How and why in physics

What you do is not the same as why you do it. When you read about physics in the press it's always about the great breakthrough or the fascinating big questions -- science journalists want the exciting angle of course. But the work we do every day for the advancement of knowledge is often very far from all of this, especially for us experimentalists.

I might work on the search for dark matter -- but what I really do is trying to make sense of the calibration data for our detectors.

That's why I really like the US LHC Blog. It's very much about the dayly grind, about what physicists really do. Read the post On Stupid Mistakes -- just because it's a good story, but perhaps also because SNO plays a part.

I hope to go to SNOLAB next week. I promise to tell you about it when I've been there.