A Detailed Profile of the Hadron Super Collider

davco9200 writes "The New York Times has up a lengthy profile of the Large Hadron Collider. The article covers the basics (size = 17 miles, cost = 8 billion, energy consumption = 14 trillon electron volts) and history but also provides interesting interviews of the scientists who work with the facility every day. The piece also goes into some detail on the expected experiments. 'The physicists, wearing hardhats, kneepads and safety harnesses, are scrambling like Spiderman over this assembly, appropriately named Atlas, ducking under waterfalls of cables and tubes and crawling into hidden room-size cavities stuffed with electronics. They are getting ready to see the universe born again.' There are photos, video and a nifty interactive graphic."

Comments

Cool

[grub]

They are getting ready to see the universe born again.

It's like having a Tivo with a 6,000 year replay capacity!

Compact?!

[TheWoozle]

"Above is one of the collider's massive particle detectors, called the Compact Muon Solenoid"

I'd hate to see the Large Muon Solenoid!

Thank goodness there's no typo

[Nimey]

I don't even want to think about a hardon supercollider.

Re:Thank goodness there's no typo

[Anonymous Coward]

For a minute, I thought "Hardon Super Collider" was the name of the Japanese version of "America's Funniest Home Videos".

"Energy Consumption" - WTF?

[NewbieProgrammerMan]

...energy consumption = 14 trillon electron volts...

So that means the LHC only uses 2.24 microjoules? Is that per second or per fortnight?

/. does it again!

[perturbed1]

There are more mistakes in the /. gist than in the NYTimes article -- which incidentally is a good summary for the LHC. Well, the writer was at CERN about a month ago, so I am assuming it took about that long to write it.

It is called the LHC -- Large Hadron Collider. Not the Hadron SuperCollider. The SuperCollider is dead. It was called the SSC. But it has passed on. It has ceased to be! It has expired and gone to meet its maker! Its a stiff! Bereft of line and rests in peaces in TX! It's kicked the bucket and shuffled off its mortal coil! (Gee. I wish I could write this about the M$! Grrr!!)

The energy consumption is 14 trillion electron volts?! Wt..? Last time, I checked the LHC could not run on days where the electricity prices were high. Actually, it can not run during winter for that reason. It and the detectors consume as much energy as you get out from a medium-sized nuclear reactor -- and that's why it sits partially in France and not fully in Switzerland. (France produces a whole lot more power than Switzerland.)

"The piece also goes into some detail on the expected experiments. " Huh? What expected experiments? The experiments have been in construction now for seven years. You mean expected results?!

Honestly, how many mistakes can you make in one paragraph??

Sorry about the rant, but I am so annoyed with the latest reports about M$'s threats, that I had to vent. I feel better now. Slightly.

Re:The Problem with Something this Expensive

[qc_dk]

Well, you used something that came from the CERN collaboration to write your question. I would say that WWW has certainly changed the daily life of almost all of us, and the economic boom that it caused through the 90s has certainly been a bountiful repayment of our investment.

Cheers,
Qc_dk
Ps. I used to work at cern and with the 10'000 men and 2 women there, there certainly was a lot of large hardon collisions. I believe you USians call it cockblocking. ;)