The giant atom-smasher experiment

MrBrianMrBrian Posts: 2,672
edited August 2008 in A Moving Train
By Sean Patrick Sullivan, The Canadian Press


VANCOUVER - Canadian scientists at the forefront of the world's largest science experiment say discoveries made by a giant atom-smasher now whirring deep under European soil could radically alter our understanding of the universe.

In experiments beginning next month, the $10-billion Large Hadron Collider will re-create what happened in the split second after the Big Bang, mind-bending science that may shatter existing theories of physics and prompt the discovery of new particles and unknown dimensions

"We're on the edge of a major breakthrough in understanding the universe," Lockyer said in an interview at TRIUMF's sprawling compound at the university.

This breakthrough may come from this massive experiment 100 metres under the French-Swiss border, where the particle accelerator essentially lets scientists smash parts of atoms together at blinding speed and study the resulting mess.

The world's largest scientific instrument will use unprecedented amounts of energy to shoot two clouds of protons, with trillions of the particles in each cloud, around a 27-kilometre long circular tube.


The clouds collide at almost the speed of light, blowing the protons to smithereens and - ideally - offering a treasure trove of discoveries.


"We'll know what's out there. We'll know what to do for the rest of our lives," said Isabel Trigger, lead scientist for TRIUMF's contribution to the project.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080823/national/god_particle_1

I love this part
---
It's different than any particle we've seen so far. If it doesn't exist, all of our theories of physics start to break," said McPherson, also with ATLAS-Canada.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments

  • CosmoCosmo Posts: 12,225
    I hope they don't create a Black Hole... that would suck.
    Allen Fieldhouse, home of the 2008 NCAA men's Basketball Champions! Go Jayhawks!
    Hail, Hail!!!
  • i thought they already fired it up? i was sure our world would end, too, but its seems i was wrong.
  • bernmodibernmodi Posts: 631
    The experiment is exciting. I just wish I had the intellectual capacity to fully understand what's going on there...
  • CollinCollin Posts: 4,931
    Sweet!
    THANK YOU, LOSTDAWG!


    naděje umírá poslední
  • hailhailkchailhailkc Posts: 582
    Cosmo wrote:
    I hope they don't create a Black Hole... that would suck.

    Well done...well done...
    MOSSAD NATO Alphabet Stations (E10)
    High Traffic ART EZI FTJ JSR KPA PCD SYN ULX VLB YHF
    Low Traffic CIO MIW
    Non Traffic ABC BAY FDU GBZ HNC NDP OEM ROV TMS ZWL
  • MrBrianMrBrian Posts: 2,672
    Cosmo wrote:
    I hope they don't create a Black Hole... that would suck.

    LMAO! Yes it would suck
    (Article)

    A Hawaii man with a background in nuclear physics is asking a court to stop scientists before they destroy us all. Walter F. Wagner and his colleague Luis Sancho really have filed a federal lawsuit, which you can read on the link, in order to stop work on the Large Hadron Collider, on the Franco-Swiss border, a giant atom smasher set to start operating in May.

    The plaintiffs’ concerns are that the LHC could accidentally create strange new particles instantly transforming any matter they touched making a rapidly expanding black hole that would consume the entire Earth. That can’t be good. The lawsuit reads-

    http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/stop-the-scientists-lawsuit-huge-atom-smasher-could-destroy-worldy
  • MrBrianMrBrian Posts: 2,672
    bernmodi wrote:
    The experiment is exciting. I just wish I had the intellectual capacity to fully understand what's going on there...

    -How the Large Hadron Collider Works

    http://science.howstuffworks.com/large-hadron-collider.htm

    Enjoy!
  • MrBrianMrBrian Posts: 2,672
    It's going down this week. Get ready!

    http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080907/atom_smasher_080907/20080907?hub=World&s_name=

    Does Big foot really exist? will they ever find a cure for hair loss? what came first, the chicken or the egg? We will know soon enough.
  • pirlo21pirlo21 Posts: 534
    It's happening tomorrow I think!

    If they're re-creating the big bang, what if they creat another 'mini' universe?!!

