“Success and failure of science projects”
Director Hahn cites the recent public forum on the status of RAON, where it was evident that the completion of RAON will be delayed. After 10 years since the conception and 1.5-trillion KRW devoted to the construction, new plans and strategies to ensure a successful establishment of the first grand-scale rare isotope facility in Korea had to be drafted again.
He points out that most projects in science, regardless of scale, are seldom achieved with initial schedules and budgets. Frontier research in natural science is especially difficult, where there is little guarantee of success and only a hint of feasibility. For instance, Albert A. Michelson dedicated nearly his whole life on detecting ether: a hypothetical medium for light propagation. Despite numerous efforts to develop more advanced instruments and conduct experiments for this purpose, in collaboration with Edward W. Morley, Michelson could not find evidence for ether. However, Einstein’s theory of special relativity and additional experiments affirmed Michelson’s results, making him the first American Nobel Prize winner in science. The Hubble Space Telescope also required much more time and resources than originally planned for completion. It even featured a flawed mirror after being launched into orbit. But since then the Telescope has yielded top-quality results in astronomy and beautiful images of stellar bodies.
Regarding the challenges of meeting the design
goals of RAON, Hahn is open to sharing a part of the blame that is concentrated
on the Rare Isotope Science Project (RISP) personnel. At the same time, he calls
for more responsibility and dedicated efforts towards the future success of
RAON. It is essential for Korea, and the promise of a world-class basic science
complex facility to the public must be fulfilled.
Link to the column (in Korean): https://www.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?id=20210209029012
Center for Exotic Nuclear Studies