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Europe's LHC To Run At Half-Energy Through 2011
quaith writes "ScienceInsider reports that Europe's Large Hadron Collider will run at half its maximum energy through 2011 and likely not at all in 2012. The previous plan was to ramp it up to 70% of maximum energy this year. Under the new plan, the LHC will run at 7 trillion electron-volts through 2011. The LHC would then shut down for a year so workers could replace all of its 10,000 interconnects with redesigned ones allowing the LHC to run at its full 14 TeV capacity in 2013. The change raises hopes at the LHC's lower-energy rival, the Tevatron Collider at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, of being extended through 2012 instead of being shut down next year. Fermilab researchers are hoping that their machine might collect enough data to beat the LHC to the discovery of the Higgs boson, a particle key to how physicists explain the origin of mass."
Does this news mean we now only have to be half afraid that they're going to create a black hole that will destroy the Earth?
I'm scared for all the half-lives at risk.
But what about all the counter-strikes and the portals?
Uh, HEL-LO?!! Have you guys forgotten that the world is going to end in 2012?!! I think you might want to ramp it up all the way in 2011...just in case.
"Klaatu, verada, necktie!" -Ash
In an equally optimistic point of view, if Higgs boson is later shown to not exist, the Tevatron Collider can claim that it was able to not find it before the LHC!
OMG..The real truth is out there. This is just an excuse to have the device shut down during 2012. They didn't want to be responsible for the 2012 Mayan prophecy coming true. It make so much sense now!
Not that I believe that sort of thing but it is the first thought that popped in my head while reading the summary.
I love the sound of distortion in the morning -- webcommando