tagged w/ Large Hadron Collider
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(CNN) -- Deep underground on the border between France and Switzerland, the world's largest particle accelerator complex will explore the world on smaller scales than any human invention has explored before.
The Large Hadron Collider will look at how the universe formed by analyzing particle collisions. Some have expressed fears that the project could lead to the Earth's demise -- something scientists say will not happen. Still, skeptics have filed suit to try to stop the project.(CNN) -- Deep underground on the border between France and Switzerland, the... more
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Why is there always some group trying to stop the most promising research projects?
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The giant new particle collider at Europe’s centre for nuclear research, which is due to start work on Wednesday, is being linked to spectacular spin-offs including improved cancer treatments, systems for destroying nuclear waste and insights into climate change. ... more
A nice bit of spin...off from CERN. I kinda think the whole thing is amazing, but also quite irresponsible. It would be great if they discover great solutions, but it does appear to carry some risks, I mean look what happened when we started to split the atom. They are actually basing the whole black hole thing on Professor Hawkings 'unproven' theory. We have enough realtime problems on earth i.e poverty/war etc that really need attention prior to us experimenting with colliding particles.
The giant new particle collider at Europe’s centre for nuclear research, which... more
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Scientists working on the world's biggest machine are being besieged by phone calls and emails from people who fear the world will end next Wednesday, when the gigantic atom smasher starts up. Some have even stooped to make death threats to some of the scientists.
The Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, where particles will begin to circulate around its 17 mile circumference tunnel next week, will recreate energies not seen since the universe was very young, when particles smash together at near the speed of light.
Such is the angst that the American Nobel prize winning physicist Frank Wilczek of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has even had death threats, said Prof Brian Cox of Manchester University, adding: "Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a t---."
The head of public relations, James Gillies, says he gets tearful phone calls, pleading for the £4.5 billion machine to stop.
"They phone me and say: "I am seriously worried. Please tell me that my children are safe," said Gillies.
Emails also arrive every day that beg for reassurance that the world will not end, he explained.Scientists working on the world's biggest machine are being besieged by phone... more
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jubal
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added this
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4 years ago
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Scientists working on the world's biggest machine are being besieged by phone calls and emails from people who fear the world will end next Wednesday, when the gigantic atom smasher starts up.
The Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, where particles will begin to circulate around its 17 mile circumference tunnel next week, will recreate energies not seen since the universe was very young, when particles smash together at near the speed of light.
Such is the angst that the American Nobel prize winning physicist Frank Wilczek of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has even had death threats, said Prof Brian Cox of Manchester University, adding: "Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a twat."
The head of public relations, James Gillies, says he gets tearful phone calls, pleading for the £4.5 billion machine to stop.
"They phone me and say: "I am seriously worried. Please tell me that my children are safe," said Gillies.
Emails also arrive every day that beg for reassurance that the world will not end, he explained.
By Roger Highfield
Link to the rest of the article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/09/05/scilhc105.xmlScientists working on the world's biggest machine are being besieged by phone... more
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In case you're worried that the earth will be destroyed when they switch on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in a few days, you can chillax. You actually have a better chance of spontaneously evaporating while you're having a shave than the likelihood that things will go awry with the LHC. According to a comprehensive report on the project, nature's own cosmic rays produce particle collisions substantially more powerful than the ones to be generated by LHC. We wouldn't exist if they were strong enough to create universe-destroying black holes.
Check out all the sciency bits in this article http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080904220342.htmIn case you're worried that the earth will be destroyed when they switch on the... more
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SCIENTISTS are trying to stop the most powerful experiment ever – saying the black holes it will create could destroy the world.
Dubbed by some the Doomsday test, it will be carried out next week in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located 300ft underground near the French-Swiss border.
The machine is 17 miles long and cost £4.4billion to create.
When its switch is pulled on September 10, this atom-smasher will become a virtual time machine, revealing what happened when the universe came into existence 14 billion years ago.
New particles of matter are expected to be discovered, new dimensions found beyond the four known, as scientists re-create conditions in the first BILLIONTHS of a second after the Big Bang.
The atom smasher ... the 17-mile-long machine that some fear will destroy our planet
Experts even predict that millions of tiny black holes will be produced — baby brothers of the monsters gobbling up dust and stars at the heart of the galaxies.
That is why boffins are now trying to stop the project with a last-ditch challenge in the courts.
