World's Mightiest Particle Accelerator

[Aberdeen Shrimper]

Anyone else find it a bit strange that it is now over a year since the first beam of Protons were shot around the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland and it all seems to have gone quiet.

Maybe i have not kept up to date with the news or just missed the updates but what is/has happened.

Are all the Scientist at the CERN laboratory living in a new dimension, desperately trying to get back to ours!!

Answers on a post card please.

 

[EastStandBlue]

It broke down, and the parts they require take some time and a considerable amount of money to acquire and fit. I thought it would restart in the new year...

 

[Aberdeen Shrimper]

It broke down, and the parts they require take some time and a considerable amount of money to acquire and fit. I thought it would restart in the new year...

Maybe an amazing phenomenon was found and the "its broken and will take ages to fix" line is to buy them time until they decide how to deal with what they have found!!

 

[MK Shrimper]

Perhaps that's what caused the FastForward thing yesterday or am I confusing reality and fantasy again? I did envisage we were in the FA Cup final vs Aldershot.....

 

[Aberdeen Shrimper]

Perhaps that's what caused the FastForward thing yesterday or am I confusing reality and fantasy again? I did envisage we were in the FA Cup final vs Aldershot.....

You might be on to something mate...........It has all the hallmarks of an experiment that has been covered up!!

dan dan daaaaaan

 

[markw]

novemeber start they reckon but it could be ages away they sort of overlooked a massive design flaw when they built the thing, the legs used to hold the main tube thing up were no strong enough to hold the weight of the tube :P

 

[Slipperduke]

novemeber start they reckon but it could be ages away they sort of overlooked a massive design flaw when they built the thing, the legs used to hold the main tube thing up were no strong enough to hold the weight of the tube :P

You see, it's that kind of forward-planning that fills me with confidence about the whole venture. I haven't the faintest idea what they're doing with those particles and I probably still wouldn't get it if the Head of Cern explained it to me with pictures and bullet-points, but if they can't figure out how to put a tube on legs, I really think they should slow down a bit.

 

[BrettieAngell]

You see, it's that kind of forward-planning that fills me with confidence about the whole venture. I haven't the faintest idea what they're doing with those particles and I probably still wouldn't get it if the Head of Cern explained it to me with pictures and bullet-points, but if they can't figure out how to put a tube on legs, I really think they should slow down a bit.

Trying to recreate the big bang I believe! And learning something about particle acceleration in doing so. :unsure:

 

[MK Shrimper]

Aren't they looking for evidence of the Higgs-Boson particle, the so-called "God" particle?

 

[EastStandBlue]

Aren't they looking for evidence of the Higgs-Boson particle, the so-called "God" particle?

That's the plan, but they're expecting to make other discoveries along the way... Reckon it'll lead to a huge leap in scientific discoveries.

 

[markw]

Aren't they looking for evidence of the Higgs-Boson particle, the so-called "God" particle?

yes but your not allowed to call it the 'god' particle because certain members of the comunity get in a right arse about it

 

[WestRoadShrimper]

Maybe an amazing phenomenon was found and the "its broken and will take ages to fix" line is to buy them time until they decide how to deal with what they have found!!

No chance - it'll take months/years to analyse all the data when it does finally run properly.

It wasn't given a test run so they didn't know if it would work or not. Something didn't. Unfortunately, given the extremely low temperature that the thing is cooled to it took 3 to 4 months just to bring it back to normal temperature as simply switching off the cooling and subsequent rapid heating would have broken it beyond repair.

Repair is going as expected - at least so says an old school friend who is waiting for some of said data to analyse.

 

[Lester Bangs]

In a similar vein has anyone read Simons Singh's account of how Fermats last theorem was solved?

x^n+y^n=z^n for n>2

I know this happened a while ago but total props to Andrew Wiles, the mans a living legend. As a maths graduate this has totally rekindled my affair with abstract algebra.

If anyone wants a quality hour of TV there's a fantastic 'Horizon' on youtube that explains why Fermat is so important and the process Wiles went through to give proof of this equation.

Amazing stuff.

 

[BrettieAngell]

In a similar vein has anyone read Simons Singh's account of how Fermats last theorem was solved?

x^n+y^n=z^n for n>2

I know this happened a while ago but total props to Andrew Wiles, the mans a living legend. As a maths graduate this has totally rekindled my affair with abstract algebra.

If anyone wants a quality hour of TV there's a fantastic 'Horizon' on youtube that explains why Fermat is so important and the process Wiles went through to give proof of this equation.

Amazing stuff.

oooooooooookaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

 

[C C Csiders]

Aren't they looking for evidence of the Higgs-Boson particle, the so-called "God" particle?

I thought it was the Armitage Shanks Basin particle, but I could be wrong.

 

[Bluesmanager]

Perhaps that's what caused the FastForward thing yesterday or am I confusing reality and fantasy again? I did envisage we were in the FA Cup final vs Aldershot.....

Well in the book the show's based off the whole thing was actually caused by the LHC/Whatever-the-hell-this-thing's-called. And the book was set in 2009. So, err... yeah... if you find yourself unexpectedly passing out at some point in the next few months, look at CERN.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Well in the book the show's based off the whole thing was actually caused by the LHC/Whatever-the-hell-this-thing's-called. And the book was set in 2009. So, err... yeah... if you find yourself unexpectedly passing out at some point in the next few months, look at CERN.

Nice one! And I thought it was the excess of alcohol!