Large Hadron Collider (LHC) News

[01101001]

This is not for discussing the many possible ways the LHC will destroy the Earth and/or Universe. Or, will not.

This is for reporting events. This is for technical news.

Long news items about lawsuits probably go better in Wagner in Court today? [suing to stop the LHC] .

Arguments about LHC have plenty of places to go.

CERN Public Welcome
CERN LHC First Beam Welcome (First beam: 2008 September 10)
CERN Live Webcast (Live coverage of first beam, September 10, from 8:30. Timezone not provided, but I'd guess UTC. Will verify.)
CERN LHC Live satellite broadcast info (Date: 10/09/08 [2008 September 10] Timing: 07:00-17:00 UTC)
CERN LHC: First Beam, Live on EVO (whatever that is; requires registration and Java; appears to be CERN teleconferencing facility)
CERN LHC First Beam: What will happen on the day? (technical information for media)
CERN LHC: Summary of CERN Broadcast for LHC First Beam Day (PDF)
Wikipedia: CERN
Wikipedia: Large Hadron Collider
LHC First Beam Events in the United States
CERN Twitter (pretty quiet right now: 3 tweets from August)
CERN LHC Machine Outreach Blog
US LHC Blog

CERN LHC: Summary of CERN Broadcast for LHC First Beam Day (PDF)

On 10 September scientists at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland will attempt for the first
time to circulate a beam in the Large Hadron Collider. The LHC is the world’s most
powerful particle accelerator, and will produce beams seven times more energetic, and
around 30 times more intense than any previous machine when it reaches design
performance.
[...]
The first attempt to circulate an LHC beam will begin just after 9:00. Briefings from the
CCC will take place hourly starting at 10:00, followed by coverage of Q&A sessions with
journalists at CERN for the event. In addition to following events in the CERN Control
Centre throughout the day, viewers will also visit the control rooms for the four main
LHC experiments, see scientists in the U.S. following the events in their pajamas, and
view pre-recorded clips, animations and interviews.
[...]
All times are CEST
(Central European Summer Time), UTC/GMT + 2 hours.
9:00 Live satellite broadcast and webcast begin with an introduction from the
commentators in the CERN Control Centre, an animation showing the passage of
a beam through the LHC, and highlights of the LHC operators’ daily meeting
where they lay out the procedure for getting the first beam circulating in the LHC.
[and follows a schedule of events for the whole day]

Live coverage begins:
September 10, 0000 PDT Wednesday start
September 10, 0300 EDT Wednesday
September 10, 0700 UTC Wednesday

[01101001]

New York Times: Fingers Crossed, Physicists Are Ready for Collider to Roll

At roughly 3:30 a.m. Eastern time [0030 PDT; 0730 UTC], scientists at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, say they will try to send the first beam of protons around a 17-mile-long racetrack known as the Large Hadron Collider, 300 feet underneath the Swiss-French border outside Geneva.

And a generation of physicists, watching from control rooms and auditoriums on the scene, on Webcasts at webcast.cern or on Eurovision will meet their destiny. The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab, outside Chicago, will hold a “pajama party” for staff members and journalists to watch the events live from a remote control room.
[...]
The first collisions, at a non-Earth-shattering energy of 450 billion electron volts apiece, will not happen for another couple of weeks or so. And it might take a month or two to ramp up the proton energies to five trillion electron volts — as high as the machine will go before shutting down for the winter — and collide them.

[lek]

Times are really messy... Same website manages to use both CET and CEST in different pages (fortunately both figures "correct" though, but unfortunately most times don't mention the zone at all ), and even manage to disagree by 30mins when it comes to time of 1st attempt and start of webcast...

So it looks like 1st attempt is at 0800 or 0830UTC and webcast starting an hour earlier.

(I think i'll wear my tinfoilhat whole day just to be sure. No idea how it could help save the world but i figure the propability of it working is not zero.)

[Jim]

The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab, outside Chicago, will hold a “pajama party” for staff members...

Somehow, this is the most frightening thing I've read about the LHC... that it will prompt a slew of nerdish pajama parties. I can picture 50 or so scientists, all wearing PJs reminiscent of that poor kid in A Christmas Story, and thinking they're cool. [shudder]

[NEOWatcher]

...Somehow, this is the most frightening thing I've read about the LHC... that it will prompt a slew of nerdish pajama parties.

Throw in an orthodontic headgear, and you have a cliche.

[Fazor]

...don't forget the popcorn with lactose-free butter topping!

