Atom Smasher Sets Record

[StreetScooby 5]

This is a great day for mankind. Very exciting. From the 30-Mar-2010 WSJ:

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GENEVA—The world's largest atom smasher set a record for high-energy collisions on Tuesday by crashing proton beams into each other at three times more force than ever before.

In a milestone in the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider's ambitious bid to reveal details about theoretical particles and microforces, scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, collided the beams and took measurements at a combined energy level of seven trillion electron volts.

The collisions herald a new era for researchers working on the machine in a 17-mile tunnel below the Swiss-French border at Geneva.

"That's it! They've had a collision," said Oliver Buchmueller from Imperial College in London, as people closely watched monitors. In a control room, scientists erupted with applause when the first successful collisions were confirmed. Their colleagues from around the world were tuning in by remote links to witness the new record, which surpasses the 2.36 TeV CERN recorded last year.

Dubbed the world's largest scientific experiment, scientists hope the machine can approach on a tiny scale what happened in the first split seconds after the Big Bang, which they theorize was the creation of the universe some 14 billion years ago.

The extra energy in Geneva is expected to reveal even more about the unanswered questions of particle physics, such as the existence of antimatter and the search for the Higgs boson, a hypothetical particle that scientists theorize gives mass to other particles and thus to other objects and creatures in the universe.

Tuesday's initial attempts at collisions were unsuccessful because problems developed with the beams, said scientists working on the massive machine. That meant that the protons had to be "dumped" from the collider and new beams had to be injected.

The atmosphere at CERN was tense considering the collider's launch with great fanfare on Sept. 10, 2008. Nine days later, the project was sidetracked when a badly soldered electrical splice overheated, causing extensive damage to the massive magnets and other parts of the collider some 300 feet below the ground. It cost $40 million to repair and improve the machine.

Since its restart in November 2009, the collider has performed almost flawlessly and given scientists valuable data. It quickly eclipsed the next largest accelerator—the Tevatron at Fermilab near Chicago.

Two beams of protons began 10 days ago to speed at high energy in opposite directions around the tunnel, the coldest place in the universe, at a couple of degrees above absolute zero. CERN used powerful superconducting magnets to force the two beams to cross, creating collisions and showers of particles.

Bivek Sharma, a professor at the University of California at San Diego, said the images of the first crashed proton beams were beautiful. "It's taken us 25 years to build," he said. "This is what it's for. Finally the baby is delivered. Now it has to grow."

We are all engines of karma

[riddler 0]

Where's my black hole, dammit?!

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[piisfish 140]

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Where's my black hole, dammit?!

I'm sitting on it

didn't feel anything. Either it's a fake, or it didn't work, or I won't need to turn the lights on tonight.

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[Zep 0]

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Where's my black hole, dammit?!

I'm sitting on it

Now thats funny

Gone fishing

[akarunway 1]

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This is a great day for mankind. Very exciting. From the 30-Mar-2010 WSJ:

Quote

GENEVA—The world's largest atom smasher set a record for high-energy collisions on Tuesday by crashing proton beams into each other at three times more force than ever before.

In a milestone in the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider's ambitious bid to reveal details about theoretical particles and microforces, scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, collided the beams and took measurements at a combined energy level of seven trillion electron volts.

The collisions herald a new era for researchers working on the machine in a 17-mile tunnel below the Swiss-French border at Geneva.

"That's it! They've had a collision," said Oliver Buchmueller from Imperial College in London, as people closely watched monitors. In a control room, scientists erupted with applause when the first successful collisions were confirmed. Their colleagues from around the world were tuning in by remote links to witness the new record, which surpasses the 2.36 TeV CERN recorded last year.

Dubbed the world's largest scientific experiment, scientists hope the machine can approach on a tiny scale what happened in the first split seconds after the Big Bang, which they theorize was the creation of the universe some 14 billion years ago.

The extra energy in Geneva is expected to reveal even more about the unanswered questions of particle physics, such as the existence of antimatter and the search for the Higgs boson, a hypothetical particle that scientists theorize gives mass to other particles and thus to other objects and creatures in the universe.

