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Large Hadron Collider

kyser_soze said:
Brian Cox was terrible in the Horizon show about the LHC, 'The Big Bang Machine' - badly structured narrative and factually incorrect; he kept referring to ATLAS as being the detector tasked with finding the Higgs, which is in fact the CMS. Pretty major fuck up since he works there.
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Yeah I thought he came across as being a bit, well, dense for a particle physicist. I mean shit, I can reel off the list of fundamental particles without forgetting any! Some of the other scientists were totally awesome though, particularly the Spanish guy and the slightly mad one that looks a bit like God.
 
Fruitloop said:
Yeah I thought he came across as being a bit, well, dense for a particle physicist. I mean shit, I can reel off the list of fundamental particles without forgetting any! Some of the other scientists were totally awesome though, particularly the Spanish guy and the slightly mad one that looks a bit like God.
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What was also missing from that show was a bit of a primer on sub atomic particles.

I'm a biochemist, so protons are about as small as I go, and even then I know nothing of the physics of 'em. Anyone know a decent book that explains these even smaller particles and the forces that govern them?
 
Detroit City said:
maybe you should take a jog around the LHC while its 100% powered up :D :p
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Only if you wanted to die a horrible death from radiation poisoning. One by-product of all circular particle accelerators is synchrotron radiation. Even the 3GeV beam at Diamond is leathal, never mind the 450GeV injection beam energy on this one!
 
DotCommunist said:
Somewhat predictably, the world hasn't ended then.

Shoop Da Woop etc
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I think they're only making the particles go round in big circles so far, and today the LHC is operating at about 10% of its potential speed. Its a bit of a a let-down really, a bit like starting up your new car but not taking it off the drive.

All they are doing at the moment is increasing the speed over the coming weeks to check it all works. Actual particle collisions are not scheduled to happen until mid-October sometime.

Meanwhile, here are some "interesting" factoids:

The LHC contains two primary experiments: Atlas and CMS (the "Compact Muon Solenoid"). Both of these experiments are essentially cameras recording collision events.

Once fully operational, the LHC will produce up to 600 million collision events per second. The Atlas experiment contains 100 million read-out sensors.

The vast amount of data produced is equivalent to an electronic copy of the Encyclopaedia Britannica per second. Bear in mind this is a 32-volume reference book made up of over 44 million words and 23,000 images.

This is obviously unmanageable. Therefore, 99.9995% of all the data has to be discarded, meaning "only" 200 events per second are actually recorded onto disc. The decision of what to keep and what to discard is decided by computers - 1000 processors running in parallel - based on 10 criteria. This decision is made in less than 2 microseconds.

Even this reduced recording capacity will generate petabytes of data per year. Based on the fact there are over 31 million seconds per year, if the LHC was run for 10 years it would generate more data than has been written or spoken by man since he appeared on Earth.

The magnet in the CMS experiment is over 6 metres in diameter. That is big enough to accomodate a blue whale for an MRI scan. The iron within the magnet - more, incidentally, than the Eiffel Tower is made up from - was supplied by the Russians. It comes from decommissioned battleship shells.


:cool:
 
Mitre10 said:
The magnet in the CMS experiment is over 6 metres in diameter. That is big enough to accomodate a blue whale for an MRI scan. The iron within the magnet - more, incidentally, than the Eiffel Tower is made up from - was supplied by the Russians. It comes from decommissioned battleship shells.


:cool:
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awesome. Swords into ploughshares and that
 
I'm "enjoying" the luddite morans who post on BBC Have Your Say.

This is a fine riposte, though:

Added: Wednesday, 10 September, 2008, 11:04 GMT 12:04 UK

I'm enjoying the irony of people who use the internet to condemn particle physics as useless esoteric research. (The web was actually developed at CERN by a physicist on an earlier experiment).

Bella Scott, Glasgow, United Kingdom
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This is my favourite:

Britain 'to fall into recession' - and were searching to find out how the planet was created?!!??????!!!?? Fantastic!
Do you think it is wiser to go forward and not back in time!!!!
Jennie Platt, Birmingham, United Kingdom

She is quite right. Why are we wasting time on this 'science' nonsense when I might not be able to afford a new dock for my iPod this time next year?
 
BBC News have been quoting some great "messing with things beyond our control" e-mails to which their science commentator just keeps saying, in a polite way "Bollocks!" :D While pointing out, as Danny did, such things as the internet which have come out of previous CERN research
 
Don't worry everyone,it's going to be ok afterall,no matter what happens :cool:
"one of the most important tasks of the Alpha Centauri is to command the vast interplanetary fleet. It is composed of the most powerful spacecraft and crews chosen, made available through the planets faithful to God". The flagship of the interplanetary fleet is so great that she can obscure the Earth with her shadow. These ships are "real cities". When the time is ripe, the extraterrestrials will arrive openly and visible to all. It is in the plans of God this to happen. Then the great interplanetary fleet will be placed above the Earth, and will be visible from every corner of the planet ".


"Even now, our spaceships are in orbit around the Earth, on the orders of God, to prevent the humanity of the Earth from self destruction. We have so far prevented many disasters and wars on your planet. Our scientific discoveries go far beyond your reach".

