Scientists cheer atom smasher success

Roogle · #21 09-11-2008, 07:22 AM

I think the fear is legitimate. Something like this has never been done before. Remember when people thought that flying was the work of the Devil? New concepts are always feared.

Scientifically, there is a possibility for failure. Like any concept. No one really knows what is gonna happen. It's already begun. I just hope it works just fine.

__________________
A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine. - Thomas Jefferson

Panama Girl · #22 09-11-2008, 01:55 PM

No need to worry, the world isn't ending until 2012 anyway.

Just relax, people...

hockey · #23 09-11-2008, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Panama Girl

No need to worry, the world isn't ending until 2012 anyway.

Just relax, people...

Ah well, PG, thanks. I feel so much better.

Seriously, though... I've always heard crazy world ending prophecies throughout my life and they all came and went. I put this 2012 religious hype into that same non-scientific category.

However, a bunch of nuclear scientists recreating a big bang underground.... well.... this is a bit unnerving and a lot more realistic. I mean black holes are unstable and contain a whole lot of unknown.

Kid Lester · #24 09-18-2008, 03:45 PM

GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) -- A 30-ton transformer that cools the world's largest particle collider malfunctioned, forcing physicists to stop using the atom smasher just a day after launching it to great fanfare, the European Organization for Nuclear Research said Thursday.

The collider's ALICE experiment will look at how the universe formed by analyzing particle collisions.

The faulty transformer has been replaced and the ring in the 17-mile circular tunnel under the Swiss-French border has been cooled back down to near absolute zero -- or minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit -- the most efficient operating temperature, said a statement by CERN, as the organization is known.
When the transformer malfunctioned, operating temperatures rose from below 2 Kelvin to 4.5 Kelvin -- extraordinarily cold by most standards, but warmer than the normal operating temperature.
The Large Hadron Collider was launched September 10, when scientists circled a beam of protons in a clockwise direction at the speed of light. That was followed by a counterclockwise beam.

Check out the collider complex's six detectors »
"Several hundred orbits" were made, said the statement.
On the evening of September 11, scientists were able to control the counterclockwise beam with equipment that keeps the protons bunched tightly and ready for collisions before the transformer failed and the system was shut down, the statement said.

Now that the transformer has been replaced and the equipment rechilled, a similar attempt is expected shortly to tighten the clockwise beam and prepare experiments in coming weeks, it said.
The Large Hadron Collider is designed to collide protons in the beams so that they shatter and reveal more about the makeup of matter and the universe.

-----------------

So these guys have a 30 Ton cooling transformer that gets the collider down to absolute zero. And when it breaks, they have a new one ready to go in a day, even though it's probably one of 5 that exist in the world.

Yet my AC shits the bed, and it's 2 weeks for a part to get my house down to room temperature. And there's a hundred million units just like mine.

Rusty · #25 09-18-2008, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kid Lester

Yet my AC shits the bed, and it's 2 weeks for a part to get my house down to room temperature. And there's a hundred million units just like mine.

Connections, my lad, connections...

Panama Girl · #26 09-18-2008, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kid Lester

So these guys have a 30 Ton cooling transformer that gets the collider down to absolute zero. And when it breaks, they have a new one ready to go in a day, even though it's probably one of 5 that exist in the world.

Yet my AC shits the bed, and it's 2 weeks for a part to get my house down to room temperature. And there's a hundred million units just like mine.

Well, duh. They're smart enough to keep a backup unit handy.

Then again, they have a bigger budget than we do.

Tracy · #27 09-18-2008, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Panama Girl

No need to worry, the world isn't ending until 2012 anyway.

Just relax, people...

exactly....the bees are starting to die now and it's 2008 (remember Einstein supposedly said 4 yrs)

Roogle · #28 09-19-2008, 07:15 AM

The article makes the point that if they are fooling with black holes and the transformer breaks in the middle of a collision. Anything can happen...

Kid Lester · #29 09-19-2008, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kid Lester

GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) --
When the transformer malfunctioned, operating temperatures rose from below 2 Kelvin to 4.5 Kelvin -- extraordinarily cold by most standards, but warmer than the normal operating temperature.

I bet it happened at 4 in the morning, right in the middle of some good sleep.

"Ugggh. Did it just get hot down here, or is it me?"