“The optimal course of action, the best we can do, is to improve, in each discipline, the review panels and the institutions that guarantee expertise. It boils down to trust. We don’t like to rely on it, but we do every day,” he adds.
For physicists meeting in Paris this week, the focus will be on discoveries rather than doomsday scenarios, and for good reason. The fears raised over particle colliders such as the LHC belong firmly in the realm of science fiction. But there are important lessons to be learned from the LHC story that go beyond particle physics. We might be faced with truly catastrophic threats before the century is out, and to deal with them we need to change our way of thinking. Instead of waiting for disaster to strike before making life safer, we have to be one step ahead. Contrary to the doomsayers’ fears, the LHC might help ensure the end is never nigh.
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