------------
According to the revelations of Stefania Caterina
http://www.lucidellesodo.it/ in Italian

"Beyond the Barrier there is no more space nor time, as we designate them. The physical size no longer exists. There is only the size of the spirit, that buys all the thickness of the eternity.

The whole universal Church is engaged in the preparation of the great cosmic exodus that awaits the whole of creation, that is pure spirits, men both living and dead on each planet, all creatures. Everything that exists and has existed in time, will be brought to Jesus Christ to be subjected to him.

The great Archangels and all the angels are sent in every point of the Universe to collect the faithful and support them in the tests. Your brothers the faithful will visit over time established by God and will help you. The Church of the earth will be called to give her great contribution, according to the plans of God "(St. Raphael Archangel, 28/7/2007).

This contribution involves the evangelization of the "other humanity, as well as that on Earth, who live on different planets", and the "Baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire".

With regard to the "other humanity" scattered in the universe, there are those who are faithful to God, and those who are rebels. The rebellious humanity, precisely because do not like us, is linked to Satan with a Covenant, have a greater development and a more developed civilization, and Satan grants their powers and achievements used to destroy the faithful humanity, to achieve the "overwhelming superiority of the latter on all levels"; seek to establish contacts with the Earth "using telepathy, occultism, and with the help of powerful medium" and can sometimes visit our planet, but always under the strict supervision of the faithful of Alpha Centauri, so they are not so explicit.

Among the faithful humanity stands out clearly that of Alfa Centauri, which has kept many gifts of the original state of integrity. "However, some suffer the consequences of original sin for justice, because we belong to humanity that a majority has betrayed and was guilty before God "

The humanity of Alpha Centauri "has the highest degree of evolution in the universe", both spiritual and technological. On this planet, there is only one temple from which flows a source that gives water and the life. Among the best known, there is Aris - priest and king of my people, because with us these two aspects can not be divided. On our planet even priests have a bride, Who accompanies them in the life and mission. This is indispensable for us.

It is the brightest star in the constellation Centaurus, and is the fourth brightest star of the night sky.


Ashtar Sheran, the commander of interplanetary powerful fleet, is a scientist, engineer and designer, as well as his wife Kalna, while many women are among the crews of ships. "We share with the planets, which are ready to receive them, even our scientific and technological knowledge, for their own good, but not to satisfy the curiosity of anyone".

"Even now, our spaceships are in orbit around the Earth, on the orders of God, to prevent the humanity of the Earth from self destruction. We have so far prevented many disasters and wars on your planet. Our scientific discoveries go far beyond your reach".

Though strictly non-violent and therefore vegetarians, Alpha Centauri exercises an interplanetary mission police, "simply put out of use the weapons of others".

"God sends us in the universe to make those missions that the angels can not perform, since they don't have a body".


"one of the most important tasks of the Alpha Centauri is to command the vast interplanetary fleet. It is composed of the most powerful spacecraft and crews chosen, made available through the planets faithful to God". The flagship of the interplanetary fleet is so great that she can obscure the Earth with her shadow. These ships are "real cities". When the time is ripe, the extraterrestrials will arrive openly and visible to all. It is in the plans of God this to happen. Then the great interplanetary fleet will be placed above the Earth, and will be visible from every corner of the planet ".

We also know that Israel and, in particular, Moses knew the existence of the extraterrestrials, and they were helped and saved, especially during the great exodus from Egypt.

According to the revelations of Stefania Caterina
http://www.lucidellesodo.it/ in Italian

_________________________

Padre Pio (1887-1968) is a modern-day saint who is credited with many cures and who received the stigmata. He was canonized on June 16, 2002, by Pope John Paul II. When asked about the existence of extraterrestrials, he replied, " The Lord certainly did not limit his glory to this small Earth. On other planets other beings exist who did not sin and fall as we did."
from:

The Vatican Views Life on Other Planets Probable
http://www.thisisby.us/index.php/content/the_vatican_views_life_on_other_planets_probable
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:cool: :D *palm to face*
 
King Biscuit Time said:
What was also missing from that show was a bit of a primer on sub atomic particles.

I'm a biochemist, so protons are about as small as I go, and even then I know nothing of the physics of 'em. Anyone know a decent book that explains these even smaller particles and the forces that govern them?
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If you've the time. Take a look at these online lectures.
http://66stage.com/documentaries.php?pl=goo

First couple are a bit slow. But I got a lot out of the rest. Recorded early 2000's I think.
 
KBT - if you're feeling really lazy, buy The Bluffers Guide to the Quantum Universe. Seriously, it's not a joke book, altho it's written humourously by a particle physicist. VERY good, makes a decent fist of the main avenues of philosophy and research etc...
 
FWIW The LHC is colliding protons with protons. Not protons and anti protons as I said earlier. (just checked) Some accelorators do but not this one.
 
HYS never fails to amuse:

I don't really understand why people need to know exactly what happened a billionth of a second after the big bang.......especially not if it could potentially put peoples lives at risk. For somebody out there to think that it could create the end of the world suggests that it could be a dangerous experiment...and how CERN can say its safe when they've never used the LHC before seems ill-advised! I think leaving a few things unknown is a good thing...allows for some speculation and imagination!
 
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