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CERN's Particle Smashers List Their Toughest Tech Challenges
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at CERN have detailed some of the big technology problems they need to solve to help the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) solve some of the fundamental questions about the nature of the universe. 'You make it, we break it' is the CERN openlab motto which looks at emerging tech: data acquisition, computing platforms, data storage architectures, compute management and provisioning and more are on the to do list."
Is it any wonder the internet came out of CERN?
remember, Al Gore invented the internet. Tim Berners Lee invented the World Wide Web
Left out terrorists sneaking in to steal their anti-matter and threaten the vatican.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Of course a small black hole, it black holes actually exist, would quickly evaporate.
Of course a small black hole, it black holes actually exist, would quickly evaporate.
As we can observe black holes we can be quite sure they exist. ;)
... not just an article talking about it.
https://zenodo.org/record/8765...
You cannot observe a black hole, ever. At best you would be able to observe the accretion disk that surrounds it.
If CERN creates small black holes, so do cosmic ray impacts.
Also note: The atomic bomb tests didn't knock a hole in the bottom of the oceans and allow them to drain.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
'You make it, we break it' is the CERN openlab motto which looks at emerging tech: data acquisition, computing platforms, data storage architectures, compute management and provisioning and more are on the to do list."
So did CERN make or break Scientific Linux? Why would computing platforms even be a consideration for them, given that along w/ Fermi, they are among the creators of Scientific Linux?
I love seeing documents like this.
A lot of cool stuff gets built because someone has a need for it.
My current employer (cloudant.com) got started the same way. A couple of LHC researchers couldn't get the data storage throughput levels they needed with existing solutions so they built a new one.
I'm sure if you look around you can find tons of stuff that comes from papers like this.
http://zenodo.org/record/8765/...
Some numbers about the computing power at the CERN computing center (July 2013):
Number of machines: 17,000 processors with 85,000 cores (Source)
All physics computing is done using the Linux operating system and commodity PC hardware. There are few Solaris server machines as well, especially for databases (Oracle).
You cannot observe an electron, ever. At best you can be able to observe its electromagnetic and weak interactions with other particles.
You can observe the black hole if you are inside the event horizon, however you can't tell anyone about it afterward as your message can't get out
Meh. You cannot observe anything, ever. At best you can analyze your own neurons firing.
They are collecting an incredible amount of data every instant that this machine is running - they've got extremely capable processing that combs through terabits of data and discards the 99.9% that is irrelevant, so that they merely have to store gigabits to disk (as it is, they have an incredible amount of storage on site). Some pretty impressive computing they have to go through before they even begin to look at the data.
And we still have to drink Sanka.
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
If ignoring the accretion disk, the only observable difference from being inside the event horizon to outside the black hole (assuming any realistic propulsion) is the amount of the sky that look is missing star light (or filled with just red shifted images of what came in before you).
And while we are at Santa's list, me, I want a red Mustang for five bucks, so I can get the most out of the Bay Area commute.
Potential missing staff in some areas is a separate issue, and educational programmes are not designed to make up for it. On-the-job learning and training are not separated but dynamically linked together, benefiting to both parties. In my three years of operation, I have unfortunately witnessed cases where CERN duties and educational training became contradictory and even conflicting.
http://ombuds.web.cern.ch/blog/2013/06/lets-not-confuse-students-and-fellows-missing-staff
"How should we make it attractive for them [young people] to spend 5,6,7 years in our field, be satisfied, learn about excitement, but finally be qualified to find other possibilities?" -- H. Schopper
Indeed, even while giving complete satisfaction, they have no forward vision about the possibility of pursuing a career at CERN.
This lack of an element of social responsibility in the contract policy is unacceptable. Rather than serve as a cushion of laziness for supervisors, who often have only a limited and utilitarian view when defining the opening of an IC post, the contract policy must ensure the inclusion of an element of social justice, which is cruelly absent today.
http://staff-association.web.cern.ch/content/unsatisfactory-contract-policy
And a warning to non-western members:
"The cost [...] has been evaluated, taking into account realistic labor prices in different countries. The total cost is X (with a western equivalent value of Y) [where Y>X] source: LHCb calorimeters : Technical Design Report
ISBN: 9290831693 http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/494264
The nuclear and elemental particle physicists' message to God.
i am pretty sure the gravity gets out...