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CERN's LHC Powers Down For Two Years

Posted by samzenpus on from the rotate-the-tires dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Excitement and the media surrounded the Higgs boson particle for weeks when it was discovered in part by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). But now, the collider that makes its home with CERN, the famed international organizational that operates the world's largest particle physics laboratory, is powering down. The Higgs boson particle was first discovered by the LHC in 2012. The particle, essentially, interacts with everything that has mass as the objects interact with the all-powerful Higgs field, a concept which, in theory, occupies the entire universe." We covered the repair announcement last month.

8 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. TWO years?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't these people realize we're in the 3D printing epoch now? Can they just print out a new LHC in less than two years?

    1. Re:TWO years?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Do you .. not .. sense... the utter black humor and mockery in my post? 3D printing is great for trinkets made of one material when all you worry about is the shape of the trinket. People don't realize the complexity of even a pair of headphones and all the different materials needed, let alone something as large and complex as the LHC. I'm making fun of the delusional people who think we are weeks away from Star Trek replicators because someone put a glue gun on a stepper motor.

    2. Re:TWO years?? by erice · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't these people realize we're in the 3D printing epoch now? Can they just print out a new LHC in less than two years?

      Well, yes but from whose point of view? Remember all those black holes that that LHC was supposed to create? Everyone was afraid they were going to destroy the world. That didn't happen but they did create a bit of a time dilation issue. For the gang working at the collider, they're just shutting down for a couple of weekends to do a little sweeping up. But for the rest of us on the outside, it's two years.

    3. Re:TWO years?? by Charliemopps · · Score: 5, Funny

      I know at least 3 different hippie/steampunk-esque people that have never as much as put a new handle on a kitchen drawer, but yet have a $2000 bag of parts sitting on their kitchen tables that, supposedly, once complete, will be a 3D printer. Granted, those bags have been sitting there for months, even years in one case, but they are determined it will get put together and eventually help them build their straw bail houses. Every single one of them is convinced that the past 10,000 years worth of engineering mankind has been involved in was misguided, wrong and wasteful. They, with their Nikola Tesla biographies in hand, will revolutionize the world with their geodesic domes and modern day dirigibles. They also hunt ghosts on the weekends. Interesting times.

  2. For what it's worth by Schmorgluck · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This downtime means that some parts that aren't open to visits during operations, will be for quite a while. Science tourism rocks!

    --
    There's nothing like $HOME
  3. Re:Understandable but still frustrating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some parts for LHC were getting designed in the 1970s. 2-years is *nothing*.

    Comments here are like if nothing can be done. You know, real science is actually understanding the petabytes of data already measured and stored. Hey, they even have to figure out that Higg's boson look-like thingy that they did measure but still not sure what it is 100%.

    As I said, 2 years, it is nothing. Lots of data to go over. Trust me, no one will be idle.

  4. Re:To all you leftist science geeks by tylutin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If a project like the LHC were really producing useful results, the free market would jump to fund it.

    Actually, businesses rarely looks farther than 5 years in a business plan.
    If a research project can't make a profit in that time, they don't pursue it.
    The LHC took 10 years to build, from 1998 to 2008. Therefore nearly all of the physics research that has been performed and its resulting discoveries and breakthroughs would never have happened if it was left to the "free market".

    Science and understanding can not progress through simple theory. The ideas must be tested and validated. That's the reason for facilities like this.

  5. Re:Understandable but still frustrating by filthpickle · · Score: 5, Funny

    Trust me, no one will be idle.

    Trust me. I will be.