Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Yay, I'm still alive!

I read with excitement that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern was booted up this weekend and actually collided some protons, guess what, no black holes, no cataclysmic explosions, no warping of the space-time continuum, that's lucky then...



My only concern is that the scientist in the picture is holding a Macbook, since when did self respecting physicists start using fashion accessories to do science (ducks and runs for cover :)

13 comments:

Chairman Bill said...

I believe the technical term for somone like you is 'Luddite'.

Not From Lapland said...

self respecting? in that jumper?

Steve Borthwick said...

CB, Heather, good points, A Luddite with no fashion sense probably hits the mark quite well!

Elizabeth said...

They got that thing to work ? Did it break right afterwards or is it still working?

Steve Borthwick said...

E, do I detect a note of cynicism? ;)

Gerrarrdus said...

If it's all going so well why is my cat currently spiralling round towards that event horizon?

In the outer atmosphere protons are always smashing into stuf...

Gerrarrdus said...

btw, tagged you on my blog. Good luck if you want to take up the challenge!

Steve Borthwick said...

Hi G, that'll be because all self respecting, pipe smoking scientists of a certain age should have a dog! :)

Chairman Bill said...

Personally I suspect the image onm the laptop is the winning entry from the Batman comic speech bubble contest.

Steve Borthwick said...

CB, interesting thought, wonder what noise protons make when they smash into each other... BLAM? ... could be

Chairman Bill said...

But do they make a noise if there's no-one to listen?

Fred M. said...

Those of us in the sciences (I'm in the aerospace industry) choose Macs because they are better computers. Period. It's got nothing to do with fashion and everything to do with the OS and hardware.

Steve Borthwick said...

Fred M, this was a joke..

Anyway, I don't think its possible to say mac's are "better" computers, its all about the software and what you're trying to do. I run my own software company and we have PC's, Mac's and Unix derivatives, using the best tool for the job at hand is what it's really all about.

BTW I know plenty of scientists who don't use Apple computers at work but wouldn't be seen dead in Starbucks without their MacBook or iPad - they are fashion accessories at least in part.