LHC Successfully Cools To 1.9K In Lead-Up To Restart 177
Smelly Jeffrey writes "The BBC is reporting that the LHC has had all eight of its sectors cooled to 1.9 Kelvin. Their tagline is that it is now 'colder than deep space,' referring to the CMB. LHC engineers have spent nearly $40,000,000 USD on a new system to prevent the 'quench' condition that caused the LHC to be down for warming, repairs, and re-cooling over the last year. The LHC is now cold enough to begin colliding particles in search of the Higgs Boson. High power collisions won't be started until late December, or perhaps early January. However, a low-power beam through parts of the collider could be tested as early as next week!"
Wrong summary (Score:3, Interesting)
"LHC engineers have spent nearly $40,000,000 USD on a new system to prevent quenching condition that ..."
No,
1. it is not to prevent quenching, it is to allow helium to escape properly. Superconductors will at some point in their life quench or lose superconductivity. This happens for various reasons though most are due to insufficient cooling, like the last case.
2. Couldn't this say $40,000,000 USD (FORTY MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS) to be more dramatic?
Re:40 MILLION USD (Score:3, Interesting)
It's been estimated that most of the world's economy is the result of basic quantum mechanics research. The money put into QM research has been an absolutely incredible investment. Perhaps they're hoping that it will continue to be so.
Re:40 MILLION USD (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:If it's not in operation... (Score:3, Interesting)
Seen from space (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:40 MILLION USD (Score:2, Interesting)
... ATLAS ... CMS ... ALICE ... LHCb ...
Woah, woah, that's a tad too many scientific buzzwords! I'm all dizzy around here!
Cue the LHC Rap [google.com] ...