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Michelle
Moistened Bint
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
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Location: At my desk
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 Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 9:41 am Post subject: LHC News Article |
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http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20791759-2,00.html
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Race to find the 'God particle' heats up
From correspondents in London
November 21, 2006 01:00am
Article from: The Australian
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THE 42-year race to find a sub-atomic particle crucial to the understanding of the universe is nearing the finishing line, with Britain and Europe nosing ahead of the US.
European hopes of beating the Americans to find the Higgs boson rely on the construction of the world's biggest particle collider, on the Franco-Swiss border. When completed, the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, the European Particle Physics Laboratory, will also be the most powerful particle detector.
It is expected to be ready for trials by March and, once operational, should reveal the existence of the Higgs boson, nicknamed the "God particle", in perhaps a few weeks.
The Higgs boson is a theoretical particle, which is held by physicists to explain why matter has mass. Without it, they will have to devise new theories on how the universe functions.
Similar research is being carried out at a facility called Fermilab, in Illinois, but with far less powerful equipment and less sensitive detectors.
Brian Cox, one of the British particle physicists hoping to find Higgs, said the collider would give the Europeans the edge. "It is a race ... If you give Fermilab five years and the Higgs is light enough, they could find it, but statistically they haven't much chance," he said.
Dr Cox, of the University of Manchester, said the future of particle physics depended on finding the Higgs boson.
Scientists believe the Higgs boson, proposed by Peter Higgs, then of the University of Edinburgh and now an emeritus professor, winks in and out of existence. It explains mass because it is thought to cling to and drag matter, though why it gives substances varying mass has yet to be explained.
The Large Hadron Collider has been designed to be more than seven times more powerful than the American installation, creating 160 million collisions between protons every second.
As part of the project, a 12,500-tonne detector, the Compact Muon Solenoid, will be lowered into a hole 100m deep this month.
A bigger detector, code-named Atlas, is being constructed 80m below the surface and is expected to be fully operational in about a year. Atlas is more than 25m tall, and the cavern that contains it is big enough to hold the nave of Westminster Abbey.
The two detectors are linked by a 27km tunnel, along which protons will be fired through two tubes in opposite directions, at close to the speed of light, to smash into each other.
Energy and other particles created by the collisions are recorded by detectors.
The Times, London, in The Australian |
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LanDroid
Prince
Joined: 11 Jun 2002
Posts: 4466
Location: Cincinnati, OH U.S.
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| Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 12:54 pm Post subject: Need more projects |
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I hope they find the Higgs boson, but conclude it is made of still smaller particles. More BOINC projects will be created!
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Bellator
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Joined: 12 Mar 2006
Posts: 741
Location: Provence
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| Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 8:55 am Post subject: |
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This past week have been following a series on channel 5 (ARTE and France 5) which was absolutely spellbinding. Incidentally, this channel has some of the best programming I have seen anywhere, whether in Europe or in N.A.
At any rate, the subject was the theory of chords. That's what the universe consists of and while still hotly debated, it solves a lot of the contradictory theories and Einstein's dilemma. If anyone knows a little more about this subject, I would be glad to have you expound. Does anyone know of other sources where we may find out more about this?
And this on the heels of the discovery that a truck sized meteor may have been the start of life on earth! (This, I think, you may find in Google News)
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Bellator
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Location: Provence
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| Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 4:38 am Post subject: |
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I just notice I made a stupid mistake (influence of the French?). That should be cords, of course, not chords. Vibrating cords, to be exact.
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Tenebra
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Location: Somewhere in the Outer Rim of a Galaxy far far away
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Bellator
Prince
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Location: Provence
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| Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 5:44 am Post subject: |
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That's it!! Thank you so much, you wizard. I said cords because the program was in French, at least French dubbed over the English speaker whom I could not hear. You have saved me from appearing like an idiot the next time the subject comes up (although I find most people give you a blank stare when black holes et al. comes up).
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Tenebra
Prince
Joined: 16 Nov 2006
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Location: Somewhere in the Outer Rim of a Galaxy far far away
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| Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 6:41 am Post subject: |
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You're welcome.
Because of my interest in those areas it is that I have decided to get back to studying and have enrolled at the Open University in England. I can study at my own pace, take just a few courses or get a degree. Anything really. And I do love to study, and when you have an incentive like a grade or a deadline, you find out that you have more than you imagined.
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Bellator
Prince
Joined: 12 Mar 2006
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Location: Provence
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| Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 6:54 am Post subject: |
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You sound like an interesting person - there are very few of them left! If you ever come to France, let me know, so I can show you around Provence while talking about universes with worm holes and so on. I have a super intellectual friend in Germany and when I visit him we do peripatetic walks in the countryside, discussing these subjects and others such as the existence of God (he is pro, I am con). Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, polutropon hos mala polla... that's about all I remember after studying ancient Greek for 5 years (but it is a while ago!)
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A Shrubbery
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Location: Pacific NW
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| Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 1:48 pm Post subject: |
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Not that I disagree, but string theory has become an argument of faith. Basically it proposes that everything is built from something that from it's very nature cannot be proven or disproven.
Quantum physics get confusing to the point to make one nauseous. I'm sure we'll find a valid theory at some point. I just don't think humanity is there yet.
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Bellator
Prince
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Location: Provence
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| Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 2:13 pm Post subject: |
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If not nauseous, at least dizzy - I agree. But these "musings" are somewhat more interesting than the idea that something said "let there be light" and so the universe was born. Gotta keep giving the old brain something to work on - keeps you young (along with a regular intake of good armagnac).
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Tenebra
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A Shrubbery
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Joined: 24 Jun 2004
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| Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 3:05 pm Post subject: |
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Everything except flightless waterfowl. It just doesn't fit.
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Bellator
Prince
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Location: Provence
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| Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 3:41 pm Post subject: |
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If we can have brainless people, we can have flightless waterfowl. And emu. And heartless, brainless, clueless presidents of a country...
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Killerrabbit
Major Oblivion
Joined: 23 May 2002
Posts: 4656
Location: in a rabbit hole near you!!
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| Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 3:51 pm Post subject: |
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To understand quantam mechanics you need penguins it has all been explained before in very confusing detail.
Ni
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A Shrubbery
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| Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 10:44 pm Post subject: |
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Sorry, forgot to carry the one.
And to think I almost wiped penguins from the face of existence.
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