CERN

[Scott]

Just a note for any of you techies - we had a visitor at our hotel recently, who is a Theoretical Physicist and works on the LHC, otherwise known as CERN for the last 20 years (specifically the Atlas project - the one that is supposed to answer a bunch of beginning of the world questions and about black holes, dark matter and all that jazz).  He has offered to give myself and my son a tour of the 'cavern' and hopefully even the Atlas project.  I can't wait!!  I'll (if I'm allowed to) take loads of pictures and hopefully post some.  It should take place sometime in the next 6 weeks...I'm sort of on call for it.

http://public.web.cern.ch/public/

http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/LHC/ATLAS-en.html

[SennaMan]

fascinating scotty, and go for it

strangely, I have not been able to find out what the "CERN" acronym stands for - is it the Centre or Commission for European Research Nuclear or pehaps an acronym in French?

[Slugger]

Good stuff Scott. I'm sure it will be great. Very jealous.

[cosworth151]

What a wonderful opportunity! I look forward to hearing about it!

[Ian]

The only black hole that I can guarantee is my wallet when my missus has finished with it.

[Scott]

fascinating scotty, and go for it

strangely, I have not been able to find out what the "CERN" acronym stands for - is it the Centre or Commission for European Research Nuclear or pehaps an acronym in French?

I think it is the French version of European Centre for Nuclear Research

[John S]

fascinating scotty, and go for it

strangely, I have not been able to find out what the "CERN" acronym stands for - is it the Centre or Commission for European Research Nuclear or pehaps an acronym in French?

You are right Scotty it is the French words, according to the CERN lhc website -

The name CERN

CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research. The name is derived from the acronym for the French Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, or European Council for Nuclear Research, a provisional body founded in 1952 with the mandate of establishing a world-class fundamental physics research organization in Europe. At that time, pure physics research concentrated on understanding the inside of the atom, hence the word ‘nuclear’.

When the Organization officially came into being in 1954, the Council was dissolved, and the new organization was given the title European Organization for Nuclear Research, although the name CERN was retained.

Sounds like a fabulous outing  Scotty, I hope you enjoy every minute.

[david1275]

If you take me with you Scotty, I will post loads of really bad Ferrari / Schumacher comments

Enjoy yourself mate that is a once in a lifetime experience, they do some serious 'Star Trek' stuff there.

[Steven Roy]

I have to say I am very jealous.  Have fun Scotty

[Scott]

Monday Oct 12th...can't wait!

[Slugger]

So how was it Scott?

[david1275]

Yeah, all that build up then no report.

[John S]

According to recent press reports the collider has been sabotageing itself from the future,    so I guess we have to wait a month or so for Scotty's report from next year to filter back in time.   

[Scott]

I haven't even downloaded the pics from my camera yet...I was going to give you the report with them included.  Give me a couple of days, it was a crazy busy weekend at the hotel.

Amazing though...stay tuned.

[Scott]

Alright...here goes.  

I won't presume to give you guys a physics lesson, but here are the raw basics.  We are constantly bombarded with particles from space, most of which are harmless, most of which are known.  The idea was to take the most basic of particles, protons, and send them around a magnetic accelerator at a bit less than the speed of light, try to make them collide, and then use massive detectors to see what happens.

Depending on their specialty in physics, theoretical physicists believe these detectors could find new particles that are so far only theoretical, or dark matter, or perhaps even black holes and the slim possibility of finding a new dimension.

Whatever it finds, it will be on an extremely tiny scale, and could exist for a tiny fraction of a second (to debunk the consipiracy theorists who say turning on CERN could end the world).

Presently they are in the process of cooling all the magnets in the LHC Large Haydron Collider, of which there are some 3500 in a 27km ring ranging from 70-140m below earth and surrounded by 6m of cement.  The LHC should be turned on right about the same time as Flavio is in court in France (unfortunately, he'll probably get more publicity).

The CMS detector, which was the experiment we had a tour of is an extremely heavy detector consisting of various detector elements including hand grown crystals, which account for most of its weight.  It was assembled in the building above ground in seven sections that were lowered with one of the largest cranes (in regards to weight capacity) in the world and then slid together underground in the cavern that was built to hold it.  They developed a revolutionary system of rolling airbags to put it together underground since there was no place for a crane.

So, here are some pictures...