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LHC To Idle All Accelerators In 2012
sciencehabit writes "Particle physicists and science fans everywhere knew that the European particle physics laboratory, CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland, would shut down the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest atom smasher, for all of 2012 for repairs. Many expected that the shutdown would stretch to more than a year, which CERN officials confirmed today. But most probably did not expect CERN to idle all its other accelerators at the same time, shutting down a variety of smaller projects and forcing hundreds of scientists not working on the LHC to take an unanticipated break in data taking. The longer shutdown could be a chance for US scientists working on the Tevatron at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, if researchers there can persuade lab management to keep the machine going instead of shutting it down in 2011 as currently planned."
Reader suraj.sun notes other CERN news making the rounds right now about plans for the International Linear Collider, a 31-kilometer-long collider designed to complement the LHC. Construction on the ILC could begin as soon as 2012.
I guess we won't have to worry about 12-21-2012 after all.
"we're supposed to shut it down for maintenance"
"No! This is our only chance to beat CERN! While they're still doing repairs!
"You have to stop, the numbers! They're not stable!"
"Almost there... almost there..."
"GORDON! GET OUT OF THERE!"
*green electrical storm*
"My god... I never thought I'd see a resonance cascade, let alone create one!"
and that's it people. We sent the crowbar to CERN. We're doomed.
And here I was hoping they would end the world!
Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg?
It might be essential but it saddens me a bit how much of a let down the LHC has been. Fermliab however has been a real story of inspiration. I hope we see results from Geneva in the future but so far it's not exactly been inspiring stuff and this decision to shut down everything sounds a bit OTT.
jaymz
Even the largest hadrons can't stay active forever.
of reading about LHC repairs. Just create the damn black hole
It's wrong, and it's even contradicted by the summary below. The LHC isn't idling all accelerators, CERN is idling all of the accelerators they operate.
I know it's Slashdot, but is it too much to ask that the editors try to pay enough attention to ensure that the headline is accurate with respect to the summary?
But how will we shrink the Earth to an object the size of a pea on December 21, 2012?
Why are the copypasta trolls always so attracted to 2012/LHC stories?
Support the EFF and Creative Commons. The war is coming, and they're supporting you...
The longer shutdown could be a chance for US scientists working on the Tevatron at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois.
There are not many channels in which the Tevatron will be competitive with the LHC after the first data run assuming that we get the expected amount of data. The only advantages which the Tevatron has are a far better understood detectors and a larger luminosity sample but the first is lost with time (as ATLAS/CMS analyse and understand their detector data better) and the second is hard to significantly improve on given their already large data sample. The far higher energy of the LHC means that once the first data run is collected it will be very hard for the Tevatron to continue to compete with new physics. To give you an idea of the advantage a higher energy gives simply increasing the Tevatron energy from 1.8 TeV to 1.96 TeV (i.e. 10%) increased the number of top quark pairs produced by ~40%. The LHC energy is 350% that of the Tevatron so it is hard to see how they will be competitive with typical new, high energy phenomena after the first LHC run.
They'll delve into the masses of data accumulated over the years, peering at impact traces, peeling back gig after gig of data in search for that miracle that would flip the universe as we know it upside down...
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
The day physicists charmed politicians with a lot of math to convince them that infinite wealth was just beyond reach because surely if we can manage fission then certainly fusion should be no problem (remove all references to recreating gravity/temperature/pressure conditions inside the sun here).
PS: Physics doesn't work that way. When someone says "Fission = energy; fusion = MORE energy" you need to medicate that person. Reality = "fission = energy, fusion = REQUIRES energy". Oh dear, stars are an exception.
I guess CERN is too afraid to be responsible for doomsday in 2012 after all...
Maybe they are shutting it down until after December 21, 2012 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon)
It's hard to believe that you're posting at -1 with such a valuable outlook. Thanks for your contribution!
I really hope the ILC gets the go ahead But you would not build it until you know the Higgs mass (if the Higgs exists) because you want to work with e+e- collisions on the centre of mass. Until you can prove the Higgs mass is in the design range of the machine, you simply wouldn't built. So I think that story is yarbles.
I'll do it. I need 3 million sticks of TNT, 12 million cars, 2 million doses of LCD, access to a major religion's power centre, and a set of keys.
Oh, also 10 feet of rope and 4 disco balls.
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
so it looks like 2012 will not be the cubs year.
