LHC First Success

[Spunky]

Mason Inman
for National Geographic News
September 10, 2008

The world's largest atom smasher's first experiment went off today without a hitch, paving the way toward the recreation of post-big bang conditions.

The Large Hadron Collider fired a beam of protons inside a circular, 17-mile (27-kilometer) long tunnel underneath villages and cow pastures at the French-Swiss border.

Inside the control room, physicists and engineers cautiously shot the beam down part of the tunnel, stopping it before it went all the way around. "Oh, we made it through!" one person cried as the beam made it through a further section of the tunnel.

One hour after starting up, on the first attempt to send the beam circling all the way around the tunnel, it completed the trip successfully—bringing raucous applause.

"First of all, I didn't believe it," said Verena Kain, a European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) engineer.

"I had to see it a second time, and I thought, Oh, wow, it actually worked!"

"Things can go wrong at any time, but luckily this morning everything went smoothly," said Lyn Evans of CERN, who oversaw the building of the accelerator.

Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080910-collider-success.html

 

[Damaera]

Hello? ...hello? I'm still here?

That's good though, I'm actually kind of happy that we're discovering more stuff.

 

[Spunky]

http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/

 

[KarrdeKNR]

Once again, science does it right, and coporations will find a way to cash in on it and ruin it Also, lol at the link.

 

[Brosiris]

http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/

I love it.

 

[-Origin]

So.. without the technical mumbo jumbo, can anyone explain to me exactly what this thing does? I know the whole colliding story and I know what they're trying to recreate, basically. But to what end can we use this technology? Any news on that? How are we going to put the knowledge we gain from this to use, I mean?

EDIT:

Oh, and.

"First of all, I didn't believe it," said Verena Kain, a European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) engineer.

"I had to see it a second time, and I thought, Oh, wow, it actually worked!"

Fat lol.

 

[Brosiris]

Eventually, CERN scientists hope to confirm — or potentially invalidate — fundamental assumptions about the physical world. By smashing tiny bits of matter together from opposite sides of this massive complex, they expect to glean a bounty of data from the resulting debris. Of particular interest is the potential observation of the sensationally termed "God particle," more accurately referred to as the Higgs boson: a hypothetical elementary particle predicted to exist by modern physics that could help explain how matter was created.

It's an experiment to see how matter is created. I.E They're trying to approve or disprove the Big Bang Theory.

 

[Deman]

I too, was amused at the quotes of surprise. Should you really be that surprised something that cost a lot of money to make actually worked?

 

[Spunky]

Should you really be that surprised something that cost a lot of money to make actually worked?

Really depends on the thing. That said, um, yes?

 

[Brosiris]

I too, was amused at the quotes of surprise. Should you really be that surprised something that cost a lot of money to make actually worked?

Generally when you try something for the first time, regardless how much it costs, something is bound to go wrong. Look at NASA. They've had space ships explode mid-flight and they cost millions upon millions of dollars.

Though I agree with you, it's for an entirely different reason. All they did was take a big machine, and pass atoms through a giant tube. That's nothing to be awe struck over. Now, had they actually done something like gathered data relevant to the big bang, or some phenomena we haven't seen before, yes, I could see where some "holy ****" moments were in order.

 

[SS4 Gogeta]

http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/

well not yet anyway http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/07/world-to-end-wednesday/

 

[Deman]

Generally when you try something for the first time, regardless how much it costs, something is bound to go wrong. Look at NASA. They've had space ships explode mid-flight and they cost millions upon millions of dollars.

Though I agree with you, it's for an entirely different reason. All they did was take a big machine, and pass atoms through a giant tube. That's nothing to be awe struck over. Now, had they actually done something like gathered data relevant to the big bang, or some phenomena we haven't seen before, yes, I could see where some "holy ****" moments were in order.

True. Now I recall hearing the real tests come in October. They've probably made sure to give themselves a month to get everything set up correctly.

 

[-Origin]

Eventually, CERN scientists hope to confirm — or potentially invalidate — fundamental assumptions about the physical world. By smashing tiny bits of matter together from opposite sides of this massive complex, they expect to glean a bounty of data from the resulting debris. Of particular interest is the potential observation of the sensationally termed "God particle," more accurately referred to as the Higgs boson: a hypothetical elementary particle predicted to exist by modern physics that could help explain how matter was created.

It's an experiment to see how matter is created. I.E They're trying to approve or disprove the Big Bang Theory.

*hugs*

Awesomesauce, thanks.

 

[SS4 Gogeta]

Lol leave it to Google to set the theme.

 

[Enix]

I don't see the big deal, this doesn't really put anyone's fears aside yet. This just means that this machine can do the basic function it was designed to do. The problem comes when they start collision testing...

and yea, big lol at the "OMG IT ACTUALLY WORKED!" from one of its engineers ...That makes me feel sooo safe knowing that the minds behind a machine that can potentially create earth-sucking black holes are surprised it's basic function works. So the whole particle collision process with this machine must be a sure thing...

 

[Spunky]

That was just a few engineers from what I know. The rest are like, "Yeah, that was cool, now bring on the Big Bang, *****."

 

[Majin_You]

So.. without the technical mumbo jumbo, can anyone explain to me exactly what this thing does? I know the whole colliding story and I know what they're trying to recreate, basically. But to what end can we use this technology? Any news on that? How are we going to put the knowledge we gain from this to use, I mean?

In a nutshell? One of the biggest answers they are trying to find with the LHC is one that addresses the question of how essentially massless particles can combine to form elementary particles that have mass (like protons and neutrons). It is believed that proving the existence of a "Higgs Boson" would explain that missing link.

Another big point, if I'm not mistaken, is that the discovery of the Higgs Boson would also help prove the Grand Unification Theory, as well as give scientists insight into what might constitute dark matter and dark energy.

That's putting it all fairly lightly, mostly because, past Newtonian physics, I'm about as much of a physics layman as one can be.

 

[Almighty_Gir]

i believe that it will also help with working on the "theory of everything".

in so much as, at the moment gravity is a much less prevalent force than electronuclear force. but it's commonly believed that before/at the time of the big bang, they were equal. the theory of everything tries to unify the two forces.

see here

 

[Tenzo]

I'm looking forward to see what will happen with the experiment!

 

[Raven]

Don'T worry our Man is already in place ;-)