Monday, April 5, 2010 at 12:04 a.m.
Vivek Sharma
Vivek Sharma seemed destined to become a scientist specializing in particle physics.
Growing up, he loved to take apart pens, smash watches and tinker with cars so he could scrutinize their parts.
Now he heads a team of 2,500 physicists and engineers from 38 countries searching for far tinier parts — those that may hold answers to how the universe began. The researchers conquered a milestone last week when the Large Hadron Collider successfully smashed two protons traveling almost at the speed of light.
“It was an exhilarating event that stopped my heart for about three seconds,” said Sharma, 47, who is also a physics professor at the University of California San Diego. “This is the result of about two decades of effort by scientists around the world. I still have goose bumps thinking about it.”
Sharma talked of the accomplishment and remaining challenges during a phone interview from his team’s offices in Geneva.
Q: Why did you become a particle physicist?
A: I was known for breaking things as a child to study them, and particle physics is also reductionist. It enables you to get down to the elements.
As a teenager, I wanted a time machine after reading books by H.G. Wells and others. My dream was to travel into different worlds. Particle physics allows me to continue that dream. It’s basically a time machine that could get us to the origins of the universe.
Q: Why is the latest achievement important?
A: It’s about discovering the ultimate secrets of nature. On the broadest scale, our projects — if they succeed — will help us understand the roots of how we were formed. In essence, we are looking at why we exist.
There is huge interest in the Big Bang and things like that. I’ve been quoted by more than 400 journalists in recent days, and I’m getting e-mails from students, colleagues, strangers around the world.
Q: What difficulties lie ahead for you and the other researchers?
A: Nature is far more clever than what we can imagine, and it’s trying very hard to hide the deepest answers from us. We are fine-tuning the collider machine to crash particles at higher and higher speeds so we can blast away those coverings. There is a lot of media attention, and that puts great pressure on the team, but we are determined.
We now think there are more than four dimensions in nature, possibly as many as 10.
Q: How have the experiments in Geneva affected you?
A: I’ve developed an appreciation for the citizens of this world whose taxes and moral support allow modern marvels like the Large Hadron Collider to become reality.
This isn’t a making of Microsoft. This is a creation made possible by everyday people, and it belongs to the world. We should all share in this triumph.
Q: How long will you stay in Geneva?
A: The U.S. Department of Energy has bought out my teaching requirements at UCSD so I can stay in Geneva to work on these projects. My team of graduate students and other assistants also live here. We’ve had this arrangement since December, and it will likely stay this way for at least two years.
Q: How will you celebrate your latest success?
A: Spending time with my family will be reward enough. I’m flying back to San Diego to celebrate my daughter’s birthday. I may take her to Disneyland.
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