Tuesday's initial attempts at collisions were unsuccessful because problems developed with the beams, said scientists working on the massive machine. That meant that the protons had to be "dumped" from the collider and new beams had to be injected.

The atmosphere at CERN was tense considering the collider's launch with great fanfare on Sept. 10, 2008. Nine days later, the project was sidetracked when a badly soldered electrical splice overheated, causing extensive damage to the massive magnets and other parts of the collider some 300 feet below the ground. It cost $40 million to repair and improve the machine.

Since its restart in November 2009, the collider has performed almost flawlessly and given scientists valuable data. It quickly eclipsed the next largest accelerator—the Tevatron at Fermilab near Chicago.

Two beams of protons began 10 days ago to speed at high energy in opposite directions around the tunnel, the coldest place in the universe, at a couple of degrees above absolute zero. CERN used powerful superconducting magnets to force the two beams to cross, creating collisions and showers of particles.

Bivek Sharma, a professor at the University of California at San Diego, said the images of the first crashed proton beams were beautiful. "It's taken us 25 years to build," he said. "This is what it's for. Finally the baby is delivered. Now it has to grow."

Saw a show on this the other day. Way cool>http://www.bing.com/reference/semhtml/Fusion_power?src=abop&fwd=1&qpvt=fusion+energy&q=fusion+energy

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

[pirana 0]

I think it should be properly named ATOM CRASHER. If I ever achieve superhero status I want to be named ADAM CRASHER.

But seriously, too lazy to look; anybody remember the necessary energy level previously theorized to expose the Higgs?

Is 7 TeV getting in the ballpark?

" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

[champu 1]

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But seriously, too lazy to look; anybody remember the necessary energy level previously theorized to expose the Higgs?

Is 7 TeV getting in the ballpark?

Depends on what the mass of Higgs ends up being (won't know until it's observed) and how many events you can generate. As I understand it, the Tevatron in Chicago could observe a Higgs Boson, but it's much less likely due to the lower energy levels.

http://pdg.lbl.gov/2006/reviews/higgs_s055.pdf

[tkhayes 348]

as soon as they find the 'God particle' every atheist will go "See, there is no God"

Every religious type will go "See, they found the "God Particle", therefore there is a God"

If they make a black hole - EVERYONE is going to want one......

But seriously folks.....I think the research is phenomenal and it all reaffirms my faith in mankind - that despite the idiots that we elect to run things, mankind can have an amazing level of ingenuity and perseverance.

I cannot even fathom a) how someone can even dream this thing up and b) then go build it and make it work. Pretty fucking cool stuff.....

[VTmotoMike08 0]

I don't remember the source but I read in one of the articles on the LHC that most physicists don't really like the term "God Particle" because it overstates the importance of the Higgs. It seems that term was invented by the media who wanted to sensenationalize things. Working on digging up that source...

[kallend 2,112]

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I don't remember the source but I read in one of the articles on the LHC that most physicists don't really like the term "God Particle" because it overstates the importance of the Higgs. It seems that term was invented by the media who wanted to sensenationalize things. Working on digging up that source...

I was under the impression in was Leon Lederman who coined the expression.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[VTmotoMike08 0]

Got it, I stand corrected, it was Lederman, although it seems he had mixed thoughts on the expression, and many other physicists don't really like it.

http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2008/04/09/is-god-particle-the-right-term-for-massive-mystery-in-physics/

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This boson is so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our final understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive, that I have given it a nickname: the God Particle. Why God Particle? Two reasons. One, the publisher wouldn’t let us call it the Goddam Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing. And two, there is a connection, of sorts, to another book, a much older one…

Lederman then goes on to quote Genesis 11:1-9 , the Tower of Babel story about mankind dispersing. Finding the God Particle, he says, would be like undoing the confusion that followed

[masterblaster72 0]

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Two beams of protons began 10 days ago to speed at high energy in opposite directions around the tunnel, the coldest place in the universe, at a couple of degrees above absolute zero. CERN used powerful superconducting magnets to force the two beams to cross, creating collisions and showers of particles.

