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Michelle
Moistened Bint
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
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Location: At my desk
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 Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 12:47 am Post subject: LHC Article |
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Including the LHC rap! 
Large Hadron Collider to start in September
From correspondents in Geneva August 08, 2008 09:30am
Have your say! Comments are open on this article - add yours
A GIANT machine built underground will begin investigating the secrets of the universe next month, and the scientists involved have made a rap to explain how it works.
European particle physics laboratory CERN has announced it will start up its massive particle accelerator on September 10 hoping that it could throw light on the origins of the universe.
The so-called Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the greatest experiment in the history of particle physics.
It is housed in a concrete tunnel with a 27km circumference built underneath the Franco-Swiss border.
Want to know more? Watch the scientists rap below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM
Scientists are banking that it will confirm the existence of a sub-atomic component - the Higgs Boson, known as "the God Particle" - that would fill in the last missing piece of the so-called Standard Model of particle physics.
A gamble costing six billion Swiss francs ($6.62 billion) that has harnessed the labours of more than 2,000 physicists from nearly three dozen countries, the LHC is the biggest, most powerful high-energy particle accelerator ever built.
Beams of hydrogen protons will whizz around at near-light speed in opposite directions until, bent by powerful superconducting magnets, they will smash together in four bus-sized detector chambers, where they will be annihilated at temperatures hotter than the sun.
"Starting up such a machine is not as simple as flipping a switch," the laboratory said.
The commissioning starts with the cooling down of each of the machine's eight sectors, then electrical testing of the 1600 superconducting magnets, after which each sector's circuits, and then the sectors themselves, are powered together so the LHC can operate as a single machine.
"We're finishing a marathon with a sprint," said LHC project leader Lyn Evans.
"It's been a long haul, and we're all eager to get the LHC research program underway."
However, there are unlikely to be any immediate discoveries once the LHC is set in motion.
"We will accumulate data for two years and it will take a lot of time to interpret," CERN's director general Robert Aymar said in May.
*I've left a comment. You'll recognise the 'code word' if it's added to the reader's comments.*
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LanDroid
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Joined: 11 Jun 2002
Posts: 4466
Location: Cincinnati, OH U.S.
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| Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 11:33 am Post subject: LHC Luv |
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| Quote: | I love the Large Hadron Collider. I love it that the citizens of 20 European countries have been willing to pony up $8 billion for something whose findings may have huge relevance to the frontiers of scientific theory, but zero relevance to the practicalities of everyday life. Like great art and literature, it may fundamentally recast our understandings of the essence of existence, but it won't invent Tang or Velcro, nor will it enable the West to say nyah-nyah to the Russians.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marty-kaplan/why-i-have-a-man-crush-on_b_118886.html
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I hope they do find something once this thing starts destroying particles. Otherwise, it's going to be an extremely expensive version of The Cheese Shop Sketch, kinda like the following.
Knight: I say there, do you have any Higgs-Boson particles?
Scientist: No, sorry we're fresh out.
Knight: That's the "God Particle", right?
Scientist: Right, I don't know when we can expect to see any of those.
Knight: How about strings, got any of them?
Scientist: Nope. We've got a bit of rope and twine, but no strings. Try again next week.
Knight: Quantum strangeness?
Scientist: Uhhh, no, everything's rather normal 'round here...
Knight: How about the standard model?
Scientist: Oh that's still here of course, yes everything is still...well...standard.
Knight: Any new quarks?
Scientist: We've got the same ol' same old...
Knight: That's not too exciting. Have you reached the beginning of the universe?
Scientist: The what? Oh dear, no I think our truck broke down.
Knight: Well, the LHC isn't really much of a scientific instrument izzit?
Scientist: (Sputtering) Instrument? No, it's a collider! We smash things together!
Knight: $8 Billion for a smashy-toy?
Scientist: It's not a toy, it's a sophisticated machine!
Knight: (Pounds a wall a few times) Well it's not doing much izzit?
......Transition into the dead parrot sketch.....
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Cow_tipping
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Michelle
Moistened Bint
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Sir Papa Smurph
Cries like a little girl
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
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Location: Michigan
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| Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 6:51 am Post subject: |
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so exactly when do we all get swallowed by the black hole? 
I want a little notice so I can insure that I will get preferred seating on the bus to Hell
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mohrorless
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| Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 8:32 am Post subject: |
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| Sir Papa Smurph wrote: | so exactly when do we all get swallowed by the black hole?
I want a little notice so I can insure that I will get preferred seating on the bus to Hell |
I think we are all guaranteed a good seat... 
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Cow_tipping
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| Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:55 am Post subject: |
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Front row or balcony?
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mohrorless
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| Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 1:36 pm Post subject: |
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Handbasket
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Michelle
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mohrorless
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| Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:01 am Post subject: |
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So they say. Can you really believe them? They have never done it before, so they only think they know what will happen...
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Cow_tipping
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| Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:11 am Post subject: |
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I agree.
We don't know what caused the big bang in the first place, how can they be sure it wasn't caused by the startup of the previous LHC that had been developed in our predecessing universe.
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PhastPhred
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| Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:00 am Post subject: |
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| Cow_tipping wrote: | | ... We don't know what caused the big bang in the first place... |
I'm not sayin' a WORD!
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Sir Papa Smurph
Cries like a little girl
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| Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:14 pm Post subject: |
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| PhastPhred wrote: | | Cow_tipping wrote: | | ... We don't know what caused the big bang in the first place... |
I'm not sayin' a WORD!
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Ask Caribou Barbie
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Sir Papa Smurph
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| Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 7:01 am Post subject: |
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LHC fires up tomorrow 9/10 right?
Oh, Wait, that is in France, right?
It is Tomorrow there before it is tomorrow here.....
I guess I better get busy Sinning now...........
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Al Dente
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| Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 8:08 am Post subject: |
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I think that this explains it all quite succinctly, 
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Sir Hamster of Elderberry
KWSN ArchBishop
Joined: 20 May 2002
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| Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:08 pm Post subject: |
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At least! Someone has suggested a practical use for the LHC ...
...
... defrosting pizza.  |
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Sir Papa Smurph
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| Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 8:44 pm Post subject: |
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| Al Dente wrote: | | I think that this explains it all quite succinctly, |
I heard about that on NPR last week and I meant to post it here but I have been busy. Good job Al....
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Sir Furry Mark
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| Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 10:02 am Post subject: |
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I see they have some live feed webcams available.
www.lhc.ac.uk/web-cams.html
Typically boring views...
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PhastPhred
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| Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 10:08 am Post subject: |
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I'd like to say Thanks for posting the link, but I'm no longer here to do so...
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mohrorless
Mail Order Goat Bride
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| Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:49 pm Post subject: |
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I wonder if the cams will show the black hole when they start it up for real. We should get a half nano second to crap our pants before we are sucked in.
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