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Big Bang at the atomic lab after scientists get their maths wrong
Times Online ^ | 4/8/07 | Jonathan Leake

Posted on 04/08/2007 8:55:49 AM PDT by LibWhacker

A £2 billion project to answer some of the biggest mysteries of the universe has been delayed by months after scientists building it made basic errors in their mathematical calculations.

The mistakes led to an explosion deep in the tunnel at the Cern particle accelerator complex near Geneva in Switzerland. It lifted a 20-ton magnet off its mountings, filling a tunnel with helium gas and forcing an evacuation.

It means that 24 magnets located all around the 17-mile circular accelerator must now be stripped down and repaired or upgraded. The failure is a huge embarrassment for Fermilab, the American national physics laboratory that built the magnets and the anchor system that secured them to the machine.

It appears Fermilab made elementary mistakes in the design of the magnets and their anchors that made them insecure once the system was operational.

Last week an apparently furious and embarrassed Pier Oddone, director of Fermilab, wrote to his staff saying they had caused “a pratfall on the world stage”. He said: “We are dumb-founded that we missed some very simple balance of forces. Not only was it missed in the engineering design but also in the four engineering reviews carried out between 1998 and 2002 before launching the construction of the magnets.”

The machine, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), aims to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang, when the universe is thought to have exploded into existence about 14 billion years ago. However, the November start-up may now have to be delayed until next spring.

Dr Lyn Evans, who leads the accelerator construction project at Cern, the European organisation for nuclear research, said the explosion had been potentially very dangerous.

“There was a hell of a bang, the tunnel housing the machine filled with helium and dust and we had to call in the fire brigade to evacuate the place,” he said. “The people working on the test were frightened to death but they were all in a safe place so no-one was hurt.” An investigation by Cern researchers found “fundamental” flaws that caused the explosion, close to the CMS detector, one of the LHC’s most important experiments.

The accelerator is designed to smash together protons, a kind of sub-atomic particle, at near light speed. The hope is that such collisions will generate exotic new particles — especially the so-called Higgs boson which, theorists predict, could help explain key properties of matter, such as how it acquires mass and, hence, weight.

The LHC itself comprises two pipes, each containing a beam of protons travelling at near-light speed that are steered around the circular tunnel by powerful magnets. Such magnets are “superconducting” meaning they and the whole LHC are cooled to below -268C, using pipes filled with liquid helium.

The two proton beams travel in opposite directions but, at various points around the ring, their pipes merge, allowing the protons in each beam to collide.

However, since the thickness of each beam is less than that of a human hair, they have to be focused. This is the task of a second set of magnets, and it is these that were under test at the time of the explosion.

Coincidentally, Fermilab stands to gain most from delays at Cern. Its researchers also operate a rival but less powerful particle accelerator, the Tevatron.

Fermilab staff are pushing the Tevatron to ever-higher energies hoping that they might find the Higgs boson before the LHC switches on. An LHC researcher said: “Ironically, this delay could be all they need.”


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cern; collider; explosion; fermilab; hadron; higgs; higgsboson; large; lhc; magnet; stringtheory
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1 posted on 04/08/2007 8:55:51 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: LibWhacker
I know the explosion was series, but there are a few things to chuckle about in the article:

It lifted a 20-ton magnet off its mountings, filling a tunnel with helium gas and forcing an evacuation.

Imagine a crowd of workers emerging from a tunnel with the smoke roiling out behind them, all squeaking "run away" in helium voices.

It appears Fermilab made elementary mistakes in the design of the magnets and their anchors that made them insecure once the system was operational.

The self-esteem factor was off by three orders of magnitude.

Coincidentally, Fermilab stands to gain most from delays at Cern. Its researchers also operate a rival but less powerful particle accelerator, the Tevatron.

"I smell a rat, a great big Fermi rat," said the CERN director. (with apologies to George C. Scott)

Fermilab staff are pushing the Tevatron to ever-higher energies hoping that they might find the Higgs boson before the LHC switches on. An LHC researcher said: “Ironically, this delay could be all they need.”

Which Fermilab engineer gets the employee of the year award for this one?

2 posted on 04/08/2007 9:09:09 AM PDT by NonValueAdded (Prevent Glo-Ball Warming ... turn out the sun when not in use)
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To: LibWhacker

“It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!”


3 posted on 04/08/2007 9:11:27 AM PDT by garyhope (It's World War IV, right here, right now courtesy of Islam.)
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To: LibWhacker

I guess they haven’t created anti-matter yet or the place would cease to exist. (reference to Dan Brown’s “Angels and Demons”)


4 posted on 04/08/2007 9:11:52 AM PDT by wolfcreek (Semi-Conservatism Won't Cut It)
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To: LibWhacker

The machine, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), aims to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang,

well, based on what they want to do, I’d say they’re off to a good start on a smaller scale..


