tagged w/ CERN
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Renowned British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has bet 100 dollars (70 euros) that a mega-experiment this week will not find an elusive particle seen as a holy grail of cosmic science, he said Tuesday. Renowned British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has bet 100 dollars (70 euros) that a... more
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The Kaiser Chiefs never miss a beat and we never miss a good viral video. Check out today's top five internet videos from around the world.
To watch the full versions of all five videos just click on the links in the comments section below.The Kaiser Chiefs never miss a beat and we never miss a good viral video. Check out... more
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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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This is what people are paranoid will happen when the CERN particle accelerator is turned on. This is what people are paranoid will happen when the CERN particle accelerator is... more
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GENEVA (AP) -- It has been called an Alice in Wonderland investigation into the makeup of the universe - or dangerous tampering with nature that could spell doomsday.
Whatever the case, the most powerful atom-smasher ever built comes online Wednesday, eagerly anticipated by scientists worldwide who have awaited this moment for two decades.
The multibillion-dollar Large Hadron Collider will explore the tiniest particles and come ever closer to re-enacting the big bang, the theory that a colossal explosion created the universe.
The machine at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, promises scientists a closer look at the makeup of matter, filling in gaps in knowledge or possibly reshaping theories.
The first beams of protons will be fired around the 17-mile tunnel to test the controlling strength of the world's largest superconducting magnets. It will still be about a month before beams traveling in opposite directions are brought together in collisions that some skeptics fear could create micro "black holes" and endanger the planet.
The project has attracted researchers of 80 nationalities, some 1,200 of them from the United States, which contributed $531 million of the project's price tag of nearly $4 billion.
"This only happens once a generation," said Katie Yurkewicz, spokeswoman for the U.S. contingent at the CERN project. "People are certainly very excited."
The collider at Fermilab outside Chicago could beat CERN to some discoveries, but the Geneva equipment, generating seven times more energy than Fermilab, will give it big advantages.
The CERN collider is designed to push the proton beam close to the speed of light, whizzing 11,000 times a second around the tunnel 150 to 500 feet under the bucolic countryside on the French-Swiss border.
Once the beam is successfully fired counterclockwise, a clockwise test will follow. Then the scientists will aim the beams at each other so that protons collide, shattering into fragments and releasing energy under the gaze of detectors filling cathedral-sized caverns at points along the tunnel.GENEVA (AP) -- It has been called an Alice in Wonderland investigation into the makeup... more
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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.
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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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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There is news from both inner space and outer space.
On Monday morning at 7:42 Eastern time, the Hubble Space Telescope began its 100,000th trip around the Earth in what has been a storied 18-year career. In honor of that milestone, and the telescope’s own perpetual youth and its ability to rise from the ashes of disaster and political misfortune, a group of astronomers led by Mario Livio of the Space Telescope Science Institute took a special picture of the swirling clouds of starbirth in a nearby galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud.
There, 170,000 light-years from here, near a star cluster known as NGC 2074, glowing but not twinkling in the upper left corner of this picture taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, clouds are condensing in what the astronomers called in a press release “a firestorm of raw stellar creation,” perhaps triggered by a recent supernova explosion.
Meanwhile, 300 feet below ground outside Geneva, the world’s largest and most costly physics experiment took another step toward a birth of its own. Scientists and engineers at CERN fired the first beam of protons into the lab’s long-awaited Large Hadron Collider and sent them successfully part way around the collider’s 17-mile racetrack.
That is a few million protons coming at you in the image captured by the collider’s “beam television,” a few yards into the collider from the beam injection point Friday evening.
Shortly thereafter, the “television” camera was removed and on the first try, the protons made it all the way to their destination, passing through Alice, one of the giant detectors built to observed proton collisions. A Web site summary of the evening’s activities ended with the word “beer.” Indeed, in this photo, Lyn Evans of CERN, who has been project director for the collider for 14 years and $8 billion now, can be seen handing out champagne.
Physicists hope to start running protons around the entire ring on Sept. 10 and build up to smashing them together at energies of five trillion electron volts apiece in the month or two after that. There is news from both inner space and outer space.
On Monday morning at 7:42... more
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I have no idea if this is about as scientifically accurate as, say, an anatomy model of a bird based on Donald Duck.
The creator of this video has allegedly claimed it was in fact designed to illustrate what happens when scientists try to crack a joke, but again I cannot verify the accuracy of this.I have no idea if this is about as scientifically accurate as, say, an anatomy model... 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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GENEVA (AP) — The largest machine ever made to explore the world's tiniest particles will be launched next month with an initial attempt to fire beams around a 17-mile circular tube, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics said Thursday.
Scientists from around the world have been waiting eagerly to run experiments on the 4 billion Swiss franc ($3.8 billion) Large Hadron Collider, under construction since 2003 and in planning for years before that.
The new Geneva collider will recreate the rapidly changing conditions in the universe a split second after the so-called Big Bang. It will be the closest that scientists have yet come to the event that they theorize was the beginning of the universe. They hope the new equipment will enable them to study particles and forces as yet unobserved.
"We're finishing a marathon with a sprint," said project leader Lyn Evans. "It's been a long haul, and we're all eager to get the LHC research program under way."
Collisions of particles to see what happens will take some time longer, but they should be occurring this year. The first beam will travel in a clockwise direction on Sept. 10, a laboratory statement said. When beams are stable in both directions, they will be steered into collision.
Then the laboratory, known as CERN for its old French initials, will start stepping up the power with the hope of reaching a new threshold of energy by the end of this year. Further step ups are planned until the equipment runs at full power, probably by 2010.
The collider, installed in a tunnel under the Swiss and French border, has massive detectors filling cathedral-sized rooms at intervals along the tube. They will record the shower of particles that result from collisions so that they can be analyzed by powerful computers.
An innovation will be the use of 1,600 superconducting magnets to guide the beams traveling at the speed of light around the machine, which is being cooled to near absolute zero degrees for maximum efficiency.
The money to construct the collider has come from the 20 member states of CERN plus observer countries like the United States, which alone has contributed $531 million.
But overall the project is costing much more — an estimated 10 billion francs (dollars) — taking into account what universities and others are spending on experiments and other outlays, said CERN spokeswoman Renilde Vanden Broeck.
Much of the interest in the project has come from the United States since Congress in 1993 halted construction of a machine that would have been even bigger — the proposed Superconducting Super Collider in Texas.
Of the 9,000 scientists planning to work with the LHC, the largest group — 1,260 — is from the United States.
GENEVA (AP) — The largest machine ever made to explore the world's tiniest... 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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Geneva, Switzerland is home to CERN, the Large Hadron Collider. and aww yeah, these scientists know how to bust a rap!Geneva, Switzerland is home to CERN, the Large Hadron Collider. and aww yeah, these... more
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CERN's Large Hadron Collider is an amazing experiment being conducted as a joint European project.
Oh and it may just cause the end of the world as we know it......CERN's Large Hadron Collider is an amazing experiment being conducted as a joint... more
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