Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

LHC Will Be Shut Down In 2011 Because of "Mistake"

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it dept.

astroengine follows up to a story about the LHC shutting down that seems to have hit all the news replicators today. "It's to be expected when pushing the frontiers of physics, but the LHC's epic 'will it or won't it' saga continues. Due to an unforeseen construction mistake, the LHC will cease experiments for a year (starting around late-2011) so repairs and upgrades can be carried out. For now, accelerated particles will have a maximum energy of 7TeV (half the power of the LHC's design maximum), which is ample for at least 18 months of experiments before shutdown."

12 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. You know things are bad when ... by dtmos · · Score: 5, Informative

    ... the article linked in the story starts off by debunking the submission.

    UPDATE (March 10, 12:45am PST): With thanks to Prof. Jon Butterworth, member of the ATLAS collaboration at the LHC, I've been informed that the plan to shut down the LHC for an extended period of time was actually announced in early February by Dr. Steve Myers after the LHC Performance Workshop, in Chamonix, France. So rather than this being a sudden development, it is part of a planned shutdown.

    Prof. Brian Cox, also an ATLAS physicist, confirmed this fact via Twitter:

    There is nothing wrong with LHC - lazy journalism. Schedule announced in Jan, 18 months physics, 12 month engineering shutdown afterwards.

    Cox pointed out that accelerator shutdowns are more routine than the BBC article (the source of this blog post) suggests:

    ALL particle accelerators have 6 - 12 month regular shutdowns for maintenance and upgrades. That's how complex machines are operated!

    1. Re:You know things are bad when ... by RadioElectric · · Score: 5, Funny

      Obviously the effect which is stopping the LHC from operating works by propagating a "ripple" back in time. Hence, the article summary WAS accurate at the time of submission, but then the ripple reached January and made the shutdown part of the original plan. It all makes sense!

  2. Hmmm... by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 5, Funny

    That Higgs Boson is finding more and more creative ways... Seems this time it went so far back as to flaw the LHC's design.

    How long do we have before it goes further back and destroys humanity?

    1. Re:Hmmm... by istartedi · · Score: 5, Funny

      How long do we have before it goes further back and destroys humanity?

      At least until yesterday.

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  3. Not News. by pz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As the linked article points out, this so-called news is just lazy journalism of a long-ago announced planned shutdown for routine maintenance and upgrading.

    This should never have made it to the front page here. Is it too much to ask that the editors at Slashdot at least GLANCE at the linked articles?

    --

    Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
  4. No... by Petersko · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Now we need someone to pipe up that if they used Agile Methodology when building the LHC, none of the design issues would have happened."

    If they'd have used the Agile Methodology it'd be working, but the particles would travel at 60 miles per hour, and the collisions would be recorded by a police sketch artist. Improvements would be scheduled for a future sprint.

  5. Re:Agile Construction by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 5, Funny

    Given the way Agile is usually implemented, it would have then made a detour under London before making it back to Switzerland. Kind of like the famous cartoon... especially the documentation part. Nice legs...

    --
    -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
  6. Re:2012? by oracleofbargth · · Score: 5, Funny

    I know, I wouldn't want to be blamed for that movie either.

  7. Put the Toyota engineers in charge by PinchDuck · · Score: 5, Funny

    Then it will never stop.

  8. we were asking for it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As a physicist, all I can say is we've been asking for this kind of press.

    When you hype the bejeezus out of the shiny new multi-billion dollar tool, it's reasonable for the people who paid for it to expect results. It is jarring when people hear for over a decade about the great results that will come out of an experiment, and then later hear that we have to spend ~50% of the time doing maintenance on the equipment, and the first few years just testing it. I know this is the way things work, this is the way my (much, much smaller) experiments work. This is not a complaint about the science, or being careful. This is a complaint about politics, funding structures and a lack of ability across fields to communicate effectively with the general public. We can't keep doing this to ourselves if we want the public to trust us. We have to manage the media better.

    To begin with, the great achievement of the LHC *is* the LHC, not the search for the Higgs boson. It's enough that this is the most complicated, impressive, advanced piece of technology on the planet, and that it required input at the cutting edge from nearly every major field of physics. Just like the point of going to the moon was to go to the moon, not to bring back moon rocks.

  9. Should have have hired the Prius engineers by HermDog · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now there's a crew who know how to make an unstoppable accelerator!

    --
    JADBP
  10. Really, it's hedging 2012 bets by drumcat · · Score: 5, Funny

    I see right through this. They don't want LHC running when the Mayan calendar ends...