"Burstein, Michael A - Broken Symmetry" - читать интересную книгу автора (Burstein Michael A)

the third most probable spot for the crossovers to occur. And anyway, the
evidence is already all around us." He swept his arm around to indicate the
various holes in the ground, formed by fresh explosions during the last month.
The current detector was being set up on a piece of the ground that was, as yet,
unscarred.
"True," Roy said, "although --"
A far away boom interrupted Roy. Everyone jumped, including the people setting
up the new detector. They continued when the echoes died down.
"Harold?"
"Sounds like it came from detector one. A little early, but let's go check it
out."
The two men drove along the circumference of the ring until they found the fresh
hole, smoke lazily drifting out of it. They parked a safe distance away and
approached on foot.
"Look," Harold said, and whistled.
The hole was right in the center of the surrounding detector, which was
unharmed. A blue light indicated that the detector had successfully taken data,
which at this very moment the computers back in Waxahachie would be analyzing.
"I can't believe our luck," Roy said.
#
Over the next few months, Roy, Harold, and other physicists gathered in
Waxahachie, and pored over the accumulated data from the SSC. Once again, Harold
and Roy found themselves in Roy's office, discussing the experiments.
"It looks good," Harold told Roy. "We seem to be close to confirming the
existence of the Higgs boson." The two scientists tossed the physics back and
forth for a while. The Higgs boson, a particle formed only at extremely high
energies, was the key particle in the Grand Unification Theory. Discovery of the
particle would indicate that three of the four fundamental forces -- the strong,
weak, and electromagnetic forces -- were actually aspects of one overall
superforce.
"That still omits gravity," Roy pointed out.
"Who cares? If we can get just one more run out of the other universe's
accelerator, we'll have gotten closer than anyone has before. Even Einstein."
Roy nodded. Einstein had spent the last years of his life trying to unite
gravity with electromagnetism. If only he had known that gravity would be the
hardest force to unite of them all.
"The next step would be an accelerator of even higher energies. Probably have to
build it around the moon." Roy sighed, and smiled. "Too bad we won't be around
to see it."
Harold chuckled. "Roy, God Himself could appear in front of you with the one
ultimate equation that explains all of physics, and you would shrug and think
about how it would put all of us out of work. Forget about it! We've
accomplished what we set out to do. Many-worlds and Grand Unification in one
year, when just a few years ago we thought the SSC was dead."
Roy laughed. "It's been a long, hard project, Harold. I'm just as happy as you
are, but I'm exhausted from all the political stuff as well as the physics."
"Well, relax. Just one more run of the accelerator, and you, my friend, will be
on stage in Stockholm getting your Nobel Prize."
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