    Creepy!
    Cymru Am Byth

    PJ albums, at the moment!! -
    1,Vs 2,Vitalogy 3,No Code 4,Yield 5,Ten 6,Backspacer, 7Pearl Jam 8,Binaural 9,Riot Act.
  • Pacomc79Pacomc79 Posts: 9,404
    this is one of the most interesting groundbreaking scientific happenings in years.

    http://fe7.news.re3.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080907/ap_on_re_eu/big_bang_machine

    apparently there is a youtube rap about this?
    My Girlfriend said to me..."How many guitars do you need?" and I replied...."How many pairs of shoes do you need?" She got really quiet.
  • mohomoho Posts: 541
    Why isn't Palin telling us the world's going to end this week? It would probably clock up some votes. ;)

    This is very exciting, they may find out what exactly Dark Matter is and therefore do something with it..... Like i dunno what because it all goes way way way over my head but it's still interesting! :D
    JUST PLAY THE F***ING NOTE!!!
  • it's between Obamas' ears....and it's sucking in gulible human beings at an astronomic rate!
    _____________________

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    - Benjamin Franklin

    If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.
    -Will Rogers
    _____________________
  • well i woke up this morning and i'm still here. thats good i think.
  • MrBrianMrBrian Posts: 2,672
    http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080910/world/big_bang_1

    GENEVA - Scientists at the world's largest particle collider have fired the first protons into a 27-kilometre-long tunnel in science's next great step to understand the makeup of the universe.


    Project leader Lyn Evans gave the go-ahead to send the protons into the accelerator below the Swiss-French border early Wednesday. The $3.8 billion Large Hadron Collider was under construction since 2003.


    Scientists hope it will provide the necessary power to smash the components of atoms so that they can see how they are made.


    The startup has been eagerly awaited by 9,000 physicists around the world who will conduct experiments at the Swiss facility.


    Some skeptics have said they fear the collisions of protons could eventually imperil Earth
    ----
  • MrBrianMrBrian Posts: 2,672
    "There are two emotions, the pleasure of completing a great task and the hope of great discoveries ahead of us," said CERN Director General Robert Aymar.


    The giant accelerator's first task is to send a particle beam in one direction around its 27-km (17-mile) circumference, and then one in the other direction to test if the path is clear.


    In the coming weeks beams will be sent in both directions simultaneously to create high-speed collisions.


    Scientists around the world are eagerly anticipating data on those minuscule crashes. One possibility is that they will cause the creation of matter -- proving correct the theory that there exists a "Higgs Boson" that gives matter its mass.


    Doomsday writers have also fanned fears that the experiment could create anti-matter, or black holes, spurring unprecedented public interest in particle physics ahead of the machine's start-up. CERN has insisted that such concerns are unfounded and that the Large Hadron Collider is safe.

    http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/080910/n_science_reuters/science_science_cern_dc_5
  • NevermindNevermind Posts: 1,006
    Im fuckingg dissapointed that we didnt all get sucked up in a black hole.
  • What time will they fire this puppy up? After all the lead up, I think I'll be disappointed if nothing cataclysmic happens. Minimally, I demand a cow be sucked into oblivion.

    I wonder if my UNICEF meeting this evening will be redundant... ;)
  • sourdough wrote:
    What time will they fire this puppy up? After all the lead up, I think I'll be disappointed if nothing cataclysmic happens. Minimally, I demand a cow be sucked into oblivion.

    I wonder if my UNICEF meeting this evening will be redundant... ;)
    they dont perform the real experiment until next month. today was just a test.

    test 1: spin a proton (or photon or whatever it is) counterclockwise
    test2: spin a proton (or photon or whatever it is) clockwise
    world destroying experiment: do both at the same time and smash them into each other.
  • JonnyPistachioJonnyPistachio Florida Posts: 10,219
    I woke up this morning and felt an intense pulling feeling and thought OH MY GOD THE BLACK HOLE EXPERIMENT IS SUCKING ME IN!

    Then I realized I just had to poop.
    Pick up my debut novel here on amazon: Jonny Bails Floatin (in paperback) (also available on Kindle for $2.99)
  • CosmoCosmo Posts: 12,225
    You know what would be really amazing?
    If it occurs and life is created as a result.
    Allen Fieldhouse, home of the 2008 NCAA men's Basketball Champions! Go Jayhawks!
    Hail, Hail!!!
  • mammasanmammasan Posts: 5,656
    The LHC was fired up today but the actually mini Big band will not occur for another month. So we still have some time before the black holes start pulling us into the event horizon.
    "When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads." - Ron Paul
  • mammasanmammasan Posts: 5,656
    Being sucked into a black hole sounds like a really shitty way to die after what I just read. Below is a description of the theory of Spaghettification.

