Reports State that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Has Been Irreparably DamagedPosted on April 1, 2015 by Jolene Creighton in Technology
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Aerial view of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) ring and tunnel. (Image courtesy of the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN))QuoteIf you have been keeping up-to-date on the work that's being done at CERN with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), then you probably already know that the device was (with "was" being the operative word) slated to come back online last month (March, 2015). Unfortunately, things didn't exactly go as planned.
After taking two years off for scheduled maintenance, the LHC was supposed to resume its work several weeks ago. However, as physicist Je Plaisante, from the University of West Argenteuil notes, the 4,012,105 trillion dollar operation was brought to a halt by an error in measurement.
Ultimately, the previous LHC was 17 miles (27 km) in length; however, in order to make it really effective, scientists decided to increase the size of the device by 1.3 miles (2.09 km). Professor Yo Estoy Bromeando, from the University of Upper Gananda, notes that there was some miscommunication between the American and non-American scientists in relation to this upgrade.
To make a long story short, the mathematicians responsible for ensuring proper conversions failed in their calculations. In the end, the American scientists, who were entrusted with building the right side of the new section, created one that was 1.3 miles long (which is what the length was supposed to be). Yet, when this is converted into metric, the number is rather long (2.09215 km, to be exact). So the mathematicians just decided to round it. And due to some seriously faulty rounding, the non-American scientists (who were making the left side) made their section 3 km long (as opposed to the required 2.09).
Unfortunately, the error wasn't noted until the physicists went to put the new left-sided section in the ground. As they attempted to lower this section into place, they quickly realized their error, as they hadn't made a large enough hole, and (sadly) the new section was bent in half.
Right. In. Half.
This is unfortunate news, as the LHC is humanity's most powerful and expensive tool for investigating matter at a subatomic level.
Yet, scientists are not deterred. Yo Estoy Bromeando said that we do have some options: "I think that, together, people are capable of nearly anything. And I can throw really hard. So if I try, and maybe some people help me train, I'm confident that...eventually...I can hurl subatomic particles together fast enough to accomplish the exact same thing as the LHC. Additionally, I can see this being an excellent team building exercise. Nothing brings people together quite like a big bang simulation."
Of course, some were a bit skeptical of Bromeando's claims; however, when I asked him via email whether or not he thought that he really could throw protons fast enough, and with enough accuracy, that he could make them collide and, thereby, simulate the events that transpired shortly after the universe formed, he said that I had insulted him, and that we would have to engage in a rousing bout of fisticuffs in order to settle the matter.
So alas, I will have to cut this report short in order to prepare for my epic fight. Wish me well, kind friends.
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/reports-state-that-the-large-hadron-collider-lhc-has-been-irreperably-damaged/
CERN researchers confirm existence of the Force
Cian O'Luanaigh(http://home.web.cern.ch/sites/home.web.cern.ch/files/styles/medium/public/image/update-for_the_public/2015/03/light-sabre.jpg?itok=yroWnOi-)
QuoteResearchers at the Large Hadron Collider just recently started testing the accelerator for running at the higher energy of 13 TeV, and already they have found new insights into the fundamental structure of the universe. Though four fundamental forces – the strong force, the weak force, the electromagnetic force and gravity – have been well documented and confirmed in experiments over the years, CERN announced today the first unequivocal evidence for the Force. "Very impressive, this result is," said a diminutive green spokesperson for the laboratory.
(http://home.web.cern.ch/sites/home.web.cern.ch/files/image/inline-images/coluanai/force-library.jpg)
CERN librarian Tullio Basaglia has learnt to harness the Force to return reference books to their shelves (Image: Max Brice and Daniel Dominguez/CERN)
"The Force is what gives a particle physicist his powers," said CERN theorist Ben Kenobi of the University of Mos Eisley, Tatooine. "It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us; and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together."
Though researchers are as yet unsure what exactly causes the Force, students and professors at the laboratory have already started to harness its power. Practical applications so far include long-distance communication, influencing minds, and lifting heavy things out of swamps.