I find it humorous that the LHC is shutting down for the entire period encompassed for the supposed mayan "end of the world"
wonder how many boxes of Kraft dinner i could buy with the money they spend on any TWO of the various r&d efforts over the centuries that led to a world in which it's possible for me to cheaply buy a box of Kraft dinner
I work on the LHC, and if its pinnacle of achievement, its major contribution to the progress of humanity, turns out to be cheaper Kraft dinners, I think I'm going to go lie under a bus.
it's not a big secret that we will be having some high solar/magnetic activity now, & for some time to come. it wouldn't be thoughtless to turn off your billion watt radio/atom smasher before the biggest anticipated 'lightning' strike ever.
OMG. Here is confirmable data, streaming in newsfeeds from all over the world, that the LHC is actually involved in a time travel paradox with a Higgs boson it can never create. Eventually the entire site will be nuked from orbit by the Higgs boson, because it's the only way to be sure.
--
Toro
Fear and Loathing in Saint-Genis-Pouilly...
wonder how many boxes of Kraft dinner i could buy with the money they spend on the TWO colliders
Well I don't know what the other of the TWO colliders are, anyhow.
A Kraft dinner costs a $1.16 according to some lazy, half-assed googling, and according to wikipedia the LHC has a budget of 9 billion dollars.
So you could buy about 7.75 billion Kraft dinners. Tasty.
Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
Troll. Everyone knows it takes an odd number of disco balls to end the world.
AGAIN!!! What is it with thise Germans and weapons and world conquestation? They done lost two wars already and here they are messing around, wanting to start a third, and final. Leave the universe to God, I say, and we'll leave Germans to find something else to do with those OFFLINE collisors. God still hate the Germans!!!
Scientists generally ask for money and deliver slowly. Unfortunately, we really won't know if it's a waste of money until more money is poured into it. They should nickname it "Government."
Are you implying that Kraft Dinner is not the greatest food in the world? As a Canadian I am deeply offended!
7.75Bn?
Brings a whole new perspective on the term "Feed the world"...
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
I turned off idle stories, so why am I still seeing them??!?
Bow-ties are cool.
I like my hadrons in a creamy cheese sauce.
Maybe they found something. Something at higher energies. Something that scared them.....
Even the largest hadrons can't stay active forever.
I was gonna Fix That For You ... but I'm now scared of the prospect of "large hardon colliders" and just ran away :(
That is the date for them to power things back up. Gotta prepare for that big bang ya know, have everything in perfect condition to create the end of the world.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
They have laid off (actually given a 1 year sabbatical) to a couple of Ecuadorean, or Peruvian physicists for 2012.
" OK you Mayans- go have fun - report back here in 2013.""
.
- aqk
F U
Those hydrons are supposed to be served Ice Cold (TM), mister.
Here be signatures
Yeah... Feed the world exactly _ONE_ dinner. How's that supposed to help? "Oh yeah we made sure those poor africans died half a day later than expected" '>_>
Here be signatures
Honestly I doubt this is ever going to truly happen. It took them 20 years to build this thing and some of the parts they are using are 20 years old. They have to replace whats old with the new now.
Everybody knows the Cubs will win in 2015, unless Doc Brown or Marty screw up the timeline again...
WTF is a kraft dinner? aren't they the people who make spreadable cheese?
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
"The longer shutdown could be a chance for US scientists working on the Tevatron at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, if researchers there can persuade lab management to keep the machine going instead of shutting it down in 2011 as currently planned."
Try to wrap your head around this: this is not an "us vs. them" situation. It's not a competition. If you're cheering for one "team" or the other you're performing a psychological trick to fool yourself into feeling good.
If either group of scientists successfully discovers new knowledge that improves our understanding of the world, everyone gains. Sure, any scientist wants to be the first to discover something important, but most scientists know that if they've made a contribution to the whole effort, they're as responsible for progress as the man who has the "eureka!" moment.
If you're hoping the American site does it before CERN because you're American, and then you get to feel good for your team "winning", why are you doing that? Why don't you try feeling good or bad about your own life, instead of identifying yourself with national or international physics projects so you can cheer them on like they were a sports team or political party?
Nothing like working night shifts in the middle of the (to my coastal eyes) incredibly violent Illinois lightning storms...sitting next to a giant container of liquid hydrogen. Science!
(The Pirelli calendar someone had left in the control room wasn't much consolation---I like my women like I like my coffee: hot, without fake tyre tracks on their bodies, and COVERED IN BEES.)
Are you sure the Kraft dinner wouldn't kill them _sooner_?
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
...2 million doses of LCD...
Are those 22 inch 'doses', or 25 inch?
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
... Fuck.
Secret's out. I'm a nerd, not a druggie.
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
What amazes me is that I, also a non-druggie, was the first slashdotter to catch it.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
It is what Kraft Macaroni and Cheese is called in Canada.
TODO: Insert witty sig