Wow, we are getting about 10 or so emails and comments a day about the LHC – most leading up to last night was how the world was going to end, and now they’re starting up again on how the world is going to end again in a month or so. I tend to think these people want the world to end.
Last night the first test of the LHC (the world’s largest refrigerator) went well it seems, here’s an overview from the BBC along with a cool screenshot of their control panel.
Scientists have hailed a successful switch-on for an enormous experiment which will recreate the conditions a few moments after the Big Bang. They have now fired two beams of particles called protons around the 27km-long tunnel which houses the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The £5bn machine on the Swiss-French border is designed to smash protons together with cataclysmic force. Scientists hope it will shed light on fundamental questions in physics. The first – clockwise – beam completed its first circuit of the underground tunnel at just before 0930 BST. The second – anti-clockwise – beam successfully circled the ring after 1400 BST.
20 thoughts on “‘Big Bang’ experiment starts well”
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People, empires, planets, solar systems, galaxies and universes come and go. Get used to it.
Can we, now we survived, make fun of that spanish scientist who claimed we we’re all going to die?
Frankly, time being effectively stopped instantly by a black hole would be a pretty nice way to go. Who can get hurt if time is at a standstill?
Pity it’s not going to happen anytime soon.
p.s. is there anything that KDE can’t do?
I’ve been watching for an LCH lolcat – nothing yet!
they have only accelerated both beams to full speed(energy)
so far, they haven’t collided a thing yet.
I am not worried. I run/maintain cyclotrons for a living, and there is a big 500MeV on site too.
actually I don’t believe they even accelerated them to full speed. I’m pretty sure the current first test was just sending the beams around the entire collider, but not at full speed.
The wikipedia article says that at full speed it will take less than 90 microseconds to travel the full circuit. In contrast, the first full circuit test took “less than one hour.”
So I there are a few articles out there saying that it would take 4 years to destroy the Earth with a black hole. 4 years from now would be 2012. Mayan calendar ends on December 21st 2012…hmmmmmmmm. Maybe I should apply for a bunch of credit cards and buy me tons of coke and lots of strippers. :)
Oh, and have you ever noticed how that picture of the LHC kinda looks like the Mayan calendar….you decide!
its nice effert to do something new bcoz every thing in the world have their own end time