Daily mail 10th September 2008
Scientists have switched on the most powerful particle accelerator ever built this morning in an attempt to answer some of the biggest unanswered questions about the universe.
Eminent experts who had thronged the control room popped champagne after they succeeded in circulating a beam of particles around the 27km-long underground tunnel which houses the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Two white dots flashed on a computer screen indicating that the protons reached the end point.
Physicists hope the machine on the French/Swiss border will reproduce conditions that existed during the first moments after the Big Bang at the birth of the universe.
Large Hadron Collider: The biggest particle accelerator in the world has now been turned on. Pictured is the core magnet of the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) experiment at CERN on the French/Swiss border
Scientists at the CERN control centre applaud the switch-on of the LHC
However, there have been bizarre claims that the experiment could spell the end of the world, after some maverick scientists suggested the LHC had the potential to create a black hole that could expand and suck in the entire Earth.
These fears may be partly allayed as the switch-on did not lead to the human race's sudden demise.
The project has been 30 years in the making and has undergone construction problems and cost overruns. It was originally supposed to be switched on two years ago.
Just last night, the cooling system was hit with a glitch, which has since been fixed.
The £5billion collider is designed to smash sub-atomic protons into each other at energies up to seven times greater than any achieved before.
At different points around the tunnel, the beams will be guided to cross paths, near four massive 'detectors' that monitor the collisions for interesting events.
More than 9,000 physicists around the world will then conduct experiments with the garnered information.
No-one knows precisely what will come tumbling out of the primordial soup of disintegrating protons.
The LHC could help scientists explain mass, gravity, and the mysterious 'dark matter' that fills much of the universe.
It could also give them the first evidence of extra spatial dimensions that have been hypothesised by physicists such as Stephen Hawking.
And it could even create mini-black holes that blink in and out of existence in a fraction of a second - holding out the prospect of a Nobel Prize for Professor Hawking if they are seen to give off radiation.
The particle collider could provide proof of Stephen Hawking's theory that black holes emit radiation
He told the BBC yesterday: 'If the LHC were to produce little black holes, I don't think there's any doubt I would get a Nobel prize, if they showed the properties I predict.
'However, I think the probability that the LHC has enough energy to create black holes is less than one per cent, so I'm not holding my breath.'
The British physicist put forward his idea about radiation-emitting black holes in the 1970s but it proved controversial because many scientists believed nothing could escape the gravitational pull of a black hole.
Although Hawking's theory has become accepted science, it remains unproven.
Nobel prizes in physics are awarded only when there is experimental evidence for a new phenomenon.
The LHC is buried under 300ft of rock and straddles the borders of Switzerland and France between Lake Geneva and the Jura mountains.
The beams of protons will be accelerated in opposite directions through the ring-shaped tunnel, which is supercooled to just 1.9 degrees above absolute zero (minus 271C), the lowest temperature allowed by nature.
Reaching velocities of 99.99 per cent of the speed of light, each beam will pack as much energy as a Eurostar train travelling at 93mph.
The particles will be brought together in four huge 'detectors' placed along the ring.
Each detector is like a giant microscope, designed to probe deeper into the heart of matter than has ever been possible before.
Concerns have been voiced - in particular by German chemist Professor Otto Rossler - that black holes created by the LHC will grow uncontrollably and 'eat the planet from the inside'.
Enlarge
The Large Hadron Collider is on the border of France and Switzerland (enlarge for more detailed graphic)
But those involved in the project insist they have reviewed all the evidence and concluded that it poses no risk to the universe.
Particle physicist Dr James Gillies, a spokesman for the LHC project, said: 'We have received a lot of worried calls from people about it.
'There's nothing to worry about, the LHC is absolutely safe because we have observed nature doing the same things the LHC will do.
'Protons regularly collide in the earth's upper atmosphere without creating black holes.
'What we are looking at is a global community representing 10,000 people working in 500 universities in 80 countries, none of whom has the slightest worry about risks of this kind.
'Then we have a retired German chemist who has never published a paper in this field in his life, who has come up with this theory.
'We are very excited about the project. We hope to learn more about this wonderful universe of ours.'
Turning on the LHC is nothing like as simple as flipping a switch.
A chain of smaller accelerators, built for earlier projects, are first used to speed up the proton beams to the point where they can be injected into the machine.
Enlarge
'Remind me. How much did we spend on this machine?'
The start of the process is a bottle of hydrogen gas no bigger than a fire extinguisher.
Hydrogen atoms are stripped of their electrons to produce streams of protons that are fed into accelerators of increasing size.
The last link in the chain before the LHC, the Super Proton Synchrotron, is itself buried underground and stretches for more than four miles.
Timing between the Synchrotron and the LHC has to be accurate to within a fraction of a nanosecond.
Today's 'switch on' will involve transferring a beam from the Synchrotron to the LHC so that it is circulating around the machine in a stable fashion.
After this has been successfully accomplished another beam will be sent spinning in the opposite direction.
The first particle collisions are likely to take place within a few weeks.
In some cases teams of more than 2,000 collaborating scientists will be sifting and analysing data from the machine.
Most of this analysis will not be done on the spot at the LHC's operating base at CERN, the European nuclear research organisation, in Geneva.
A revolutionary computer network called the 'Grid' - the next step beyond the World Wide Web - will make it possible for scientists all over the world to share huge amounts of processing power and carry out much of the work on their PCs.
The cost of the LHC is mainly shared by CERN's 20 European member states, which include Britain. Six 'observer' nations, including the US, Russia and Japan, make significant contributions.
CERN estimates the total cost of the project to be 10 billion Swiss francs, or £5billion. The material cost alone is put at £2.6billion.
Britain's direct contribution to the LHC each year is £34million.
UK Lockdown point of view
The psychopathic mad scientists may have failed to destroy the planet this time but it's unlikely that will stop them from trying again to carry out their nihilistic agenda of population extermination, look at all the human life haters as they celebrate and applaud the possible coming apocalypse as the evil machine is switched on they must have been so disappointed when it didn't work and they didn't get their black hole; also note further down the article the reference to the next step beyond the World Wide Web the so-called 'Grid'
No comments:
Post a Comment