They fear the LHC experimenters are tinkering with the unknown and putting mankind — and our whole planet — at risk. SCIENTISTS are trying to stop the most powerful experiment ever – saying the... more
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An experiment to find out the secrets of the big bang could create a blackhole and destroy the Earth, claim sciencists.
By smashing sub-atomic particles together at speeds close to the speed of light, the LHC aims to recreate the conditions that existed a fraction of a second after the Big Bang.
But critics claim that the 'time machine' could instead spawn a shower of mini-black holes, which could grow exponentialy and swallow the Earth.An experiment to find out the secrets of the big bang could create a blackhole and... more
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As a researcher at the Institute for High Energy Physics in Protvino, Bugorski used to work with the Synchrotron U-70, the largest Soviet particle accelerator. On July 13, 1978, Bugorski was was leaning over checking a malfunctioning piece of equipment when an accident occurred due to failed safety mechanisms while his head was in the path of the proton beam. He claims having seen a light "brighter than a thousand suns", but felt no pain. The beam measured about 200,000 rads when it entered Bugorski's skull, and about 300,000 rads when it exited after irradiating the inside of his head.
The left half of Bugorski's face inflamed and over the next several days started peeling off, showing the path that the proton beam had burned through parts of his face, his bone, and the brain tissue underneath. As it was believed that about 500 to 600 rads is enough to kill a person, Bugorski was taken to a hospital in Moscow where the doctors could oversee his predicted death. However, Bugorski survived and even completed his Ph.D. There was virtually no damage to his cognative abilities, but the fatigue of mental strain increased dramatically. Bugroski lost all hearing in the left ear and only a constant hum remained. The left half of his face was petrified, due to the destruction of nerves, and does not age. He is able to function normally, save the fact that he stuggles with ongoing bouts with petit mal seizures and very rarely grand mal seizures.As a researcher at the Institute for High Energy Physics in Protvino, Bugorski used to... more
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Tests have cleared the way for the start-up next month of an experiment to restage a mini-version underground of the "Big Bang" which created the universe 15 billion years ago, the project chief said on Monday.
Lyn Evans of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said weekend trials in the vast underground LHC machine in which the particle-smashing experiment will take place over the coming months and years "went without a hitch".
"We look forward to a resounding success when we make our first attempt to send a beam all the way round the LHC," said Evans, who heads the multinational team of scientists that shaped the project and the machine, the Large Hadron Collider.
Should we be concerned or scared? I for one am massively excited to see what will happen.Tests have cleared the way for the start-up next month of an experiment to restage a... more
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Rappin' about CERN's large hadron collider! It explains what the LHC is actually all about.Rappin' about CERN's large hadron collider! It explains what the LHC is... more
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A vast physics experiment - the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - reaches a key milestone this weekend ahead of an official start-up on 10 September.
Engineers had previously brought a beam of protons - tiny, sub-atomic particles - to the "doorstep" of the LHC.
On 9 August, protons will be piped through LHC magnets for the first time.
The most powerful physics experiment ever built, the LHC will re-create the conditions present in the Universe just after the Big Bang.
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End of the world party at my place?A vast physics experiment - the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - reaches a key milestone... more
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As the LHC supposedly gears up, Harvard physicist Kevin Black, based at CERN, investigates rumors that the particle accelerator may, in fact, soon be shut down—by ripples from the future.
From Kevin Black:
I came across a bizarre paper recently suggesting that the LHC might be shut down. Not because of the funding cuts that have been threatening particle physics projects around the world, nor because of law suits accusing the LHC of threatening life on Earth. (Not even because we at the LHC have recently been accused of having far too much fun rapping.)
No, the paper suggested that future effects caused by the production of particles, such as the Higgs, could ripple backwards in time and prevent the LHC from ever operating.
If it hadn't been written by two very well respected and accomplished theoretical physicists, I would have stopped reading at the title alone:"Test of Effect from Future in Large Hadron Collider; A Proposal". To be completely honest, the title reads like titles that occasionally appear in my inbox—“Relativity Principle Untenable," "Quantum Mechanics a Hoax," and other nerdy versions of the emails from the supposed attorney of my long-lost Nigerian uncle who apparently has died and left me millions of dollars, if I can only send him $50,000 so that he can get it to me.
But I didn't stop. I read the article. I read it for another reason other than the somewhat awkwardly sounding title and not just because the authors, Holger Nielsen, of the University of Copenhagen, and Masao Ninomiya, of Kyoto University, are somewhat famous. I read it because when I come across such things it tends to remind me of the first time I learned about quantum mechanics. To be honest, if it hadn't come from a professor at a university and a published text book I would have thought that the whole thing was some sort of a scam as well. I mean, really? Sometimes it acts as a wave and sometimes it acts as a particle? The first time I heard about wave/particle duality I was expecting to be asked to send the authors money (perhaps to Nigeria?).
