For 30+ years, particle physicists' predictions for where breakthrough discoveries are waiting have been wrong. False promises based on such flawed predictions erode trust in physics - and science in general. Particle physicists should fix this problem.https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/opinion/particle-physics-large-hadron-collider.html …
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1) I recently visited a "big" high energy accelerator (don't want to reveal since I actually admire people working there). I was taken aback at shoddy data preservation practices. It is astonishing that data from experiments that cost billions of dollars are never logged
2) Instead of preserving raw data for future analysis, only functions of data are stored. These functions are computed using decades-old Fortran code and no one truly understands what is going on. And how were these functions designed? more sociological phenomenon than scientific
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3) Computation and infrastructure is treated as a stepchild in physics to a big detriment. While so much effort is spent ensuring every part of accelerator is calibrated, on data side, it feels like the wild west.
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@skdh talks about spurious discoveries due to noise. Statistical techniques of multiple testing and false discovery rates deal with this. Although not completely bullet proof (as seen in genome wide studies fiasco) can be a start. Did papers use such techniques?@SaltyBurger - Show replies
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But isn't it just impossible to store the raw data because it's too much too quickly? That was my understanding of the situation. And what about the codes is it that they don't understand? Not sure I can follow.
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The amount of raw data generated per second is staggering. IIRC the ALICE experiment uses custom ASICs to (lossly) compress the collisions data before transmitting it/storing it.
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That is absolutely not what happens on ATLAS and I’d be pretty astonished if this happens on any LHC experiment.
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Not sure which lab you visited. The two big LHC experiments, for instance (1MB/evt), log raw data and this is what 99% of the physics is based on. We log high-level information for the events that we cannot store (better than nothing) and explore otherwise uncharted territory
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Could you elaborate on why using Fortran is a problem ?
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