unforeseen power to transform modern life.
Of course, even if SUSY particles and Q-balls do exist, it's unlikely that the SSC or any other conceivable technology could turn them into bombs or power plants or power sources for submarines. But Q-ball technology might make a great science-fiction story — or Herman Wouk novel.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washinton and the media consider must reading. Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Tom Siegfried is science editor for The Dallas Morning News. To comment, please click here.
© 2004, The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services
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