World's Largest Atom Smasher Nears Completion

evanwired writes "The last magnet was put in place this week at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland. When the device is completed about a year from now it will be the world's largest particle accelerator, putting scientists in reach of new data and possible answers to questions dominated by theory over observation for the past two decades. Wired News recently visited the installation — awe-inspiring in its scale — as part of an in-depth, three-part series on the collider exploring the engineering, science and politics of high-end theoretical physics in the 21st century."

Caution - low-flying quarks

[billstewart]

Watch out for leftover jaggedy fragments of atoms. And if CERN gets involved, there may be some technology spinoffs about displaying mixtures of pictures and text on the Internet.

Quick!

[LiquidCoooled]

Somebody wake Jodie Foster up, the machine is nearly ready!

you know duck scientists are having a field day...

[Bananatree3]

when you hear a rising call from their labs...Quarrk, Quarrkk, Quark!

Re:Acknowledgement ...

[DAldredge]

Cool - I didn't know CERN was on the web :)

Black holes

[Dan East]

Is this the collider that could possibly create a black hole that would destroy the planet? Maybe a little sightseeing on the ISS would be a good idea about that time. That would buy me a couple extra weeks.

Dan East

Jumbonium smasher!

[Majik Sheff]

I was wondering when we'd have the equipment to smash the world's largest atom!

Politics of high-end theoretical physics

[Anonymous Coward]

I hear they're trying to pass a law in congress defining a traditional meson as being between one quark and one anti-quark.

Re:Caution - low-flying quarks

[eclectro]

there may be some technology spinoffs about displaying mixtures of pictures and text on the Internet.

Because smashing atoms the old way was sooo Web 1.0

Re:Quick!

[Anonymous Coward]

We'll see about that!

-Crazy Religious Nutjob

Re:Black holes

[fred fleenblat]

The thinking is that any black holes that are created by the LHC would be so small that they would evaporate in an instant, probably within milliseconds of devouring the earth and sun. So there's nothing to worry about really.

Higgs boson

[Dachannien]

So, how long until we discover the mass of the Higgs boson, thus compressing the Earth down to the size of a pea [wikipedia.org]?

Re:In the mean time....

[realmolo]

That's because there's no good way to "monetize" physics. If the particle-accelerator crowd wants funding they need to find a way to:

1. Allow teenagers to upload videos to the accelerator 2. Allow teenagers to download ringtones from the accelerator 3. Allow teenagers to instant-message entangled particles on the other side of the universe

Re:Black holes

[ImaNihilist]

They weren't exactly sure what would happen when they set off the first atom bomb either.

Honestly, I hope everyone's wrong and some kind of crazy black hole forms. Yeah, we'd all die...but what a way for a civilization to end! I mean, we gotta' at least out do the dinosaurs.

Re:Black holes

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

>"It's quite hard to destroy the Earth."

Does that statement make anyone else nervous? I mean, does that sound like experience talking?

Re:Black holes

[Danga]

Honestly, I hope everyone's wrong and some kind of crazy black hole forms. Yeah, we'd all die...but what a way for a civilization to end! I mean, we gotta' at least out do the dinosaurs.

Ha, I agree that we must out do the dino's, that would be quite funny. The problem with wiping ourselves out with a black hole is a passing alien craft may detect a black hole where our civilization used to be but they would probably have no idea we even existed.

That is why I think wiping ourselves out with self-replicating nano bots would be much more funny. Then a passing alien craft would come across a milky way sized swarm of these nano bots and think to themselves "what dumbass civilization did this to themselves?".

Large Hadron Collider

[johansalk]

Interesting, no one in this thread has "misspelt" it yet as the large hardon collider.

Re:Caution - low-flying quarks

[The Zon]

This is tremendous improvement over the Small Hadron Collider, which was only big enough to smash one atom at a time. The Large Hadron Collider will smash at least two, which is the minimum number of atoms for a Web 2.0 social framework.

Re:Caution - low-flying quarks

[aweraw]

I'm more concerned about the probability of a resonance cascade scenario...

By the way, have you seen my crowbar?

Re:More research?

[arthurpaliden]

The reason why research is slowly grinding to a halt in the United States is because the people of the United States have finaly realized that you do not have to spend billions of dollars to get the answers to 'life the universe and every thing else". Just go to the holy book of your choice. The answers are all there.

Re:you know duck scientists are having a field day

[Bananatree3]

What do the kitten scientists say, "Muon, muon"?

That would be the cow scientists.

Re:Large Hadron Collider

[Anonymous Coward]

parent post: "the large hardon collider." ... located in Bangkok.

Just a quick nip down the pub for some peanuts...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Aren't we supposed to place a bag over our heads or something?"

"If you like."

"Will that help?"

"No, not at all..."

Re:Black holes

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless you are caught at the event horizon while suffering a 3cm paper cut.
Yay for eternal agonizing pain!

Re:Caution - low-flying quarks

[somersault]

Yeah, I think only about 2 people would have got it if you hadn't pointed it out, hi-larious..!

Sorry :p

Re:Caution - low-flying quarks

[timtwobuck]

I'm not sure I would have gotten it if it wasn't modded +5 funny. The crowbar was the dead give away