Could anyone explain that phrase in bold? The way it's written it sounds like the tunnel is the coldest place in the universe, which seems hard to believe considering the vastness of the universe...I mean do we really know that this mechanism houses the coldest place in the universe, even colder than any place in the universe beyond the light horizon, which we haven't seen and know little or nothing about? Just seems like a lofty thing to assume...but of course I'm speaking as someone who has very limited knowledge on the subject.

Be humble, ask questions, listen, learn, follow the golden rule, talk when necessary, and know when to shut the fuck up.

[kallend 2,112]

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Got it, I stand corrected, it was Lederman, although it seems he had mixed thoughts on the expression, and many other physicists don't really like it.

http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2008/04/09/is-god-particle-the-right-term-for-massive-mystery-in-physics/

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This boson is so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our final understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive, that I have given it a nickname: the God Particle. Why God Particle? Two reasons. One, the publisher wouldn’t let us call it the Goddam Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing. And two, there is a connection, of sorts, to another book, a much older one…

Lederman then goes on to quote Genesis 11:1-9 , the Tower of Babel story about mankind dispersing. Finding the God Particle, he says, would be like undoing the confusion that followed

OK, next time I see him I'll chastise him for you (he is on our faculty).

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[shropshire 0]

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Two beams of protons began 10 days ago to speed at high energy in opposite directions around the tunnel, the coldest place in the universe, at a couple of degrees above absolute zero. CERN used powerful superconducting magnets to force the two beams to cross, creating collisions and showers of particles.

Could anyone explain that phrase in bold? The way it's written it sounds like the tunnel is the coldest place in the universe, which seems hard to believe considering the vastness of the universe...I mean do we really know that this mechanism houses the coldest place in the universe, even colder than any place in the universe beyond the light horizon, which we haven't seen and know little or nothing about? Just seems like a lofty thing to assume...but of course I'm speaking as someone who has very limited knowledge on the subject.

CERN is between Switzerland and France ... one always get's a more chilly reception there than anywhere else on Earth

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[pirana 0]

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I don't remember the source but I read in one of the articles on the LHC that most physicists don't really like the term "God Particle" because it overstates the importance of the Higgs. It seems that term was invented by the media who wanted to sensenationalize things. Working on digging up that source...

Yes, there will always be a place for faith. Even if we figure out why things have mass, or for that matter why matter exists at all, there will still be the "Then what before that?" question. Faith has it's purpose, and that purpose is for accepting what we can not know. Unfortunately, a certain (hopefully shrinking) segment of the population refuses to acknowledge our increasing knowledge.

" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

[VTmotoMike08 0]

>>OK, next time I see him I'll chastise him for you (he is on our faculty).

Ahh, that really is not where I was going with the whole thing... I really was just interested in knowing the origin of the term. I think its an interesting name for the Higgs but it seems to open the door for a lot of needless bickering between science and religion types.

[VTmotoMike08 0]

>>Faith has it's purpose, and that purpose is for accepting what we can not know

Sure, if only all those pesky bacteria researchers had just had faith that God put disease on Earth for a reason (that we cannot know) then maybe we would still have a few a few more reminders of God's will!

Sorry, but SCIENCE's purpose is to try and figure out what we do not know. Faith is giving up and saying "thats the way God made it"!

[kallend 2,112]

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Two beams of protons began 10 days ago to speed at high energy in opposite directions around the tunnel, the coldest place in the universe, at a couple of degrees above absolute zero. CERN used powerful superconducting magnets to force the two beams to cross, creating collisions and showers of particles.

Could anyone explain that phrase in bold? The way it's written it sounds like the tunnel is the coldest place in the universe, which seems hard to believe considering the vastness of the universe...I mean do we really know that this mechanism houses the coldest place in the universe, even colder than any place in the universe beyond the light horizon, which we haven't seen and know little or nothing about? Just seems like a lofty thing to assume...but of course I'm speaking as someone who has very limited knowledge on the subject.

There are lots of labs that can produce temperatures lower than "couple of degrees above absolute zero". I think the coldest that has been produced was a few millionths of a degree above zero by the folks who produced the Bose-Einstein condensate.

Temperatures that low are not produced by any natural process we know of. If there is somewhere colder in the universe, it was probably created by intelligent life-forms.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.