Kenobi says he first started teaching the ways of the Force to a young lady who was having trouble revising for her particle-physics exams. "She said that I was her only hope," says Kenobi. "So I just kinda took it from there. I designed an experiment to detect the Force, and passed on my knowledge."
Kenobi's seminal paper "May the Force be with EU" – a strong argument that his experiment should be built in Europe – persuaded the CERN Council to finance the installation of dozens of new R2 units for the CERN data centre*. These plucky little droids are helping physicists to cope with the flood of data from the laboratory's latest experiment, the Thermodynamic Injection Energy (TIE) detector, recently installed at the LHC.
"We're very pleased with this new addition to CERN's accelerator complex," said data analyst Luke Daniels of human-cyborg relations. "The TIE detector has provided us with plenty of action, and what's more it makes a really cool sound when the beams shoot out of it."
But the research community is divided over the discovery. Dark-matter researcher Dave Vader was unimpressed, breathing heavily in disgust throughout the press conference announcing the results, and dismissing the cosmological implications of the Force with the quip "Asteroids do not concern me".
Rumours are growing that this rogue researcher hopes to delve into the Dark Side of the Standard Model, and could even build his own research station some day. With the academic community split, many are tempted by Vader's invitations to study the Dark Side, especially researchers working with red lasers, and anyone really with an evil streak who looks good in dark robes.
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CERN physicist Valerio Rossetti harnesses the Force for more mundane tasks, such as reheating coffee (Image: Max Brice and Daniel Dominguez/CERN)
"We hope to continue to study the Force, and perhaps use it to open doors with our minds and fly around and stuff," said TIE experimentalist Fan Buoi. "Right now, to be honest, I don't really care how it works. The theory department have some crackpot idea about life forms called midi-chlorians, but frankly I think that poorly thought out explanations like that just detract from how cool the Force really is."
With the research ongoing, many at CERN are already predicting that the Force will awaken later this year.
*Sources close to the Data Centre later revealed that these were not the droids they were looking for.
http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2015/04/cern-researchers-confirm-existence-force
Physicists Warming Up the LHC Accidentally Create a Rainbow Universe(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/cms-inner-tracker-barrel1.jpg)
An inside look at the LHC's CMS detectorQuoteAfter two years of extensive upgrades, the Large Hadron Collider was warming up on March 21 for another round of experiments when a circuit controlling one of its massive magnets shorted out. Dismayed, scientists began repairing the equipment, hoping for a short delay. Just yesterday, CERN announced that the LHC could restart within days.
Then the unexpected happened. As physicists were testing the repairs by zipping a few spare protons around the 17 mile loop, the CMS detector picked up something unusual. The team feverishly pored over the data, and ultimately came to an unlikely conclusion—in their tests, they had accidentally created a rainbow universe.
"Rainbow universes were pure speculation before this happened," said Jessica Czerniski, the CERN physicist who was overseeing the warm-up procedures. "We had some solid math backing us up, of course, but none of us ever dreamed we would live to see this day."
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A visualization of the data captured by the CMS detectorQuoteFirst proposed back in the early 2000s, the theory of rainbow gravity posits that different wavelengths of light are affected by gravity in different ways. Rainbow universes are thought to be a natural result of rainbow gravity, but with the peculiar qualities of not having distinct beginnings. In other words, rainbow universes have been around since forever, which has physicists stumped over the "creation" at the LHC.
"When I first saw the paper posted on the arXiv [a site for scholarly publications], I almost spit out my coffee," said Randall Pattinson, a professor of physics at the Princeton University. "Rainbow gravity has some real physics behind it, but actually seeing evidence of it? It's like finding an original edition Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper that your daughter wanted for her birthday. It's almost too good to be true."
Technicians close to the CMS detector reported hearing a loud noise, something of a cross between screeching metal and tearing cloth. In a thick haze that hung over the magnet, initially thought to be smoke from the short circuit, they saw a shimmering halo that spanned the full spectrum of visible light which vanished after a few seconds. Scientists studying the CMS data later confirmed the anomaly lasted for about 2.6 seconds.
