Posted on 03/30/2010 4:10:05 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Problems with the Large Hadron Collider delayed scientists seeking to collide the first beams of protons in an attempt to learn more about the makeup of the universe and its smallest particles.
Dubbed the world's largest scientific experiment, the giant atom smasher holds the promise of revealing details about theoretical particles and microforces, scientists say.
But initial attempts on Tuesday were unsuccessful because problems developed with the beams, said scientists working on the massive machine.
That meant that the protons had to be "dumped" from the collider and new beams had to be injected.
"It's a very complicated machine and we have ups and downs," said Michael Barnett of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "Right now we have a down."
Two beams of protons began 10 days ago to speed at high energy in opposite directions around the 27-kilometer (17-mile) tunnel under the Swiss-French border at Geneva.
The beams were pushed to 3.5 trillion electron volts in recent days, the highest energy achieved by any physics accelerator — some three times greater than the previous record.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, is trying to use the powerful superconducting magnets to force the two beams to cross, creating collisions and showers of particles.
They could have been successful immediately, but such huge machines can be so tricky to run that it could take days.
When collisions become routine, the beams will be packed with hundreds of billions of protons, but the particles are so tiny that few will collide at each crossing.
Steve Myers, CERN's director for accelerators and technology, describes the challenge of lining up the beams as being akin to "firing needles across the Atlantic and getting them to collide half way."
He said the problems on
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
High energy collisions? They should come to our town on a Saturday night if they want to witness collisions ....
It was previously disabled by a bird dropping a hunk of bread on some part of the system, causing it to overheat.
it’s very bad to cross the beams.
There was a blog report the other day that it destroyed all life on earth but I haven’t seen a follow up.
How long they been working on this Rube Goldberg contraption? Imagine the number of F-22 planes they could build with the cash they dumped into this money pit.
High Energy Physics like this is actually a good investment in many ways. To better understand the nature of matter, gives us better machines.
Rumor has it that bird was...from the future...
*****”It’s a very complicated machine and we have ups and downs,” said Michael Barnett of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. “Right now we have a down”*****
I’m thinking *up* will be Pompeii and Vesuvius!!!!!
Is firing up this collider a “green” thing to do?
Maybe a black hole will swallow up the administration
Large Wish-It-Had-Run Kaleidoscope hits problems as scientists bid to start high energy collisions between paintballs using streams of hot air
I bet it’s that damned time traveling pigeon again. As soon as they get rid of him, there he is, back again.
For some jobs, only the big trowel will do.
Where is that?
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