LHC

[BoRED S2upid]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-1171...

Have smashed stuff together and the outcome was really hot.

Are they just having a laugh at somebodys expense? Everything I read about this is all ifs and buts.

If they ever achieve their goal (If they know what that is) will it ever have a decent use?

Also whos footing the bill for all this, it must be costing a fortune.

[eharding]

BoRED S2upid said:

If they ever achieve their goal (If they know what that is) will it ever have a decent use?

Golf courses on the moon, personal hoverbikes, time travel, perfect weather all year round, and free beer.

What's not to like?

[ewenm]

I believe the goal is to confirm or deny the existence of the Higgs boson and so confirm a key element of quantum theory or send it back to the drawing board.

As for practical applications, greater understanding of how the sub-atomic world works should allow for progress in nano-technologies, for example.

Seems one of the better "wastes of money" IMO.

[BoRED S2upid]

Guam said:

This is really essential work in terms of our understanding of the Universe, yes it may be costly. The fact is without pure research no technological advance would be possible, where this could lead is incredible, Hawkings new book is a good primer on the options for the structure of the universe and the conditions shortly after the big bang (a term itself now under question) something the LHC is designed to investigate.


Good to see this puppy finally running as intended.

So are outcomes just likely to be a better understanding of theoretical stuff?

I have to admit a lot of what I read goes straight over my head but I get the stuff about smashing things together generates lots of heat, heat means energy which we need a great deal of. So will they ever be able to put this stuff to a comercial use?

[stuttgartmetal]

They out to prove the existence of Shatners Bassoon Ill have you know.

[ewenm]

BoRED S2upid said:

Guam said:

This is really essential work in terms of our understanding of the Universe, yes it may be costly. The fact is without pure research no technological advance would be possible, where this could lead is incredible, Hawkings new book is a good primer on the options for the structure of the universe and the conditions shortly after the big bang (a term itself now under question) something the LHC is designed to investigate.


Good to see this puppy finally running as intended.

So are outcomes just likely to be a better understanding of theoretical stuff?

I have to admit a lot of what I read goes straight over my head but I get the stuff about smashing things together generates lots of heat, heat means energy which we need a great deal of. So will they ever be able to put this stuff to a comercial use?

The LHC stuff isn't about energy generation. The reason they need to smash things together so hard is to create the high-energy collisions produce lots of small-lifespan (micro-seconds) particles which reveal information about the building blocks of everything.

The aim of the LHC is to find the Higgs boson which is thought to be the particle responsible for mass, but is purely theoretical at the moment. Whatever the outcome the pool of knowledge will increase, and I'd expect that to be useful commercially eventually, but I'm thinking decades rather than months...

[turbobloke]

stuttgartmetal said:

They out to prove the existence of Shatners Bassoon Ill have you know.

He wasn't told about the bassoon.

[HundredthIdiot]

I don't really understand the science, but it seems that every time they smash stuff together they discover that it breaks up into small pieces. The more force they use, the smaller the pieces.

This is essentially toddler-level knowledge, acquired very expensively and with more acroynms.

Edited by HundredthIdiot on Monday 8th November 17:12

[Frankeh]

BoRED S2upid said:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-1171...

Have smashed stuff together and the outcome was really hot.

Are they just having a laugh at somebodys expense? Everything I read about this is all ifs and buts.

If they ever achieve their goal (If they know what that is) will it ever have a decent use?

Also whos footing the bill for all this, it must be costing a fortune.

You know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

[DRCAGE]

[tinfoilhatmode]

Have you seen CERN's logo?!?!?!1?!1!

[tinfoilhatmode]

I personally love all this stuff, real research into the why/how we are all here.

Million times hotter than the centre of the sun? If we can harness that energy then surely some real changes could happen?

I bet the money involved is eye watering, but like has been said before, one of the better wallet munching things in my opinion

[AJLintern]

The energy of the collision comes from the momentum of the particles which have been accelerated. The LHC uses loads of energy to accelerate the particles and it's all released at the tiny interaction point in such short a time that the heat generated at that point is huge.

[Frankeh]

Magic. Got it.

[AJLintern]

All happens round about here in ATLAS:



Taken 5 years ago before the inner tracker was installed

[eldar]

BoRED S2upid said:

Guam said:

This is really essential work in terms of our understanding of the Universe, yes it may be costly. The fact is without pure research no technological advance would be possible, where this could lead is incredible, Hawkings new book is a good primer on the options for the structure of the universe and the conditions shortly after the big bang (a term itself now under question) something the LHC is designed to investigate.


Good to see this puppy finally running as intended.

So are outcomes just likely to be a better understanding of theoretical stuff?

I have to admit a lot of what I read goes straight over my head but I get the stuff about smashing things together generates lots of heat, heat means energy which we need a great deal of. So will they ever be able to put this stuff to a comercial use?

Initially, yes, a better theoretical understanding.

From that could come anything, probably lots of things. High temp super conductors, nuclear fusion or some really clever chemistry.

The discoveries may or not be commercially useful, thats the problem with research.

[hornet]

Aside from the physics (Higgs, supersymmetry, or something else entirely), I think the sheer computing oomph required to crunch such staggering quantities of data is calling for a lot of new tech to be developed, which can only be a good thing. If deeper understanding of the forces and matter means developments in quantum computing and such like, it will be money well spent. I don't think it's that expensive either, when you look at some of the numbers flying around at the moment.

[Pobolycwm]

People used to think the earth was flat, before that stars were holes in the sky that let the light through, little pebbles, carrots and witches used to float......those were the days

Finding out what we are, where we came from , why we`re here is mildy interesting to some of us monkeys, the answer to gravity/mass aka "the higgs bosun" might even knock "Micky Rooney", "eX factor" and "Strictly get me out of here" off the red tops front pages,

Could also explain those pesky floating pebbles

[Sonic]

DRCAGE said:

I bet the money involved is eye watering, but like has been said before, one of the better wallet munching things in my opinion

I wonder how the figure compares to the interest on our national debt, or the defence budget?

[AlfaFoxtrot]

I was at CERN a few weekends ago, the annual budget is something like 800 million CHF (~£500 million). This is provided by all the member countries. This pays for the running/maintenance of the machine itself, and the salaries of thousands of people who are involved.

There is no direct application (yet) for whatever results they may come up with. Discovery of new particles/physics will eventually lead to some revolutionary technologies, just don't know what. Development of the computing resources required is probably paving the way for the evolution of the internet though. Personally, it's a relatively small price to pay to find the answers to the deepest questions we've been able to pose!!

Hell, it's better throwing money at that and actually getting concrete data than pissing it up the wall bailing out banks.

[Parrot of Doom]

Pobolycwm said:

People used to think the earth was flat

Urban myth. People have long known the earth is roughly spherical.

[Digga]

The DVD player on the DAB radio in bedroom stoped working on Sunday. Can I sue CERN?