Moving on down the line -- researchers at Europe's high-energy physics lab, CERN, report that they've sent ions part way along the 27-mile circular racetrack for subatomic particles. It's a key step in starting up the particle collider. The machine has been sidelined since September 2008 after a faulty connection between two magnets led to a catastrophic coolant leak.
(AP/File)Photos (1 of 1)
CERN’s LHC ‘big bang’ machine back in the particle biz — sort of
Scientists at CERN have tested the LHC's mettle by circulating a low-energy beam of protons
By Pete Spotts | 10.26.09
The Large Hadron Collider, a particle collider under the Swiss-French border, hasn’t recreated the big bang yet, but it has just experienced the little whoosh.
Scientists at the LHC’s home, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), announced today they’ve sent a low-energy beam of protons nearly all the way around the race track for subatomic particles. In one direction only. But it shows that the race track, roughly 17 miles in circumference, is ready for the next milestone — a fully circulating beam of protons, expected next month.
The test took place last week, according to a release from CERN.
The LHC has been offline for a year following an electrical failure between two magnet segments. The failure led to a catastrophic leak of liquid helium.
The liquid helium is critical. It cools the collider’s superconducting magnets to the point where they lose all resistance to electricity. This in turn allows the magnets to generate far more powerful magnetic fields than ordinary magnets of the same size.
The magnets are used to steer beams of particles in opposite directions around the collider until they are brought together in a collision. Magnets also keep the beams tightly focused to enhance the likelihood that a sufficient number of collisions will take place.
Those collisions are expected to yield evidence for a particle called the Higgs boson — which the maker-and-white-board theorists say imparts mass to other particles. And the physics teams say they hope to finding evidence for other, more bizarre particles that could help explain weird things folks have detected looking at the large-scale universe. Things like dark energy and dark matter, for instance.
Other areas physicists hope to explore with the LHC: Extra dimensions to the universe that some theories project beyond the four dimensions humans can directly experience — time, and the three dimensions physical objects occupy; and theories that seek to show how the four basic forces of nature — electromagnetism, the strong force (binding particles in an atom’s nucleus), the weak force (governing radioactive decay), and gravity — are the chilled out manifestations of one over-arching force that prevailed at the dawn of the universe.
Scientists have already shown that the first three of those forces can in effect be unified. Gravity remains the lone holdout.
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2. Adrian | 10.27.09
It’s a great human endeavor, bringing together people from all over the world under the common goal of curiosity about nature. Even if it didn’t yield any results, it would be a success already.
I hope everything goes smooth and they manage to maintain stable running condition this time around.
@Michael: That’s plain nonsense. The Logo shows accelerator rings, not numbers. You’re serving nobody by spreading such stories. It is not an “attack on god” as you phrase it, and i haven’t heard a single CERN official state such a thing.
3. John Davis | 10.27.09
Cern is cool. Look how great we are as humans that we continually unlock the secrets of physics. I applaud the dedication of the scientists at Cern and think that an open mind will always seek the truth through study and research. Bring on the Enlightenment.
4. Richard Shannon | 10.27.09
I didn’t see the marketing of the machine as “an attack on God”. Quite frankly, I never saw the machine marketed at all.
And you were right, I can trace 666 in the CERN logo, I can also trace a pretty good likeness of a bean burrito.
What’s it like living in your world?
5. Michael Noonan | 10.27.09
Currently living in my world is rather pleasant. The urgency of purpose for the collider is gone with the discovery this year that there is a balance between the force expanding the universe and that which holds galaxies together.
So with the consigning of the big rip theory to the waste basket there seems little point poking holes in the fabric of reality. For starters light speed is finite and although very fast numerically it is possible to make an event horizon at the TeV ranges the machine is built to produce.
A 75 nanosecond interval between collisions is 13 million plus collisions plus potential per second. The energy fireballs will all complete their interactions within the confines of the beam with no certainty that combination collision event build up is possible.
I am aware that scientists are generally very clever but that is no guarantee that this time they are not being very stupid, that is all.
6. dale | 10.27.09
to #5: Sometimes being too sure of one’s self is the reason for failure to begin with.
7. Ryansway | 10.28.09
Who else has had a nightmare about the earth sucking them into an abyss?
Surely there must be millions of people around the world having that same dream. The concept of a small black hole eventually gobbling up the planet and no absolute guarantee it won’t happen, is enough to inspire all kinds of wonderful thoughts.
We just wish they’d hurry up and get on with it.
8. Shawn | 10.28.09
#1: I can trace the number 6669 (that’s six THOUSAND, six hundred, and sixty-NINE), which has no theocratic, er, I mean, theological significance that I’m aware of.
10. wilsonchriz | 10.30.09
well i think all this hype is just scaremongery,and lets say most serious scientific people involved should be allowed to be scientific.
11. Michael Noonan | 10.31.09
Amazing! Just because it is science does not mean it is beyond question. Only God is always right. Current science teaching is that there is no place for God and no God mechanism. The so called ‘God Particle’ is not a proof of God and what is more it is not even a particle. A particle is not something real and touchable in science, wavelike or energy burst would be more accurate.
Finally what is the point of Christian Science in media if it does not question the application of science and the actions of scientists. Is it unimportant that religion and teaching of God is not permitted in schools? Would it be alright to remove all God reference from the constitution or from the law courts?
Scientific double-talk make it harder to get a straight answer than from lawyers and politicians (or savvy journalists). Take seeing images where scientists accuse devout people of delusion and yet only two in a billion of the pictures from particle experiments conform to prediction. Scientists are not to be trusted because there is no other field so heavily reliant on industrial delusion.
If you can find no place for God in modern science, then your modern science is wrong.
12. Anne V | 11.02.09
I hope this is successful this time around. *crosses fingers* The possibilities and applications of the yet to be seen results sounds simply amazing. Just think of having the energy crisis solved by finding a new/efficient form of energy or being able to construct new materials to be used in technology. The advancement possibilites are ENDLESS!!! (^_^)v
@Michael Noonan
Whose god? Your god? My god? His god? which god is right? And if I dont believe in Your god then she/he isnt “right” in my world is she/he? Simply because she/he doesnt exist here. I do believe it is called the “God Particle” simply because it is the “all powerful” particle and the key to understanding everything else, As ALL Gods are in their respective faiths. It is not the “Christian God Particle”. Im assuming you live in America do remember that this machine IS NOT in America, or does America along with your god have the right to impose its will upon others? I wont argue theology because everyone has the right to believe in what they want.
Science is science
Faith is faith
Religion is the science and practices of a faith.
The only time Science and Faith come into conflict is when you involve Religion.
13. Teyrnon | 11.16.09
Noonan, I dont understand why you feel the need to go onto scientific discussions and start preaching about God
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1. Michael Noonan | 10.26.09
Scientists have not yet made fusion reaction work so why let them go all the way up to quark reaction especially when the thing that is supposed to hold it all together is not in the power ranges predicted. That and the instrument is being marketed as an attack on God by atheist scientists. A logo is important and it is no coincidence that 666 can be traced upon the CERN emblem.