Skip to main content

World's Largest Particle Accelerator Starts off Successfully

This isn't directly related to nuclear power but I'm sure many of the readers here could appreciate the significance and relevance of this event. 

From the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN):
The first beam in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN was successfully steered around the full 27 kilometres [17 miles] of the world’s most powerful particle accelerator at 10h28 this morning. This historic event marks a key moment in the transition from over two decades of preparation to a new era of scientific discovery.

...

Starting up a major new particle accelerator takes much more than flipping a switch. Thousands of individual elements have to work in harmony, timings have to be synchronized to under a billionth of a second, and beams finer than a human hair have to be brought into head-on collision. Today’s success puts a tick next to the first of those steps, and over the next few weeks, as the LHC’s operators gain experience and confidence with the new machine, the machine’s acceleration systems will be brought into play, and the beams will be brought into collision to allow the research programme to begin.
What is the purpose of the LHC?
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.
Pretty sweet stuff! For more information, check out the page on Wikipedia.

Update:

Comments

Norske-Division said…
"Russian nuclear reactor designs are the safest in the world"

"Oh, the chance of a resonance cascade is exceedingly small" - Half Life Scientist

"We really don't think there is much danger presented by the teleporter" - Doom Scientist

These bad scientists and fictional scientists are always going around saying something isn't actually dangerous. But games like the one I mentioned as well as Chernobyl have made some people think that scientists are a bunch of cow-boys who are willing to bet everything on what they think is a small risk. That scientists are stuck in an out of touch world of odds, not understanding the real consequences of what they're doing.

Now, I don't think this. But I understand how this popular perception came about.
Anonymous said…
To answer the question wether the LHC is dangerous, I found this link:

http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/
Rod Adams said…
My beef with "big science" has nothing to do with the potential for hazard.

It simply baffles me that so much time, money and human ingenuity has been expended for so little gain!

With all of the very real problems in the world needing the efforts of the best solvers we can find, why do physicists think that the equivalent of accurately counting the angels on the head of a pin is worth $10 billion?

Though I work in a field where the word "billion" rolls easily off of the tongue, it is always worth remembering just how big $10 billion is.

Fill the Rose Bowl (100,000) people. Write each of them a check for $100,000. That is $10 billion.
David Bradish said…
Rod,

I'm of the complete opposite opinion on this. $10B invested by 20 countries is nothing. We should always be exploring and inventing and progressing. That's how we've gotten to be where we're at today.

We don't know what we don't know and it will take more and more money to achieve new things.

I found some Einstein quotes that seem to fit this situation::

"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."

"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
Johan said…
Rod there is no way of knowing what gains might come out of big science. Just like no one could even guess fission existed before it was discovered. The day humanity stops doing real, fundamental science is the day all progress grinds to a halt.

Not to forget, the sheer joy of understanding how the universe works is priceless in itself even if it has no application.
Anonymous said…
I Just want to chill in the rose bowl and collect $100,000 now. I am not worried, I just want my money now Rod.

Love Hasersys
Anonymous said…
>Rod< how many weeks of Iraq war expenditures is LHC worth? ~4 weeks without casualties?
Anonymous said…
I just want to know why? With a hefty price tag like that, why is it so important to know how it all started and who cares. It started and we are all here. Everyone from small towns to big cities are losing jobs and kids are going hungry. But this is going to solve the problems? What are the adverse reactions? Does it matter? Even better, why isn't it mentioned? I guess every test is a success and there will be more jobs created from this. So where does the money come from to build this particle accelerator. This type of science belongs in a lab and no further until the people of the world can say if its safe. But that's my opinion, right.

Popular posts from this blog

An Ohio School Board Is Working to Save Nuclear Plants

Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu

Why Ex-Im Bank Board Nominations Will Turn the Page on a Dysfunctional Chapter in Washington

In our present era of political discord, could Washington agree to support an agency that creates thousands of American jobs by enabling U.S. companies of all sizes to compete in foreign markets? What if that agency generated nearly billions of dollars more in revenue than the cost of its operations and returned that money – $7 billion over the past two decades – to U.S. taxpayers? In fact, that agency, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), was reauthorized by a large majority of Congress in 2015. To be sure, the matter was not without controversy. A bipartisan House coalition resorted to a rarely-used parliamentary maneuver in order to force a vote. But when Congress voted, Ex-Im Bank won a supermajority in the House and a large majority in the Senate. For almost two years, however, Ex-Im Bank has been unable to function fully because a single Senate committee chairman prevented the confirmation of nominees to its Board of Directors. Without a quorum

NEI Praises Connecticut Action in Support of Nuclear Energy

Earlier this week, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed SB-1501 into law, legislation that puts nuclear energy on an equal footing with other non-emitting sources of energy in the state’s electricity marketplace. “Gov. Malloy and the state legislature deserve praise for their decision to support Dominion’s Millstone Power Station and the 1,500 Connecticut residents who work there," said NEI President and CEO Maria Korsnick. "By opening the door to Millstone having equal access to auctions open to other non-emitting sources of electricity, the state will help preserve $1.5 billion in economic activity, grid resiliency and reliability, and clean air that all residents of the state can enjoy," Korsnick said. Millstone Power Station Korsnick continued, "Connecticut is the third state to re-balance its electricity marketplace, joining New York and Illinois, which took their own legislative paths to preserving nuclear power plants in 2016. Now attention should