Large Hadron Collider back up and running

[Chris]

GENEVA (Reuters) - After a year's delay, scientists at the world's biggest accelerator have restarted an experiment to recreate "Big Bang" conditions that had sparked suggestions the earth would be sucked in by millions of black holes.

Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) have established circulating particle beams in both directions in the underground Large Hadron Collider, a step that is already beyond where the experiment stalled during a first attempt in September 2008, CERN spokesman James Gillies said.

The high-profile experiment, through which tiny particles are smashed in a bid to learn more about the birth of the universe, failed just nine days after it was launched due to a technical problem that took longer than expected to fix.

"We are further advanced now than where we were after five days of experiment last year," said CERN's Director for Accelerators Steve Myers, saying the extra year had allowed researchers to upgrade instrumentations and computer software.

Big Bang experiment advancing fast | U.S. | Reuters

 

[Screaming Eagle]

I never understood the panic. How can two subatomic particle colliding cause the whole planet to be sucked into a black hole? Don't particles collide all the time?

 

[California Girl]

I love this: Science and Rap!!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM[/ame]

 

[52ndStreet]

GENEVA (Reuters) - After a year's delay, scientists at the world's biggest accelerator have restarted an experiment to recreate "Big Bang" conditions that had sparked suggestions the earth would be sucked in by millions of black holes.

Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) have established circulating particle beams in both directions in the underground Large Hadron Collider, a step that is already beyond where the experiment stalled during a first attempt in September 2008, CERN spokesman James Gillies said.

The high-profile experiment, through which tiny particles are smashed in a bid to learn more about the birth of the universe, failed just nine days after it was launched due to a technical problem that took longer than expected to fix.

"We are further advanced now than where we were after five days of experiment last year," said CERN's Director for Accelerators Steve Myers, saying the extra year had allowed researchers to upgrade instrumentations and computer software.

Big Bang experiment advancing fast | U.S. | Reuters

Another White mans Toy. Just another big waste of money, while people in the third world countries starve, and die of thirst for lack of clean drinking water.!
Great work Mr. White Scientist. I hope that destroyer particle is not released?.!

 

[Polk]

I feel like this is the perfect time to link to this wonderful article:
Might Higgs boson be a time-traveling ne'er do well out to destroy the LHC? -- Engadget

 

[Mr. H.]

We're next.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wVEhafuF7A[/ame]

 

[Mr. H.]

Hadron- a dyslexic's hardon.

 

[Mr. H.]

Humming right along:

CERN: Big Bang machine sets power record

GENEVA – Scientists say the world's largest atom smasher has broken the record for proton acceleration, sending beams of the particles at 1.18 trillion electron volts.

A statement by the European Organization for Nuclear Research says the Large Hadron Collider eclipses the previous high, which was just short of 1 Tev at Fermilab outside Chicago.

The latest success Monday at the LHC is part of the preparation to go much higher for significant experiments to start next year on the makeup of matter and the universe.

It comes on top of a rapid series of operating advances of the machine, which underwent extensive repairs and improvements after it collapsed during the opening phase last year.

 

[Mr. H.]

Hats off to Hadron...

Big Bang particle discovery closer: scientists - Yahoo! News

GENEVA (Reuters) - Physicists investigating the make-up of the universe are closing in on the Higgs boson, an elusive particle thought to have been key to turning debris from the Big Bang into stars, planets and finally life, scientists said on Tuesday.

 

[waltky]

LHC can be 'biggest rain meter'...

Large Hadron Collider can be 'world's biggest rain meter'
Wed, 20 Apr 2016 - The world's most powerful particle accelerator, it could also be its biggest rain meter.

The LHC is not just the world's most powerful particle accelerator, it could also be its biggest rain meter, scientists say. They are investigating tiny changes in the length of the collider's 27km-circumference ring, which occur on a daily and a seasonal basis. The short cycle is explained by normal tidal forces. But the winter-summer pattern which affects the huge underground facility is not so obvious.

Except researchers think they can now show that winter rain and snow is gravitationally pulling on the ring. "My hypothesis is that in winter there's a lot more water in the ground, and even snow sitting on the ground. So, basically, this mass pulls on the ring. And when that extra mass melts away and evaporates away in summer - the ring stretches a bit," said Rolf Hut from Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.

If that's true, you could use the LHC to study precipitation and other aspects of hydrology - not just the secrets of the Universe. "I can make a rain gauge out of anything," said Dr Hut. He was speaking here at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly.

Space sensors

 

[waltky]

Was it a blip, or a breakthrough?...

Physicists abuzz about possible new particle as CERN revs up
May 2,`16 -- Scientists around the globe are revved up with excitement as the world's biggest atom smasher - best known for revealing the Higgs boson four years ago - starts whirring again to churn out data that may confirm cautious hints of an entirely new particle.

Such a discovery would all but upend the most basic understanding of physics, experts say. The European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN by its French-language acronym, has in recent months given more oomph to the machinery in a 27-kilometer (17-mile) underground circuit along the French-Swiss border known as the Large Hadron Collider. In a surprise development in December, two separate LHC detectors each turned up faint signs that could indicate a new particle, and since then theorizing has been rife. "It's a hint at a possible discovery," said theoretical physicist Csaba Csaki, who isn't involved in the experiments. "If this is really true, then it would possibly be the most exciting thing that I have seen in particle physics in my career - more exciting than the discovery of the Higgs itself."

After a wintertime break, the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, reopened on March 25 to prepare for a restart in early May. CERN scientists are doing safety tests and scrubbing clean the pipes before slamming together large bundles of particles in hopes of producing enough data to clear up that mystery. Firm answers aren't expected for weeks, if not until an August conference of physicists in Chicago known as ICHEP.

On Friday, the LHC was temporarily immobilized by a weasel, which invaded a transformer that helps power the machine and set off an electrical outage. CERN says it was one of a few small glitches that will delay by a few days plans to start the data collection at the $4.4 billion collider. The 2012 confirmation of the Higgs boson, dubbed the "God particle" by some laypeople, culminated a theory first floated decades earlier. The "Higgs" rounded out the Standard Model of physics, which aims to explain how the universe is structured at the infinitesimal level.

The unprecedented power of the LHC has turned physics on its head in recent years. Whereas theorists once predicted behaviors that experimentalists would test in the lab, the vast energy being pumped into CERN's collider means scientists are now seeing results for which there isn't yet a theoretical explanation. "This particle - if it's real - it would be something totally unexpected that tells us we're missing something interesting," he said.

MORE

 

[Iceweasel]

I hope this thing is sporting a Green Energy sticker. Sounds like it's really makes the utility meter spin around. I'd sure hate to see some hypocrisy about it from the global warming crowd.