    "An object in any very strong gravitational field feels a tidal force stretching it in the direction of the object generating the gravitational field. This is because the inverse square law causes nearer parts of the stretched object to feel a stronger attraction than farther parts. Near black holes, the tidal force is expected to be strong enough to deform any object falling into it, even atoms or composite nucleons; this is called spaghettification. The process of spaghettification is as follows. First, the object that is falling into the black hole splits in two. Then the two pieces each split themselves, rendering a total of four pieces. Then the four pieces split to form eight. This process of bifurcation continues up to and past the point in which the split-up pieces of the original object are at the order of magnitude of the constituents of atoms. At the end of the spaghettification process, the object is a string of elementary particles."
    "When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads." - Ron Paul
  • CosmoCosmo Posts: 12,225
    mammasan wrote:
    Being sucked into a black hole sounds like a really shitty way to die after what I just read. Below is a description of the theory of Spaghettification.

    "An object in any very strong gravitational field feels a tidal force stretching it in the direction of the object generating the gravitational field. This is because the inverse square law causes nearer parts of the stretched object to feel a stronger attraction than farther parts. Near black holes, the tidal force is expected to be strong enough to deform any object falling into it, even atoms or composite nucleons; this is called spaghettification. The process of spaghettification is as follows. First, the object that is falling into the black hole splits in two. Then the two pieces each split themselves, rendering a total of four pieces. Then the four pieces split to form eight. This process of bifurcation continues up to and past the point in which the split-up pieces of the original object are at the order of magnitude of the constituents of atoms. At the end of the spaghettification process, the object is a string of elementary particles."
    ...
    Not to worry... we'd all be long dead way before that as the atmosphere is sucked off the planet.
    Allen Fieldhouse, home of the 2008 NCAA men's Basketball Champions! Go Jayhawks!
    Hail, Hail!!!
  • mammasanmammasan Posts: 5,656
    Cosmo wrote:
    ...
    Not to worry... we'd all be long dead way before that as the atmosphere is sucked off the planet.

    Well that's better.
    "When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads." - Ron Paul
  • well at least we wont have to deal with this election shit anymore.
  • CosmoCosmo Posts: 12,225
    Also...
    Where does all that shit go? Where will everything on the planet... and the planet itself... go when it's sucked in?
    Allen Fieldhouse, home of the 2008 NCAA men's Basketball Champions! Go Jayhawks!
    Hail, Hail!!!
  • mammasanmammasan Posts: 5,656
    Cosmo wrote:
    Also...
    Where does all that shit go? Where will everything on the planet... and the planet itself... go when it's sucked in?

    Don't know if this answers your question but it's all I could find.

    Before the falling object crosses the event horizon
    An object in a gravitational field experiences a slowing down of time, called gravitational time dilation, relative to observers outside the field. The outside observer will see that physical processes in the object, including clocks, appear to run slowly. As a test object approaches the event horizon, its gravitational time dilation (as measured by an observer far from the hole) would approach infinity. Its time would appear to be stopped.
    From the viewpoint of a distant observer, an object falling into a black hole appears to slow down, approaching but never quite reaching the event horizon: and it appears to become redder and dimmer, because of the extreme gravitational red shift caused by the gravity of the black hole. Eventually, the falling object becomes so dim that it can no longer be seen, at a point just before it reaches the event horizon. All of this is a consequence of time dilation: the object's movement is one of the processes that appear to run slower and slower, and the time dilation effect is more significant than the acceleration due to gravity; the frequency of light from the object appears to decrease, making it look redder, because the light appears to complete fewer cycles per "tick" of the observer's clock; lower-frequency light has less energy and therefore appears dimmer, as well as redder.
    From the viewpoint of the falling object, distant objects generally appear blue-shifted due to the gravitational field of the black hole. This effect may be partly (or even entirely) negated by the red shift caused by the velocity of the infalling object with respect to the object in the distance.
    As the object passes through the event horizon
    From the viewpoint of the falling object, nothing particularly special happens at the event horizon. In fact, there is no (local) way for him to find out whether he has passed the horizon or not. An infalling object takes a finite proper time (i.e. measured by its own clock) to fall past the event horizon. This in contrast with the infinite amount of time it takes for a distant observer to see the infalling object cross the horizon.
    Inside the event horizon
    The object reaches the singularity at the center within a finite amount of proper time, as measured by the falling object. An observer on the falling object would continue to see objects outside the event horizon, blue-shifted or red-shifted depending on the falling object's trajectory. Objects closer to the singularity aren't seen, as all paths light could take from objects farther in point inwards towards the singularity.
    The amount of proper time a faller experiences below the event horizon depends upon where they started from rest, with the maximum being for someone who starts from rest at the event horizon. A paper in 2007 examined the effect of firing a rocket pack within the black hole, showing that this can only reduce the proper time of a person who starts from rest at the event horizon. However, for anyone else, a judicious burst of the rocket can extend the lifetime of the faller, but overdoing it will again reduce the proper time experienced. However, this cannot prevent the inevitable collision with the central singularity.[27]
    Hitting the singularity
    As an infalling object approaches the singularity, tidal forces acting on it approach infinity. All components of the object, including atoms and subatomic particles, are torn away from each other before striking the singularity. At the singularity itself, effects are unknown; it is believed that a theory of quantum gravity is needed to accurately describe events near it.
    "When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads." - Ron Paul
  • CosmoCosmo Posts: 12,225
    mammasan wrote:
    Don't know if this answers your question but it's all I could find.

