- Sunday, 8 November 2009
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If fortune turns against you, even jelly breaks your tooth - Persian proverb
LHC start up successful
THE LARGE HADRON COLLIDER (LHC), known to its mates and crazies around the world as 'the planet eater', was powered up today in its entirety, bringing the boffins at CERN one step closer to proving or disproving the existence of the elusive Higgs Boson.
The event started off with a spokesboffin thanking the staff at CERN and all the collaborators around the world for their hard work in making today possible.
The official launch kicked off at 9:15 CET (8:15 UK time) – an obscenely early time for a hack, especially one that was also covering the Apple launch last night. Despite our excitement about the whole event the launch was rather anti-climatic, but significant nonetheless.
The launch was done in stages, sending the beam of protons around each octant of the 27km ring and checking the result before removing the blockers and testing the next segment. This was done to give scientists the chance to calibrate the beam's orbit if necessary and check the results from each of the detectors.
The entire process went much smoother and quicker than predicted. It was thought it could take most of the day to get things running smoothly, but in fact within an hour all eight sectors had been tested and it was time to send the beam around the whole ring in a single shot.
The audience waited with bated breath for the next pulse to come and applause broke out when the detectors at the beginning and the end both flashed, indicating that the beam successfully made it around the ring. The test of the counter clockwise beam went just as well.
As one presenter at the event quipped at the success of the test: "They have become masters of the beam."
The next stage will be to actually start smashing the particles together. There are no firm dates in place yet, but low-energy collisions are due to begin in a few weeks and the LHC is expected to be in full swing, performing high-energy collisions before the end of the year.
The LHC is actually home to four separate detectors, each with a different purpose. The best known is ATLAS, the largest of the four which is attempting to prove the existence of the Higgs Boson, a particle that could help prove or completely tear down some of the current theories about how our universe operates.
The others are known as CMS, LHCb and ALICE and will help researchers probe the questions around super-symmetry, matter and anti-matter and extra dimensions, amongst others. These and the raft of other experiments made possible by the LHC, are expected to help drive our understanding of the universe and the development of a whole host of new technologies for decades to come.
"Whether we discover what we expect or have our theories completely overturned, the physics textbooks will never be the same again," said Professor Keith Mason, the CEO of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), a UK organisation heavily involved in the project.
Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has doubts about the existence of the Higgs Boson and has bet $100 that CERN won't find the God Particle, as it is known in some quarters. µ
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Imagine what this enormous amount of money could have done to find cheap alternatives for oil instead of finding a particle no one really cares about.

The more energy they put into it the more stuff will come out and this will never stop!
Nice "reporting". Now do any of you actually understand the news release or are you just repeating it? (grins)
It weren't random 'crazies' who warned of the danger initially, they were physicist.

In an interesting sidenote I think even einstein himself was worried when they first spoke of making a nuke that it might cascade and destroy the entire planet, it was on the frontpage of papers way back I hear.
But of course that didn't happen that time, perhaps that's why they keep trying. :)
I can not believe how much money has been spent on a project which interests probably less than 1% of the world's population, apart from those who are just "interested" because of the media frenzy. All those billions of Euros could have been spent much more wisely on helping to solve the hunger and poverty problems in Africa and Asia. I am disgusted.
...confident, isn't he...

Though I wouldn't want to bet against him in this case, that seems rather a weak statement, if it is meant as such.

For more info about the LHC, go watch the LHC rap earlier reported here on the Inq, very informative.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/08/12/physics-geeks-rapping
One of the items on the list with this new machine is try to create quantum singularities. Sure they're tiny but it kind of sounds like the first Nuclear test. We're not sure what we're getting ourselves into, imagine they were succesful in creating one however instead of rapidly collapsing it started growing, feasting on the surrounding energy and matter. 8(
when sky news had a bit of time to show text messages sent in by the public at about ten to six this morning.
one woman had sent in "my children come home from school crying and can't go to sleep at night as they are afraid a black hole will eat them up"

i laughed, as basicly, no love, thats you, you're the one crying about it, your kids probably don't give a monkies. if it is your children, then i suggest you phone social services and ask for your children to be taken into care as you are obviously unfit to be a parent. talk about psychological trauma. whats it called when you're afraid of holes?

Perhaps I'm too optimistic, but it really disturbs to read some of the negative comments about the CERN project. People complain about "misusage of resources" and theoretical dangers that the tests may create. Can't you see beyond your negativity and passivity? Can't you see the possibilities of tomorrow instead of the needs of today? These kind of experiments that the gentlemen in white are conducting in CERN can one day very well lead to practical applications. Interstellar travel, teleportation, "beam me up, Scotty", you name it. Humankind must look forward. If there were no progressive thinking, would we have all the comforts and possibilities we have today? Certainly not. So begone, nay-sayers, let the smart people work for our future. :-)
Two beams clashing..experiments with unforseen consequences...

This happened before......Waay back, in Half-Life 1.

IMO they should start placing iron crowbars all over the place together with ammo packs for various regular/special weapons...or we're doomed-
I guess I am one of the naysayers. 
Someone mentionned future applications. Just one example: one application of particle accelerators is the proton therapy to treat tumors. The first trials were in the 50's but the machines are still very very rare, in part because they are expensive (millions...). However their technology is very cheap when compared with the technology of the LHC. 
If we can't afford a small particle accelerator to help patients, I don't see how we will afford a 20+km ring. Unless it is for military applications of course. There always seems to be money for that.
Agreed that smart people should work for our future. That they will.

There were a few futurists who speculated about why SETI has failed till now. One notion was that other tech civs build LHCs, generate out-of-control black holes, and vanish in a burst of gamma rays.

I don't believe that. But I do believe any applications will be military. At least in the beginning. Perhaps later some apps will filter down to us masses. As X-rays, ultrasounds, MRIs, etc., have done. But, as always, tech = power. When left up to us humans, power is first used for evil. Out of which some good sometimes falls.
Umm.. Its working???
Guess they must have a Linux box or two after all!