The particle adventure

LHC - the aim of the exercise:
To smash protons moving at 99.999999% of the speed of light into each other and so recreate conditions a fraction of a second after the big bang.

The LARGE Hadron Collider

Our understanding of the Universe is about to change...

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a gigantic scientific instrument near Geneva, where it spans the border between Switzerland and France about 100 m underground. It is a particle accelerator used by physicists to study the smallest known particles – the fundamental building blocks of all things. It will revolutionise our understanding, from the minuscule world deep within atoms to the vastness of the Universe.

Two beams of subatomic particles called 'hadrons' – either protons or lead ions – will travel in opposite directions inside the circular accelerator, gaining energy with every lap. Physicists will use the LHC to recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang, by colliding the two beams head-on at very high energy. Teams of physicists from around the world will analyse the particles created in the collisions using special detectors in a number of experiments dedicated to the LHC.

There are many theories as to what will result from these collisions, but what's for sure is that a brave new world of physics will emerge from the new accelerator, as knowledge in particle physics goes on to describe the workings of the Universe. For decades, the Standard Model of particle physics has served physicists well as a means of understanding the fundamental laws of Nature, but it does not tell the whole story. Only experimental data using the higher energies reached by the LHC can push knowledge forward, challenging those who seek confirmation of established knowledge, and those who dare to dream beyond the paradigm.

(from CERN website)

I'm so excited, I think I will hardly sleep tonight. The LHC will be online tomorrow!

"Particle physics is the unbelievable in pursuit of the unimaginable. To pinpoint the smallest fragments of the universe you have to build the biggest machine in the world. To recreate the first millionths of a second of creation you have to focus energy on an awesome scale."

And if it doesn't churn out the data everyone is looking for: Let's just build a bigger one!

A French Bird?

How did I manage to miss this?

From the CERN Press Office:

On Tuesday 3 November, a bird carrying a baguette bread caused a short circuit in an electrical outdoor installation that serves sectors 7-8 and 8-1 of the LHC. The knock-on effects included an interruption to theoperation of the LHC cryogenics system. The bird escaped unharmed but lost its bread.

The standard failsafe systems came into operation and after the cause was identified, re-cooling of the machine began and the sectors were back at operating temperature last night. The incident was similar in effect to a standard power cut, for which the machine protection systems are very well prepared.

I have a lot of questions about this.

My guess is it was a French Bird.

LHC shut down

A 30 ton transformer in the Large Hadron Collider malfunctioned. (Well there was a helium leak).

That's what the news says.

But I think it's just a kitty jamming the donut shaped particle accelerator.

Mihi.

The World According to me - Year 2

This is a bit of a belated post, but here goes: Year two of Mrs B's never ending ramblings. Chuck Norris cake all round!
What has happened on the blog this past year? A quick round up:

-Meh, still no visitors from Antarctica.
Not even now we have our own non-emission polar base.
Looks like I was wrong, no sex crazed scientists on the cold continent looking for a little heat on teh intertubes.

-I saw a lot of traffic about the omega pharma e-waves phone chip scam. It looks like they're trying to find a market for the scam in the rest of Europe. Some people want to find out what these non existent quantum physical information waves are really about.

-Folks want someone to explain post modernism to them, it's a jumbled up handfull at best, I might do a thorough post about this during the summer.

-Cats having thermometers inserted in them is also a very popular search term. Thanks to the Thermometer goes where lolcat.

-Hacking facebook or apps are a popular pasttime too it appears.

-I expect the fashion police had a very busy winter. There was infinite interest in moonboots, how to clean them and which side goes on what foot.

-The LHC particle adventure scored too. Yay for science!

-My blog entry on Colour changing spiders is the most popular one.


Some strangely disturbing search terms found their way to my little ramblings:

-italian +cheese+worms+health risk+once eaten+name+type of worm
Mrs B: I suspect someone had some lovely cheese and crackers and then took a good look at the food and realized it had probably passed its sell by date by a couple of years. And then was worried if there were any health risks involved.

-license to crennelate
Mrs B: Someone looking over the law before they submit their over the top planning permission?

-balls-up maritime expression
Mrs B: Some creative writer/journalist wanting some novel description of the Iran/UK sailor incident?

-do weasel balls float?
Mrs B: I don't know and I'm not going to try.

-hamster lost circulation
Mrs B: I hope you have fixed its wheel by now or taken the rodent to see a vet.

-it will all make sense in the end
Mrs B: Will it really? How very comforting to know someone is reading all the bullcrap I'm typing up. There's hope for mankind yet.

-And a heartwarming: 'The enchanted world of Mrs B'
Mrs B: How very sweet.

-And of course I did get a lot of traffic for people looking for porn. Because that's just what the web is for, right? Sorry to disappoint some of you, but my entry on 'Hooters' really was about owls.

The LHC Rap

Collision

I feel like such a dork.
I cried with happiness when I heard the first 7 TeV collision happened yesterday in the LHC.
I wish I was a particle physicist.