Fire it up… for Science!
Maki| September 11, 2008 7:57 pm
As of yesterday, in the early morn, the Large Hadron Collider successfully fired its ‘First Beam’. Whats that mean? It means that the world enlightening/destroying supercollider shot a single particle around its 27km course. People all over the world could witness the test via satellite or web-cast. Alas, yours truly had to work that morning. DAMMIT!!!
‘Doesn’t that mean it works?’
Not quite, Timmy. They still have to test all the other beams and then get them to collide. I don’t know about you, but I miss the garbage can now and then and these guys are trying to make atoms collide. So they still have some work cut out for them. But this means we’re still good to go on the October launch of this possible mind blowing particle accelerator.
For more about this historic event follow these links:
The CERN compound as seen from orbit (Note that the collider ring follows a 17 mile course underground, crossing the French and Swiss borders. If you look around you can find various outposts along the route)
And finally… “Has the Large Hadron Collider Destroyed the World Yet.com“
While I was drunk at a party I tried explaining to some people why microscopic black holes wouldn’t pose any problems (hawking radiation duuurr) but it didn’t go over so well, ‘cuz drunk people are fear mongers.
Care to comment?