[01101001]

I expect the webcast might be hard to get to, and even its supporting pages, so I'm going to list some links and content here. It's already a little sluggish, but I don't know if that's normal or due to increased interest.

CERN Live Webcast

LHC First Beam - 10th September 2008 - 9am CEST (GMT+2) [0000 PDT; 0300 EDT; 0700 UTC]

CERN Live Webcast: Switch to Flash

CERN Live Webcast: Recent Webcasts (Didn't work for me right now. Edit: worked later.)

CERN Live Webcast: Cannot connect to the live stream?

Due to a huge interest for this live video feed of the LHC First Beam day, you may not be able to see the live video stream and we apologise for this.
Please try reloading the page, come back later, or check the other connection options available on this page (LHC First Beam Welcome).
Many thanks for your interest in CERN and the LHC!

CERN LHC First Beam Welcome
CERN LHC Live satellite broadcast info (Date: 10/09/08 [2008 September 10] Timing: 07:00-17:00 UTC)

Eurovision is an alternate source for the live event (and maybe recordings); Net access appears to require registration.

Eurovision.net

[Eurovision] CERN LHC FIRST BEAM
9-10 September 2008
Location: CERN, Meyrin, Geneve, Switzerland

Live coverage begins:
September 10, 0000 PDT Wednesday start
September 10, 0300 EDT Wednesday
September 10, 0700 UTC Wednesday

About 12 hours to start of live coverage

[Nowhere Man]

The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab, outside Chicago, will hold a “pajama party” for staff members...

Somehow, this is the most frightening thing I've read about the LHC... that it will prompt a slew of nerdish pajama parties. I can picture 50 or so scientists, all wearing PJs reminiscent of that poor kid in A Christmas Story, and thinking they're cool. [shudder]

I know one of the safety officers who works at FNAL, and he has pyjamas with the trefoil radiation symbol all over them. Perfect outfit for such a gathering.

Fred

[01101001]

CERN Live Webcast

Live coverage begins:
September 10, 0000 PDT Wednesday start
September 10, 0300 EDT Wednesday
September 10, 0700 UTC Wednesday

8 hours to start of live coverage

[Warren Platts]

Hawking bets $100 USD against Higgs Boson!

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1

[tnjrp]

May have missed it in the links above, but in case I didn't here's the twitter page for LHC for anyone else who might have trouble getting the live video feed:
http://twitter.com/cern

EDIT: heck, I did miss it

Anyway, there it is again. Now with actual updates!

[01101001]

Well, I napped through the ceremonial opening. Just as well. I'm not getting anything on the live webcast (or the Flash version) -- a quick "connecting" then blackness on the Windows Media version and endless loading on the Flash version. That's what I saw a couple of hours before the event, too.

Some other pages are completely failing to load. I bet they're just swamped by interest.

Let's take a snapshot of the CERN Twitter, for the record:

10:25, 10 September 2008. Historic moment. The LHC first beam has just circulated. Amazing moment. about 1 hour ago from web

This is the big moment. Next injection should one full circuit. about 1 hour ago from web

10:00 The beam has now done half a lap. Still going well. about 2 hours ago from web

9:30. First beam injected and stopped at 1/8 of a circuit. Loud applause in the control room. about 2 hours ago from web

It's LHC first beam day. Beams at the door of the LHC, ready for first injection. http://www.cern.ch/lhc-firs... about 2 hours ago from web

Press Association: Smooth start for 'Big Bang' machine

The eyes of the world were on LHC project leader Dr Lyndon Evans, from Aberdare in south Wales, in the tense minutes before the machine was "switched on".

Looking relaxed in a short-sleeved shirt and jeans, Dr Evans counted down the last few seconds before the first beam of protons was put into the LHC.

"Five, four, three, two, one, zero - nothing," he joked before a blip appeared on a computer monitor signalling that the long years of hard work had paid off and the machine was working. Dr Evans, whose father was a coalminer, said: "This is really the biggest and most complex scientific project ever undertaken, and you cannot do a thing like this without engineers and applied scientists of very top quality."

[Jens]

Some other pages are completely failing to load. I bet they're just swamped by interest.

Either that or they've been gobbled up by a black hole.

[frankuitaalst]

Either that or they've been gobbled up by a black hole.

If they've created a black hole , it must be still a small one , less than 1000 km in diameter . People in my town are still alive (10:43 Am ) and don't seem to be sucked direction of Switserland
Hey , what's that big noise behind my back....???

[JohnD]

I'm disappointed that Hawking has bet mere money on the Higgs.
His previously publicised wagers have been for journal subscriptions and the like.
As the Higgs was dubbed the 'God' particle, he should have bet a subscription to a journal of religion, say the American Journal of Theology or the British Journal of Religious Education. And sworn to read it!

