CERN // Current

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1 month ago

The science behind 'Angels and Demons'-no laughing antimatter

On May 15, 2009, Sony Pictures will release "Angels and Demons," and bring the world's largest particle physics laboratory to the silver screen.

Based on Dan Brown's best-selling novel, this major motion picture, starring Tom Hanks and directed by Ron Howard, focuses on a plot to destroy the Vatican using a small amount of antimatter. That antimatter is made using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and is stolen from the European particle physics laboratory CERN. Parts of the movie were filmed at CERN.

Embracing this opportunity to discuss the real science of antimatter, the LHC and particle physics research, on May 19, 2009, the National Science Foundation (NSF) will host a live media briefing spotlighting three world-renowned physicists.

What: Live Video Teleconference

When: Tuesday, May 19, 2009, 1 p.m. EST (12 noon CST; 7 p.m. CET)

Featuring: Rolf-Dieter Heuer, director-general, CERN; former research director for particle and astroparticle physics, Germany's DESY Laboratory, Leon Lederman, Pritzker Professor of Science, Illinois Institute of Technology; resident scholar, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy; director emeritus, Fermilab; Nobel, Physics (1988); and author, "The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?" Boris Kayser, distinguished scientist, Fermilab; chair, American Physical Society's Division on Particle Physics; former program director, NSF Theoretical Physics

How: To watch and ask questions during the webcast, visit the Science360 Web site.
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This NSF live teleconference briefing is part of a larger effort in which, worldwide, scientists working on experiments at the LHC will host lectures and other "Angels & Demons"-related events for members of the press and the public. More than 45 lectures are taking place across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico as part of the series "Angels and Demons: The Science Revealed". Events are also planned in particle physics institutions across Europe, Asia, Central and South America. For more information on the LHC, visit CERN's Web site.On May 15, 2009, Sony Pictures will release "Angels and Demons," and bring the world's largest particle physics... more

JanforGore
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2 months ago

Austria to quit CERN particle physics laboratory

Austria plans to pull out of the international particle physics laboratory CERN because its share of the high cost is eating up... more

SoundBigfoot
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1 response

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3 months ago

Angels and Demons: Hans Zimmer Music Score

Whatever you may believe or think of this book and movie, the music score to both The DaVinci Code and now Angels and Demons is... more

JanforGore
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1 response

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5 months ago

LHC restart postponed further, won't attempt to swallow Earth again until September

Those anxiously awaiting the restart of the most complex machine ever built on earth will have to wait a little longer, as CERN... more

Crazyotto
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1 response

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6 months ago

Tra sei mesi si riprova a giocare al Big Bang

La macchina per il "Big Bang" ripartirà nel prossimo giugno, dopo lo stop a causa di un malfunzionamento (che... more

Arale
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7 months ago

Physics Rap!

I made this in high school for a physics project on the history of physics. The video and sound quality is poor because it was... more

djmattwerner
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0 responses

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8 months ago

Hadron - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In order to understand the Large Hadron Collider, you have to know what a hadron is. From Wikipedia.

dankitti
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8 months ago

Large Hadron Collider repairs to cost $21 million

GENEVA - Fixing the world's largest atom smasher will cost at least $21 millionand may take until early summer, its operator... more

Crazyotto
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17 responses

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9 months ago

YouTube - CERN in 3 minutes

A 3 min tour of CERN and its research facilities

dankitti
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9 months ago

CERN eggheads find there's no mystery to the universal appeal of a good feast - Times Online

Only a person lacking a soul could fail to marvel at the technological mastery and intellectual audacity that have together... more

dankitti
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9 months ago

Una nuova "fine del mondo"?

Sembra che i giornalisti e gli organi di stampa più in generale si siano improvvisamente dimenticati dell'esperimento... more

sonounprecario
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9 months ago

Al Cern mangiano gelato all'azoto in attesa che riparta Lhc

Insomma, prima della prossima primavera, gli scienziati a Ginevra si sottoporranno a turni quotidiani per riparare i magneti di... more

MarioCirrito
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1 response

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10 months ago

The God Particle

The is the "Director's Cut" of our coverage of the Large Hadron Collider, now with more interviews and kitsch.

Brandon_in_Paris
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19 responses

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10 months ago

Helium Leak Shuts Down LHC

The world's largest atom-smasher has been shut down for two months following a helium leak, just ten days after it was... more

TReaper405
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10 months ago

'Big bang machine' study halted for 2 months - LHC- msnbc.com

- The $10 billion "big bang" particle collider has been damaged worse than previously thought and will be out of... more

starr111
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10 months ago

Physicist: Large Hadron Collider glitch was not unexpected

September 19, 2008 (Computerworld) An MIT physics professor said it was completely normal that one of the hundreds of transformers failed a day after the Large Hadron Collider's first test last week.

According to a statement from CERN -- as the European Organization for Nuclear Research is known -- a 30-ton transformer, which is used to power coolants in the 17-mile underground, vacuum-sealed loop in the world's most powerful particle accelerator, failed on Sept. 11. Because of the failure, the collider switched off the main cryogenic compressors for two sectors of the machine.

The transformer was replaced with a new one last weekend. Since then, technicians have been recooling the magnets and preparing to shoot another particle beam around the loop. A beam first made a full circuit around the tube in a test run last week. Harvey Newman, a physics professor at the California Institute of Technology, called the test run "one of the great engineering milestones of mankind."

Bolek Wyslouch, a professor of physics at MIT who has been working on the collider project for seven years, told Computerworld that last week's experiment was a major achievement because so many mechanical elements had to run properly at the same time.

"So, one thing didn't work. It's not a surprise," said Wyslouch. "There are many, many elements, and some of them had never been used and some of them break. You fix them and keep going. It's impossible not to have things break."

Last week's experiment was the first in a series of tests that will be run before scientists are ready to accelerate two particle beams toward each other at 99.9% of the speed of light. Smashing the beams together will create showers of new particles that should re-create conditions in the universe just moments after its conception, giving scientists the chance to answer one of humanity's oldest questions: How was the universe created?

Wyslouch said he's not sure of the exact date when the first particle collision will happen, but it should only be a matter of weeks.

According to CERN, on that first day of testing, particle beams, going one at a time, made several hundred laps around the tube.

Controversy has swirled around the collider and the experiments being done there. Rumors have been circulating around the Internet that the experiments might destroy the universe by accidentally creating a black hole that would suck everything and everyone into it.

With the Big Bang theory, scientists largely believe that more than 13 billion years ago an amazingly dense object the size of maybe a coin expanded into the universe that we know now -- with planets, stars, black holes and life. Some people fear that by smashing the particle beams together in the collider, a similar cataclysmic reaction might occur, vaporizing our planet or sucking it into a black hole that would shoot it out into an alternate universe.

September 19, 2008 (Computerworld) An MIT physics professor said it was completely normal that one of the hundreds of transformers... more