Slashdot Mirror
Princeton Student Finds Bug In LHC Experiment
An anonymous reader writes "A Princeton senior has found a bug in the hardware design for the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In the hardware used to record and capture events in the LHC, she discovered errors that were leading to the appearances of double images because of particle streams known as jets. 'Xiaohang Quan '09 was working on her senior thesis when she found a miscalculation in the hardware of the world's largest particle accelerator. Quan, a physics concentrator, traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, last week with physics professors Christopher Tully GS '98, Jim Olsen and Daniel Marlow for the annual meeting of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). This year, however, they also came to discuss Quan's discovery with the designers of the hardware for the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment, which, as part of the Large Hadron Collider, has the potential to revolutionize particle physics.'"
Her last name is "09" and she is a "concentrator?" Who wrote this?
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
if it moves, it's biology. If it doesn't work, it's physics.
"It doesn't cost enough, and it makes too much sense."
They are calling her "Gordon" and are scheming to get her to be the guinea pig in the resonance cascade scenario test.
I would have to say that this student will not have a problem finding a job after graduation.
CERN: Now Xiaohang, Sherry is going to show you around the place. She can answer any questions you might have about fringe benefits or dress codes or anything and I'll see you back upstairs when you're done, okay? Sherry, take good care of this young lady. She's one of the ten finest minds kin the country.
XIAOHANG: Someday I hope to be two of them.
Flexible bare-metal recovery for Linux/UNIX
The writeup is incorrect (obviously not up to Daily Planet-quality work here). Jimmy Olsen is a reporter, not a physicist. The physicist referred in the article is actually Lex Luthor, and the Large Hadron Collider is really a secret project to turn normal metals into Kryptonite.
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
Some universities call it concentrating on a subject rather than majoring.
That's because years ago, teachers found out most students don't concentrate on anything.
But this girl is definitely the exception, she's obviously concentrating very hard.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
God made woman to help man. The ability to find man's shortcomings is an inherent design feature that allows women to help men where they need it most. However, most women do not use this gift productively...it is known as nagging.
via hardware verification with ACL2.
I hope this helps the LHC Experiment so it doesn't cause
a black hole to destroy THE UNIVERSE.
Yours In Physics,
Kilgore Trout
Yeah, no more research until we understand everything. Good idea.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
It all depends on where you work.
I've seen businesses make decisions on thousands of lines of code in meetings after meetings, where they don't actually bring a computer, nor a line of code in. They theorize. They ponder. They wonder. They question. Then they come out of the meeting, and tell the developer how he screwed up. The theory and the reality very rarely coincide.
I like to throw them, by giving them a dozen different yet plausible theories as quickly as I can. Different people will pick up on various ideas that I threw out to them. Then some will try to converge on a single idea, and fail miserably. It would be funnier if you could just slide a few swords across the table, and watch them have at it.
Of course, none of the theories I threw out in the meeting had any basis in reality, they were just fun to watch people fight over.
Solar flares.
Years ago, I actually proved to management, that solar radiation made one server crash, and didn't touch the hundreds around it. That was regardless of the fact that there was a 10 story building above it, and it was 30 feet underground, in a hardened bunker, surrounded by well grounded metal. It was the end result of a micro solar flare. I think we were lucky no one was standing there when it happened.
I'm a firm believer that theory is like being a lawyer. If you can convince enough people (or the right people) of it, it must be true.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Just delays us nearer to 2012?
I've seen this happen too much professionally to think of it as a trend.
I've seen this sort of anecdotal nonsense too much on Slashdot to think of it as statistically significant.
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something" - Plato
She'd also find all those bugs crawling around.
I think you want to say that if the answer was found, the universe would cease to exist and be replaced with something even more inexplicable.
FreeBSD bounties
bugs cause the end of the world....AUGGH run away run away
Sorry, I meant to say 'NOT representative', the mistake in doing that is, of course, representative, therefore, I was correct either way. Ha! Next, I shall go on to prove black is white.
Research has led to the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction normally taking less than a second, to take from four days to four years to complete. Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2-6 years. It does not decay, but undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes, not to mention multiple oxymorons. This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. That hypothetical quantity might normally be called 'critical mass' but, in this unique case it is known as 'critical mess'. When catalyzed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium (Am), another just-discovered element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
It's little-known that Bush also found some critical errors in Fermilab calculations.
Don't worry, the meat is on the inside.
but she's certainly not the only undergradute to have made a contribution such as this.
Woah woah woah there. Didn't anyone tell you undergraduates aren't good for anything and undergraduate degrees are only useful to show you can "complete something?" Get with the latest talking points there please.
The world you experience is only a close approximation of reality.
No, no. you got it all wrong. Black holes suck. Now geology, that rocks.