Drowning in particle soup
Illustrious physicists all around the world have been on the hunt for particles of all sizes, shapes and hues. Recently, some of them got together (1) to decide whether they should devise an experiment to detect the "sterile Neutrino," a particle that is "known not to interact" with any form of matter. The growth of particle zoo has been remarkable in the last 50 years – a period that has failed to provide any new insight into the structure and the content of the universe.
Particle Physics has been a very fertile area for mathematicians and those who aspire to publish papers that mere mortals cannot approach. The ones who contributed to the advancement of the field in the early part of last century, however, had believed and demonstrated that mathematical complexity is neither necessary nor sufficient for knowledge enhancement. In fact, it is just the opposite – mathematical masturbation without imagination does not really move the field forward. Hypothesizing another handful of "particles," that are hard to find is not a useful activity.
Complexity may help some to become famous and even win Nobel prizes – but real insights always came from simplification.
(1) Science 21 October 2011: Vol. 334 no. 6054 pp. 304-306, DOI: 10.1126/science.334.6054.304,The Sterile Neutrino: Fertile Concept or Dead End? Adrian Cho
