Happy 50th Cern!

Anonymous Coward writes "The facility that has earned three scientists Nobel prizes, provided the impetus for Berners-Lee's hypertext program (aka the WWW), oh and has also helped answer some fundamental questions regarding the universe has turned fifty today! And with the LHC in development, here's hoping for another 50!"

Comments

happy birthday and thanks for web

[LucidBeast]

http://www.hitmill.com/internet/web_history.asp

CERN birthday gifts should be money

[erick99]

This article in Physics Today discusses the huge budget that CERN operates within as well as some rather large cost overages. So, put some cash in that birthday card!

It's not "Cern"

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not "Cern", it's C.E.R.N., or at the very least CERN. And it's not "Noble" prizes, it's "Nobel" prizes. And Tim Berners-Lee created HTML, not the WWW (HTML is just one of the many languages used in the WWW, and it can be used outside the WWW, too). And I'm pretty sure the universe hasn't turned 50 today.

Re:It's not "Cern"

[Matthias Wiesmann]

First, nobody uses the acronym C.E.R.N. (I know, I work there). Second, CERN is not really an acronym anymore, as it stands for Conseil de Recherche Nucléaire Européen, and is the name of the council that founded the CERN and was disbanded in the fifties. Third as somebody else pointed out, rules for capitalization change depending on the country, so depending on the reference language (UK English, French, maybe Swiss French) it might be correct or not, in any case US English rules do not apply.

The official name is, in French Organisation Européenne de Recherche Nucléaire (which would be OERN), and in English European Organization for Nuclear Research (which would be EONR). The name CERN simply stuck because it sounds nice and people are used to it, perhaps also because of the German word Kern that means nucleus. In the Geneva area many people believe that CERN stands for Centre de Recherche Nucléaire Européen (I learnt that at school), although this was never true.

LHC

[suckfish]

Here's the LHC home page for those who want more than a fluffy news media article
http://lhc-new-homepage.web.cern.ch/lhc-new-homepa ge/

Happy Birthday CERN

[apetime]

I was there a few weeks ago, visiting a friend who does research there, while travelling in Switzerland. It's definitely an interesting place (although it lacks the futuristic "aura" that I somehow expected). Near the main gate is a massive wooden sphere called the Innovation Globe. It's still in construction, but it looks like it will be a great and interesting facility (with public exhibits and theaters), and its organic look is a stark contrast to the mostly drab buildings inside.

It was a sunday when I went, and not that crowded, and my friend took me through a short tour of the place. They have an educational area set up with a museum, and science exhibits for children, which was very cool. All sorts of modern artifacts from nuclear experiments are lying around courtyards. He showed me the server room, where (i think, my friend wasn't sure either) they had some of the first web servers, and where they are now doing the grid computing stuff.

Another cool bit of CERN, especially for physics geeks, is all the streets are named after famous nuclear scientists. I passed by ones named for Einstein, Rutherford, and others. We didn't get to Feynman that day.

Oh, and the food in the lunch room is not half-bad and cheap for Switzerland.

CERN was a nice place to spend an afternoon, and I wish them another 50 great years.

You can help: LHC@Home

[slaida1]

Go to http://lhcathome.cern.ch/ and join. It's beta... whoops, beta testing ended just yesterday. I guess there's no more 5000 participant limit anymore, so why don't you give it a try. You can use BOINC to calculate seti work units also.

From the LHC@Home FAQ:
"1.2 What does LHC@home do?

LHC@home helps the construction of LHC. It simulates how the particles travel trough the 27 km long tunnel. With the help of the calculated information, the magnets that control the beam can be calibrated with greater precision."