John the unbeliever

[AndreH]

Just watched a news cast about the LHC. Wow, they made it to the "Mittagsmagazin" which usually features only yellow press stuff and other trivial stuff.

They also mentioned this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM.

I don't know if someone mentioned this on BAUT before. For me it was the first time I saw it.

[Swift]

And check out Google's image/logo today!

[Extravoice]

The LHC made the front page of my local newspaper today, as well as the headlines on the radio. (Yes, I still read the newspaper.)

BTW: Is the Google logo getting sucked into a black hole?

[tdvance]

It looks like it--they seem to have a sense of humor about that kind of thing.

But time does seem to be passing slower today--I guess a black hole was made!

[schlaugh]

Nice graphic in the The NY Times today - good primer for us non-particle folk. It also does a good job of illustrating the sheer size of the detectors and other hardware within the LHC:
Cameras for Capturing Primordial Fire

Also a story about the activation itself:
Scientists Activate Particle Collider

[captain swoop]

Listened to it live on BBC Radio 4, followed by a prog about the Engineering of it then various UK comedians who are also physicists, (surprisingly quite a few well known comedians in the UK it seems.) talking to Dr Cox for half an hour.

[trinitree88]

Hawking bets $100 USD against Higgs Boson!

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1

Warren Platts. I'm with Steven Hawking. No Higgs. They might find some interesting things though. Surprises are always fun. I'm missing a sock from my laundry , there's those hanging chads from the election of...,and we could use some closure on Bigfoot, Nessie, and Jimmy Hoffa. ...pete

[Ross PK81]

Hmmm, am I right in that they've made the name 'Google' look like it's being 'sucked' into the collsion, as though they think it'll create a black hole? Lol.

[01101001]

AP: Massive particle collider passes first key tests

The world's largest particle collider passed its first major tests by firing two beams of protons in opposite directions around a 17-mile underground ring Wednesday in what scientists hope is the next great step to understanding the makeup of the universe.

After a series of trial runs, two white dots flashed on a computer screen at 10:26 a.m. indicating that the protons had traveled clockwise along the full length of the 4 billion Swiss franc ($3.8 billion) Large Hadron Collider — described as the biggest physics experiment in history.

"There it is," project leader Lyn Evans said when the beam completed its lap.

Champagne corks popped in labs as far away as Chicago, where contributing and competing scientists watched the proceedings by satellite.

Five hours later, scientists successfully fired a beam counterclockwise.
[...]

Gizmodo: LHC First Beam Test Image, All Systems Go for First Collision Event

[Cool picture.]

This is the first groovy image produced by the Large Hadron Collider, showing some of the first protons accelerated today at 1028h Central European Time (0428h Eastern Time), the exact time when CERN scientists successfully fired up the LHC for the first time. As we told you earlier this morning, this wasn't the heads-on collision experiment, which will come later in the year.
[...]
Following these beam tests—more will be coming in the next hours—the facility will prepare for the first heads-on collision later in the year.

[ToSeek]

Check this website for the latest update on whether the LHC has destroyed the planet:

http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/

[tdvance]

Will it say "yes" when everything is gone?

[Bearded One]

So what does Neil deGrasse Tyson think about this? He's always been fascinated about the effects of being sucked into a black hole. He's probably the only person on the planet who would be smiling in satisfaction if it happens.

[01101001]

So what does Neil deGrasse Tyson think about this? He's always been fascinated about the effects of being sucked into a black hole. He's probably the only person on the planet who would be smiling in satisfaction if it happens.

I'll answer in an arguments topic and link to it here in the news topic. Be right back...

Edit: See article in topic Large Hadron Colliders a DANGER??

(Arguments pro/con, or even charged replies or questions, put in the argument topic(s) please, and here keep focused on news reports and events. Please, keep this topic bicker-free? Thanks, all.)

[ToSeek]

Will it say "yes" when everything is gone?

It's worth looking at the page source for some additional tidbits, including the URL for the RSS feed.

[JohnD]

Report in today's New Scientist (13th Sept), necessarily written before the switch-on date, writes of the need for "beam dumps", where the packet of protons is directed down a side channel to impact in a "1000 tonne block of graphite, concerte and steel designed to absorb its energy".
What? Would even a packet from the LHC make a leaf flutter on impact?

Then, it says the such beam dumps will be "vital to prevent the protons drilling holes in the machine."
Really? Is the LHC such a death ray?

John