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

I bow to you

[daishin]

Ooo great persons who have contributed to the growth of porn.

Im non-Anon!

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!

Re:CERN birthday gifts should be money

[Cprossu]

and if you can't give em money, at least give them your best wishes at finding the 'darn ellusive higgs boson =)

Cost of running Cern?

[Lifix]

Can humanity possibly put a price on knoledge? Is there a limit to the ammount of money we should spend to learn - to further our understanding of the world around us?


/mod me off topic if you want

Re:Cost of running Cern?

[Old Wolf]

knoledge is cheap.
knowlege is priceless.

Dictionary is $2.50

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"

[bullitB]

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)

TBL invented both HTML and HTTP, in addition to the modern URL syntax, not to mention to the phrase "World Wide Web." Actually, what part of the WWW did he not invent?

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/

Re:Another 50 years of HEP...

[div_B]

it will never be over. the more we learn about nature, the more opportunities for speculation open up.

No, the more we learn about nature, the closer we come to the truth, which may or may not be open ended. Asserting that it will never be over assumes more knowledge than any of us have.

I may be wrong on that but it certainly seems that particle physics didn't really make any progress since quantum theory was accepted in .. what? .. early on in 20th century? If there's any "deeper understanding" gained since it certainly didn't make it into the wild yet...

Given that in this day and age that popular media still represent the electrons in an atom following exact orbits in the fashion of newtonian mechanics is a pretty good indication that very little of modern physics has made it 'into the wild'.

Web ?= positive invention

[n0mad6]

Other particle physicists may be able to back me up on this, but trying to explain what we do to one's relatives/friends is not the easiest thing to do. What's even worse is when the inevitable question of "what is it good for?" comes up. So, usually, I give the usual bit about how many spin-off technologies result from HEP including things like, what else, but the WWW.

I was rather taken aback when a few weeks ago, this response got me an earful of "The WEB!?? You guys are responsible for that PORN-FILLED WASTELAND!???"

I guess I'll stick to saying, "I work in a lab."

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."