Czerniski and her team would like to repeat the conditions that led to the appearance of the rainbow universe, though only after carefully analyzing the current CMS data. "We'd like to ensure that there aren't any unanticipated consequences from attempting to create a more stable version of the rainbow universe," she said, acknowledging that CERN is aware of the public's concerns over its experiments. (When the LHC was first started, some people feared the powerful accelerator would create a black hole here on Earth.)
QuoteAmong the curiosities Czerniski and her colleagues need to sort out is an artifact in the data that, when recreated in three-dimensions, appears to be the ghostly outline of a dolphin. At first they thought it was merely the computer's desktop wallpaper bleeding through a transparent window, but after confirming the terminal's settings, they dove deeper into the data. Subsequent analysis suggested the apparition is real as it registered at five sigma.
Should the CERN team be successful in creating another rainbow universe, proof of a rainbow gravity could force physicists to rethink the origins of the universe—the Big Bang theory, for example, would likely be thrown out. But such a confirmation could also finally bridge general relativity with quantum mechanics.
"We're literally on the edge of our seats," Czerniski said. "If this pans out, maybe we'll finally be able to convince the international community to build the space-based particle accelerator we've been hoping for. There's a perfect spot on the International Space Station for it—right next to the dolphin module that was installed last year."
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/physics/lhc-accidental-rainbow-universe/
So what do those three stories have in common?
They were all published APRIL 1ST
They all were shared on Facebook where many people actually believed they were real stories
Update 2 April 2015: Enjoy our April fool? But seriously folks, this week CERN is busy with restarting the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2015/04/cern-researchers-confirm-existence-force
NOVA Next April Fools' Headline Generator
Have a little fun yourself with our April Fools' headline generator, which uses words and phrases pulled from real NOVA Next headlines. Stumble upon one you like? Share it with your friends.
Forensic Linguistics Predicts Circadian Clocks — Bonanza or Boondoggle?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/physics/lhc-accidental-rainbow-universe/
Seems there is more fake news these days than real news... getting impossible to sort it all out even when you expect it on April 1st :P
I am surprised that the L.H.C had actually been running since 2008 about 6 1/2 years ago.
The LHC went live on 10 September 2008
Then they have taken 2 yrs off to maintain it which I had not realized..
It only seems a few yrs (within 3 )ago to me that I recall it going live..cant believe how time flies.
It may be quite a issue if they have had to maintain it for so long in a relatively short time..
but its a HUGE project and something very new and uncertain..so I suspect they will have many teething problems..
QuoteAfter taking two years off for scheduled maintenance, the LHC was supposed to resume its work several weeks ago.
4,012,105 trillion :o I can only try to envision figures in the Millions...so How many million would that be I wonder ?
QuoteHowever, as physicist Je Plaisante, from the University of West Argenteuil notes, the 4,012,105 trillion dollar operation was brought to a halt by an error in measurement.
A little knowledge helps detecting jokes like these, as the names from the first article (physicist Je Plaisante and Professor Yo Estoy Bromeando) mean "I'm joking". The second article is full of names from Star Wars.
PS: The LHC cost was, according to this page (http://askanexpert.web.cern.ch/AskAnExpert/en/Accelerators/LHCgeneral-en.html#3), around 7 billion Swiss Francs, with a billion meaning 1 thousand million (and not the non-American meaning of 1 million millions).
Can see some ref to Star Wars Names etc, but Not as yet fully caught on, but is that to say you believe that the article details / Names are misleading info ?.
QuoteA little knowledge helps detecting jokes like these, as the names from the first article (physicist Je Plaisante and Professor Yo Estoy Bromeando) mean "I'm joking". The second article is full of names from Star Wars.
Tried a Conversion to $US and it came up with this..
7 billion swiss francs in $US
7000000000 Swiss Franc equals
7305402650.00 US Dollar
The Billion Number is always an issue to me..wondering if its a US or UK version..
and I am not sure for certain if it does convert to the correct one...
but it does not seem to match with the figures below as I understand IMO..