    Before the falling object crosses the event horizon
    An object in a gravitational field experiences a slowing down of time, called gravitational time dilation, relative to observers outside the field. The outside observer will see that physical processes in the object, including clocks, appear to run slowly. As a test object approaches the event horizon, its gravitational time dilation (as measured by an observer far from the hole) would approach infinity. Its time would appear to be stopped.
    From the viewpoint of a distant observer, an object falling into a black hole appears to slow down, approaching but never quite reaching the event horizon: and it appears to become redder and dimmer, because of the extreme gravitational red shift caused by the gravity of the black hole. Eventually, the falling object becomes so dim that it can no longer be seen, at a point just before it reaches the event horizon. All of this is a consequence of time dilation: the object's movement is one of the processes that appear to run slower and slower, and the time dilation effect is more significant than the acceleration due to gravity; the frequency of light from the object appears to decrease, making it look redder, because the light appears to complete fewer cycles per "tick" of the observer's clock; lower-frequency light has less energy and therefore appears dimmer, as well as redder.
    From the viewpoint of the falling object, distant objects generally appear blue-shifted due to the gravitational field of the black hole. This effect may be partly (or even entirely) negated by the red shift caused by the velocity of the infalling object with respect to the object in the distance.
    As the object passes through the event horizon
    From the viewpoint of the falling object, nothing particularly special happens at the event horizon. In fact, there is no (local) way for him to find out whether he has passed the horizon or not. An infalling object takes a finite proper time (i.e. measured by its own clock) to fall past the event horizon. This in contrast with the infinite amount of time it takes for a distant observer to see the infalling object cross the horizon.
    Inside the event horizon
    The object reaches the singularity at the center within a finite amount of proper time, as measured by the falling object. An observer on the falling object would continue to see objects outside the event horizon, blue-shifted or red-shifted depending on the falling object's trajectory. Objects closer to the singularity aren't seen, as all paths light could take from objects farther in point inwards towards the singularity.
    The amount of proper time a faller experiences below the event horizon depends upon where they started from rest, with the maximum being for someone who starts from rest at the event horizon. A paper in 2007 examined the effect of firing a rocket pack within the black hole, showing that this can only reduce the proper time of a person who starts from rest at the event horizon. However, for anyone else, a judicious burst of the rocket can extend the lifetime of the faller, but overdoing it will again reduce the proper time experienced. However, this cannot prevent the inevitable collision with the central singularity.[27]
    Hitting the singularity
    As an infalling object approaches the singularity, tidal forces acting on it approach infinity. All components of the object, including atoms and subatomic particles, are torn away from each other before striking the singularity. At the singularity itself, effects are unknown; it is believed that a theory of quantum gravity is needed to accurately describe events near it.
    ...
    I always pictured it as a giant compacted colon... except, really, REALLY compacted.
    Allen Fieldhouse, home of the 2008 NCAA men's Basketball Champions! Go Jayhawks!
    Hail, Hail!!!
  • mammasanmammasan Posts: 5,656
    Cosmo wrote:
    ...
    I always pictured it as a giant compacted colon... except, really, REALLY compacted.

    I guess it could look like that except that bowel movements would occur in slow-motion
    "When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads." - Ron Paul
  • MrBrianMrBrian Posts: 2,672
    LONDON (AFP) - Hackers claim they have broken into the computer system of the Large Hadron Collider, the mega-machine designed to expose secrets of the cosmos, British newspapers reported on Saturday.

    A group calling itself the Greek Security Team left a rogue webpage mocking the technicians responsible for computer security at the giant atom smasher as "schoolkids", the Times and Daily Telegraph reported.


    The hackers vowed they had no intention of disrupting the experiment at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) on the Swiss-French border, they just wanted to highlight the flaws in the computer system's security.

    http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080913/technology/science_physics_cern_computer
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