“The traditional realm of astronomy is the observation and study of the largest objects in the Universe, while the traditional domain of high-energy physics is the study of the smallest things in nature. But these two sciences concerned with opposite ends of the size spectrum are…bound fast by a thousand invisible cords that cannot be broken.”
So says Rocky “Southpaw” Kolb at The Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics in Chicago, in a lovey-dovey essay called “A Thousand Invisible Cords Binding Astronomy and High-Energy Physics”.
Southpaw Kolb wants more a-huggin and a-kissin when astronomers and particle physicists get together.
Ain’t nothing wrong with that. But which is better: astronomy or particle physics? In a celebrity smackdown, who’d be holdin the golden belt at the end of the fight?
No question in mah mind that particle physics would get its butt kicked well and good.
Astronomy is a-jivin and a-thrivin. It’s been a platinum-plated golden age for astrofreaks since Hubble first peered into the gloom. And there’s no sign of a slowdown.
But particle physics, it’s been a-lurchin and a-staggerin in sloth and crisis ever since the particle people found they’d be at a loose end for four years after LEP shutdown and until the LHC started up. That’s four years with ya feet up. They gotta be seriously outta shape.
And what about new blood? What kinda sadist would train to be particle person without no particles to play with?
If ya’ll want to see a discipline in the doldrums, look no further than particle physics.
But in the spirit of the 60s (which they all remember as their own golden age), we still lurv particle people anyway.
Ref: arxiv.org/abs/0708.1199:A Thousand Invisible Cords Binding Astronomy and High-Energy Physics