Here are some updates on the Large Hadron (not Hardon) Collider:


The ATLAS experiment is a MONSTER (http://mediaarchive.cern.ch/MediaArchive/Photo/Public/2007/0705024/0705024_04/0705024_04-A4-at-144-dpi.jpg)
** to give you an idea of the scale, those are people in the top-left hand corner standing in an access/observation area within the ATLAS cavern - DON'T drop your wrench!
** That picture reminds me a bit of the Death Star main laser... You may fire when ready!


ATLAS Inner Detector End Cap installation (http://mediaarchive.cern.ch/MediaArchive/Photo/Public/2007/0705021/0705021_01/0705021_01-A4-at-144-dpi.jpg)
** Now lets see, where does the Video In go?


An on-going update of the Inner Triplet repairs being made by Fermilab onsite at LHC:
http://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/lhc_magnet_archive.html


If Fermilab can come through with the proper fixes in a timely manner we may yet see first light late in the year or at worse early in the New Year.

/crosses fingers.


Cheers,

So, they finally announced the day (http://news.zdnet.co.uk/emergingtech/0,1000000183,39458691,00.htm) we're all gonna die.

; p

Hey lokase.. I found a shirt (http://www.splitreason.com/product/538) for you. ; p

LOL,

I should order that!

You can make fun of my hadron all you want... but I draw the line when poking fun at my Higgs Boson!


Cheers,

http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

We have BEAM!!!!

From all accounts first beam has gone off without hitch. Two of the experiments even picked up trace amounts of muons left over from collisions with stray atoms left in the vaccum (no vaccum is perfect) of the ring.

Here are some links to help describe the event:

Command Center Webcam:
http://pcatdwww.cern.ch/atlas-point1/ATLASview/ACR.htm

US LHC Blog:
http://blogs.uslhc.us/?p=364

Some First Beam Pics:
http://cmsdoc.cern.ch/cms/performance/FirstBeam/cms-e-commentary.htm


With first beam the commissionig of the LHC has just begun. There is a LONG way to go in terms of tuning this machine up to full capacity.

The LHC will be doing heavy testing/configuration into October and early November, then the LHC will be powered down for the Winter. During the Winter the team will "condition" the magenets to allow them to work at full 7 Tev capacity come the Spring.

Once the machine is working at full capacity and collision runs of days and weeks are in progress it will take many more months or even years to comb through the incredible mountain of data that will be produced to find the elusive Higgs Boson. But who knows, at those energies the Higgs might pop up in their detectors and say "youuu whoo, here I am!".

After watching the construction of this beast for 4 years now its hard to beleive that it is actually up and running!

Good luck CERN!

p.s. - anyone else feeling a slight gravity "tug" in the direction of France/Switzerlad? hehe.

Cheers,

Minor set back:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/science/21collider.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin

Can't wait to see some pictures of the damaged sector.

Hopefully they won't have to replace too many magnets.

The warm up, cool down will take a while.


Cheers,

Must have been the autobots.