Large Hadron Collider runs: Atlas doesn’t shrug
p2pnet news view | Cool:-Today was the day the world’s largest machine, was fired up for the first time, and the first particle beam was successfully sent around the full circuit of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern).
“The new science resulting from this grand experiment will turn up in the coming weeks and months, but what Wednesday’s event did prove was that the world’s largest machine works,” says ZDNet UK, going on, “Part of that machine is the cathedral-sized Atlas detector, one of two general-purpose detectors (the other is the Compact Muon Solenoid, or CMS) in the LHC.”
Now, having successfully fired subatomic particles down one circuit of the LHC, scientists are getting ready to blast them off on a second circuit, but this time in the opposite direction, says The Telegraph, continuing:
“Eventually two beams will be fired in opposite directions with the aim of recreating conditions a split second after the big bang, which scientists theorize was the massive explosion that created the universe.
“The £5 billion machine has been described as a racetrack around which two streams of protons – building blocks of matter – run in opposite directions before smashing into one another.
And, “Reaching 99.99 per cent of the speed of light, each beam will pack as much energy as a Eurostar train travelling at 90 mph.”
Though, “individual bits of the machine have been under test for several weeks, a complete circuit gives everyone the excuse to declare victory and splash the LHC as the ‘machine that will unlock the mysteries of the Big Bang’, in the hope that politicians and the public will take notice,” says The Economist.
“A combination of electricity and magnetism accelerates the protons and thus endows them with energy,” it says. “They are then brought to a sudden halt by a collision with something else, at which point the energy is converted into mass, creating new particles, according to Einstein’s well-known equation, E=mc². The main difference, apart from the scale of the machines, is that the cyclotron fired its particles into a static target whereas the LHC uses contra-rotating beams to achieve head-on collisions.”
But, adds the story, the real news, “will come when CERN actually finds something”.
One part of the experiment has, however, has already reached a successful conclusion.
No, the world didn’t end, as some skeptics predicted it would. 
ZDNet UK – UK scientists express joy at LHC switch-on, September 10, 2008
The Telegraph – Large Hadron Collider: subatomic particles to travel on second circuit, September 10, 2008
The Economist – Into the wild blue yonder, September 10, 2008
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September 10th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Lovely headline
September 10th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Maybe I am misunderstanding Einstein’s famous equation. Just what is the mass of a single proton traveling at 99.99% of the speed of light anyways? I’ve always thought that matter traveling near light speed, or as close to it as possible, wasn’t actually feasible. As the matter approaches the speed of light, more and more of the energy moving it would get dumped into it’s mass instead. Hence why matter can’t achieve the speed of light because if it did, the mass would then be infinite. The resulting infinite mass would then need infinite energy to move it, an impossibility (I hate that word) as far as I know. I’m not nearly as smart as Einstein nor the physicists working on this project, but I am fascinated by all things subatomic. What can I say, I’m a nerd and think it’s ‘cool’. If anyone can correct me, go right ahead.
September 10th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I will try to explain from what we learned in high school when we went to CERN as a field trip.(did you know the drinking age is 16 there our school found out
) The colider can reach these speeds as it has no friction. Just magnets in a vacuum. A proton is just a fraction of a atom so is almost infinity light hence the reason it can be accelerated to such high speeds. Though even then it needs the power supply of a city to achieve this speed for both partials.
E=mc^2 mass of proton is 1.67262158 Ã 10-27 kilograms.
Though the hard drive space of 3,200 TB each year is even more phenomenal.
Its also cheap just ~2 days running cost of the Iraq war.
September 10th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
“Large Hadron Collider runs: Atlas doesnât shrug”
Wait a little bit. Just a matter of time until the tiny black holes grow and coalesce together. . .
A Bravo! Good job! CERN. You just fucked the planet!
We told them it would hapen but no they never listen!
CERN might well just have removed the universal screw that was holding everything together! Oh Boy!
One good news though. It will get ride of the RIAA/MPAA/CRIA/BPI parasites for good! With Univers-Sale this universe was dirty anyway.
September 10th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
“Reasonable Person,” I think that you have it right. According to Einstein’s theory, a tiny proton traveling at very near the speed of light will have very large mass, approaching infinity. Somehow the energy used to accelerate the proton just a bit more gets converted into even more mass. E=mC2, you know.
I have a very limited understanding of these things, but here is a paradox: if a proton is going around the collider at 99.99% of the speed of light, and another proton is doing the same thing in the opposite direction, what is their relative velocity when they collide head-on? A bit less than TWICE the speed of light? Wrong! They will be traveling at just below the speed of light, relative to each other, because of the time-dilation effect.
September 10th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I wrote an approve this message above.
September 10th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Each proton will travel at just below the speed of light but the energy of teh colision will be the mass of the rpoton time twice the speed of light still. This is why we are doomed!
PAFF!
This is the end of time! Repent!
September 10th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Who ever hold the copyright for the universe is not going to like that!
September 10th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
@ Reasonable Person too: I’m pretty sure that God is a lot smarter than the RIAA and won’t mind…
September 10th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
“See this data? These two electrons collided with a proton and gave off .000001% more energy! This proves the big-bang theory beyond a shadow of a doubt!”
September 11th, 2008 at 4:13 am
@ Josh: “Iâm pretty sure that God is a lot smarter than the RIAA and wonât mind.”
Unless the dam collider fuck up the entire universe of course!