Im guessing that the figure below is about..
4 Million Trillion
The Article that you refer to as it being 7 Billion Swiss Francs..shows a break down of various costs involved..I assumed you estimated the total costs.
I THINK that it may be very hard to say what the costs are depending upon how we define certain things..There is the initial costs of producing the LHC.. then many various other costs involved as well as continual costs in running it each year..
QuoteThe cost for the machine alone is about 4.6 billion CHF (about 3 billion Euro). The total project cost breaks down roughly as follows:
} 4.6 billion CHF total cost of the accelerator
} 1.1 billion CHF total CERN contribution to the experiments (about 20% of the detector costs, supported by large collaborations of institutes worldwide)
} 0.26 billion CHF total contribution to computing (manpower and materials and both CERN's and external contributions).
The experimental collaborations are individual entities, funded independently from CERN. CERN is a member of each experiment, and contributes to the budget of CMS and LHCb at the 20% level, 16% for ALICE and 13% for ATLAS. TOTEM is a much smaller experiment, with a total material cost of about 6.5 million CHF. The CERN share of this is, however, 30%.
NB: 1 billion = 1 thousand million.
Wikapeadas Version of costs involved.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider
QuoteCost[edit]
See also: List of megaprojects
With a budget of 7.5 billion euros (approx. $9bn or £6.19bn as of June 2010), the LHC is one of the most expensive scientific instruments[97] ever built.[98] The total cost of the project is expected to be of the order of 4.6bn Swiss francs (SFr) (approx. $4.4bn, €3.1bn, or £2.8bn as of Jan 2010) for the accelerator and 1.16bn (SFr) (approx. $1.1bn, €0.8bn, or £0.7bn as of Jan 2010) for the CERN contribution to the experiments.[99]
The construction of LHC was approved in 1995 with a budget of SFr 2.6bn, with another SFr 210M towards the experiments. However, cost overruns, estimated in a major review in 2001 at around SFr 480M for the accelerator, and SFr 50M for the experiments, along with a reduction in CERN's budget, pushed the completion date from 2005 to April 2007.[100] The superconducting magnets were responsible for SFr 180M of the cost increase. There were also further costs and delays due to engineering difficulties encountered while building the underground cavern for the Compact Muon Solenoid,[101] and also due to faulty parts provided by Fermilab.[102] Due to lower electricity costs during the summer, the LHC normally does not operate over the winter months,[103] although an exception over the 2009/10 winter was made to make up for the 2008 start-up delays.
Quote4,012,105 trillion
QuotePS: The LHC cost was, according to this page, around 7 billion Swiss Francs, with a billion meaning 1 thousand million (and not the non-American meaning of 1 million millions).
4,012,105 trillion
Probably something wrong with that number - would be pretty sure we are not talking about 4 million trillion dollars - maybe should be 4 trillion dollars. Nope not that either - here is a screen grab of the cost question: so, $6.4 billion +.
6. How much does it cost, and who's paying for it?
The Large Hadron Collider is nearly 30 years in the making - and costs the member countries of CERN and other participating countries an estimated €4.6 billion (about US$ 6.4 billion). Like those late night infomercials, however, we can say "but that's not all!" Extra things like detectors, computing capacity, and extra warranty (just kidding!) cost an extra €1.43 billion.
The United Kingdom, for example, contributes £34 million per year, less than the cost of a pint of beer per adult in the country per year (Source).
The United States contributed approximately $531 million to the development and construction of components for the LHC (with the US Department of Energy shelling out $450 million and the National Science Foundation kicking in the remaining $81 million).
Quote from: astr0144 on April 06, 2015, 09:58:59 PM
Can see some ref to Star Wars Names etc, but Not as yet fully caught on, but is that to say you believe that the article details / Names are misleading info ?.
What I'm saying is that the articles from April 1 were jokes.
People that work in CERN are not the stereotype boring scientist that sees only the subject he/she works with, do you know they made a zombie movie?
Most Excellent photos, thank you Z.