While hydrating my membrane, I came across this article in the NY Times. For some reason, I was really touched by this:
It requires no metaphysical commitment to a God or any conception of human origin or nature to join in this game, just the hypothesis that nature can be interrogated and that nature is the final arbiter. Jews, Catholics, Muslims, atheists, Buddhists and Hindus have all been working side by side building the Large Hadron Collider and its detectors these last few years.
And indeed there is no leader, no grand plan, for this hive. It is in many ways utopian anarchy, a virtual community that lives as much on the Internet and in airport coffee shops as in any one place or time.
I started to tear up in the middle of the lab. I have absolutely no excuse, except that wouldn't it be wonderful if this really was the way of Science?