So what did the article say? Well, it started out with a reasonable enough point. One of the basic assumptions of classical physics is that time flows in one direction and that when describing a physical system one needs to know the equations of motion and the initial conditions in order to predict the future behavior of a classical system.
However, quantum mechanics changes this a bit. Classical mechanics can be formulated in such a way that one sets up an “action” integral. The solution to the physical system can be expressed as the path that minimizes the action integral. It turns out that in quantum mechanics one needs to not simply take one path—but take the sum over all possible paths. For example, if you want to work out how a photon gets from a lightbulb to your eye, you need to take into account not just its straight-line trajectory, but contributions of all possible paths it could have taken, including paths where the photon bounces round the room. It's a bit strange, but it seems to work and 60 years+ of detailed experiments have confirmed this description over and over again to remarkable quantitative precision.
The authors of this paper claim to show that other terms can be added to the quantum mechanical action that are consistent with current theory and experiment. However, some of these possible terms include conditions in the future that need to be taken into account and summed over. That is to say, what happens in the future could (according to this paper) affect what happens in the present.
Read the article for more. It's definitely an interesting read, but what do you guys think? It does seem a bit far fetched, but this is being proposed by two very prominent theoretical physicists. Also, when it comes to quantum physics, there are some strange laws that dictate how things work. As the LHC supposedly gears up, Harvard physicist Kevin Black, based at CERN,... more
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These photographs are crazy, I really think this is the greatest science experiment since putting a man on the moon and we should all be excited (and a little scared...)
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 27 kilometer (17 mile) long particle accelerator straddling the border of Switzerland and France, is nearly set to begin its first particle beam tests. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is preparing for its first small tests in early August, leading to a planned full-track test in September - and the first planned particle collisions before the end of the year. The final step before starting is the chilling of the entire collider to -271.25 C (-456.25 F). Here is a collection of photographs from CERN, showing various stages of completion of the LHC and several of its larger experiments (some over seven stories tall), over the past several years.These photographs are crazy, I really think this is the greatest science experiment... more
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Well, if we're all going to die, at least we'll be killed by something INSANELY COOL! Look at this thing. It's every Sci-Fi fiction writer's wet dream.Well, if we're all going to die, at least we'll be killed by something... more
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A couple of Jeremiahs would halt the fireworks before they begin. A lawsuit filed in U.S. district court in Honolulu seeks to halt the opening of the accelerator, which is funded in part by the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. A similar suit was filed in 2000 against the Brookhaven National Laboratory to prevent the operation of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, an accelerator that started up that year. The charge, then as now, is that microscopic black holes produced at the collider might coalesce and engulf the earth, ending all life as we know it. LHC scientists have publicly dismissed the lawsuit as bunkum while quietly double-checking their math just to be sure. A couple of Jeremiahs would halt the fireworks before they begin. A lawsuit filed in... more
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Scare-mongers have been spreading the rumor that this huge particle accelerator is going to produce a black-hole which will engulf the earth, the moon, etc. They say that it is going to reproduce the Big Bang. Both assertions are absolutely wrong, of course.
In case the first assertion is right, since I live right next to the accelerator, I'll be among the first to enter the black hole - I'll then post to Current to let you all know what it looks like and what it feels like, and I'll even upload some photos. ;)Scare-mongers have been spreading the rumor that this huge particle accelerator is... more
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Walter Wagner is pressing for a lawsuit to keep CERN from using their 8 billion dollar Large Hadron Collider to create a scenario of what it was like a trillionth of a second after the big bang, for fear of a tiny black hole or conversion of Earth into strange matter. However, scientists have deemed such scruples insignificant. Let's hear from you: Is Wagner a "crackpot," or is this a genuine problem?Walter Wagner is pressing for a lawsuit to keep CERN from using their 8 billion dollar... more
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Physicists at CERN are pretty sure they won't destory the earth when they switch on the Large Hadron Collider in the coming months. A good BBC doc details the search for the Higgs boson, which is thought to provide mass for everything in the universe. Also a nice overview of the current state of physics if you don't mind it a bit metaphorical and popularized. Me, I like my physics numbercrunchy like space-granola.Physicists at CERN are pretty sure they won't destory the earth when they switch... more
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mganek
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added this
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5 years ago
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