5 posted on 04/08/2007 9:12:04 AM PDT by GeorgiaDawg32 (There are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots..)
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To: LibWhacker

Alright, who forgot to put new batteries in the calculator?


6 posted on 04/08/2007 9:12:22 AM PDT by OCCASparky (Steely-Eyed Killer of the Deep)
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To: LibWhacker

This would be the smoke test. Didn’t they have an old cigar-chewing railroad engineer available? You know, the kind that looks at a trestle bridge and says: that’ll hold.
-Scotty.


7 posted on 04/08/2007 9:13:24 AM PDT by RightWhale (3 May '07 3:14 PM)
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To: LibWhacker
The mistakes led to an explosion deep in the tunnel at the Cern particle accelerator complex near Geneva in Switzerland. It lifted a 20-ton magnet off its mountings, filling a tunnel with helium gas and forcing an evacuation.

I remember how embarrassed I was when that happened during my first attempt to build a particle accelerator.

8 posted on 04/08/2007 9:17:56 AM PDT by Moonman62 (The issue of whether cheap labor makes America great should have been settled by the Civil War.)
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To: LibWhacker

I wonder if these scientists can pump their own gas.


9 posted on 04/08/2007 9:18:46 AM PDT by LdSentinal
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To: LibWhacker

10 posted on 04/08/2007 9:18:47 AM PDT by Rb ver. 2.0 (A day in the country is better than a week in town.)
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To: GeorgiaDawg32

You said: The machine, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), aims to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang, well, based on what they want to do, I’d say they’re off to a good start on a smaller scale..

My thought: Maybe that’s how the first one happened . Some scientists tried to reproduce the big bang and BANG. Every 15 billion years a reset button.


11 posted on 04/08/2007 9:19:02 AM PDT by free_for_now (No Dick Dale in the R&R HOF? - for shame!)
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To: LibWhacker
'Lessee, now. Was that pi are squared or pi are rounded?'
'Round, idiot! Cobbler are squared.'
'Righto, Ricky. Make that 3.0 even.
12 posted on 04/08/2007 9:20:51 AM PDT by Eastbound
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To: LibWhacker
Coincidentally, Fermilab stands to gain most from delays at Cern. Its researchers also operate a rival but less powerful particle accelerator, the Tevatron.

Fermilab staff are pushing the Tevatron to ever-higher energies hoping that they might find the Higgs boson before the LHC switches on. An LHC researcher said: “Ironically, this delay could be all they need.”

It's a conspiracy, but what are the girlie men in Europe going to do about it, have the UN send us a strongly worded letter?

13 posted on 04/08/2007 9:21:58 AM PDT by Moonman62 (The issue of whether cheap labor makes America great should have been settled by the Civil War.)
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To: LibWhacker
“We are dumb-founded that we missed some very simple balance of forces. Not only was it missed in the engineering design but also in the four engineering reviews carried out between 1998 and 2002 before launching the construction of the magnets.”
Pier Oddone, director of Fermilab

Good grief. An explosion in Europe's accelerator, and it's traced back to us.

14 posted on 04/08/2007 9:22:41 AM PDT by Barnacle (Happy Easter!)
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To: LibWhacker

PROFESSOR: WHAT HAPPEN?
ASSISTANT: WE SET UP US THE BOMB.


15 posted on 04/08/2007 9:23:11 AM PDT by RichInOC (YOU NOT KNOW WHAT YOU DOING. HA HA HA HA....)
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To: Eastbound

LOL


16 posted on 04/08/2007 9:24:04 AM PDT by Barnacle (Happy Easter!)
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To: NonValueAdded

Let’s see.......Magnets are used to simulate the effects of gravity, to direct the SAP and control their directional course, then, how in the Universe, does this simulate the Singularity from which at the time of the “Big Bang”, there was no gravity?

Questions, questions, certain things just require faith.


17 posted on 04/08/2007 9:26:51 AM PDT by PSYCHO-FREEP
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To: NonValueAdded

LOLOLOLOL. Spot on analysis.

(”Helium voices.” LOLOLOLOL)


18 posted on 04/08/2007 9:28:46 AM PDT by patton (19yrs ... only 4,981yrs to go ;))
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To: LibWhacker
Reminds me of this:
Units Blunder Sent Craft Into Martian Atmosphere: NASA
19 posted on 04/08/2007 9:29:46 AM PDT by michigander (The Constitution only guarantees the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.)
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To: Eastbound

d=y x X x


20 posted on 04/08/2007 9:30:28 AM PDT by Vaduz (and just think how clean the cities would become again.)
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