[?][?][?][?] On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 3:43 PM, Mr. Worf <hellomahog...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > The aliens will be here in 2012 right after the earthquakes. > > > On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 12:36 PM, Martin Baxter > <martinbaxt...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> >> >> "...no other-dimensional evil aliens swarmed through a rip in spacetime to >> eat our souls and brains (too bad, I could have sent them to Wasilla)" >> >> LMNAATWO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [?] >> >> And this is cool stuff indeed. Strangely enough, as I read this, Keith, >> I'm watching "Angels & Demons", in which CERN figures prominently. Need to >> chase this down a bit more, once I finish this run, because they're closer >> to nailing the Higgs boson. >> >> >> On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 12:08 PM, Keith Johnson < >> keithbjohn...@comcast.net> wrote: >> >>> >>> >>> Kewl! For years, after my first intention to be an astronomer, I was >>> determined to be a nuclear physicist. Even visited a fusion reactor test >>> system at UT-Austin. I love this stuff. I'm still trying to wrap my mind >>> around a "particle" carrying mass, but boy am I excited to think about it, >>> and some final understanding of why anti-matter didn't get produced in >>> greater quantities. And guess what? No black holes opened up to swallow >>> France (right wingnuts will be dismayed at that)...no other-dimensional evil >>> aliens swarmed through a rip in spacetime to eat our souls and brains (too >>> bad, I could have sent them to Wasilla)...no lethal radiation turned the >>> Swiss into zombie mutants. >>> >>> The funny thing is the scientists who are actually *tweeting* about this >>> like excited teenagers! My gosh, social networking is something else. Will >>> the next astronauts to land on Mars or something, instead of saying >>> something profound, pull out their phones and tweet? I can see it now: >>> >>> "Really cold. Lots of red dirt. Johnson just fell, now his butt is red >>> too. LOL. Wish u cld c it 2. --Starlover656" >>> >>> **************************************************************** >>> Geneva atom smasher sets collision record[AP News] >>> >>> . >>> By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writer Alexander G. Higgins, >>> Associated Press Writer – 33 mins ago >>> >>> GENEVA – The world's largest atom smasher conducted its first experiments >>> at conditions nearing those after the Big Bang, breaking its own record for >>> high-energy collisions with proton beams crashing into each other Tuesday at >>> three times more force than ever before. >>> >>> In a milestone for the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider's ambitious bid >>> to reveal details about theoretical particles and microforces, scientists at >>> the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, collided the beams >>> and took measurements at a combined energy level of 7 trillion electron >>> volts. >>> >>> The collisions herald a new era for researchers working on the machine in >>> a 17-mile (27-kilometer) tunnel below the Swiss-French border at Geneva. >>> >>> "That's it! They've had a collision," said Oliver Buchmueller from Imperial >>> College in London as people closely watched monitors. >>> >>> In a control room, scientists erupted with applause when the first >>> successful collisions were confirmed. Their colleagues from around the world >>> were tuning in by remote links to witness the new record, which surpasses >>> the 2.36 TeV CERN recorded last year. >>> >>> Dubbed the world's largest scientific experiment, researchers hope the >>> machine can approach on a tiny scale what happened in the first split >>> seconds after the Big Bang, which they theorize was the creation of the >>> universe some 14 billion years ago. >>> >>> The extra energy in Geneva is expected to reveal even more about the >>> unanswered questions of particle physics, such as the existence of >>> antimatter and the search for the Higgs boson, a hypothetical particle >>> that scientists theorize gives mass to other particles and thus to other >>> objects and creatures in the universe. >>> >>> Tuesday's initial attempts at collisions were unsuccessful because >>> problems developed with the beams, said scientists working on the massive >>> machine. That meant the protons had to be "dumped" from the collider and new >>> beams had to be injected. >>> >>> The atmosphere at CERN was tense considering the collider's launch with >>> great fanfare on Sept. 10, 2008. Nine days later, the project was >>> sidetracked when a badly soldered electrical splice overheated, causing >>> extensive damage to the massive magnets and other parts of the collider some >>> 300 feet (100 meters) below the ground. >>> >>> It cost $40 million to repair and improve the machine. Since its restart >>> in November 2009, the collider has performed almost flawlessly and given >>> scientists valuable data. It quickly eclipsed the next largest accelerator — >>> the Tevatron at Fermilab near Chicago. >>> >>> Two beams of protons began 10 days ago to speed at high energy in >>> opposite directions around the tunnel, the coldest place in the >>> universe, at a couple of degrees above absolute zero. CERN used powerful >>> superconducting >>> magnets to force the two beams to cross, creating collisions and showers >>> of particles. >>> >>> "Experiments are collecting their first physics data — historic moment >>> here!" a scientist tweeted on CERN's official Twitter account. >>> >>> "Nature does it all the time with cosmic rays (and with higher energy) >>> but this is the first time this is done in Laboratory!" said another tweet. >>> >>> When collisions become routine, the beams will be packed with hundreds of >>> billions of protons, but the particles are so tiny that few will collide at >>> each crossing. >>> >>> The experiments will come over the objections of some people who fear >>> they could eventually imperil Earth by creating micro black holes — >>> subatomic versions of collapsed stars whose gravity is so strong they can >>> suck in planets and other stars. >>> >>> CERN and many scientists dismiss any threat to Earth or people on it, >>> saying that any such holes would be so weak that they would vanish almost >>> instantly without causing any damage. >>> >>> Bivek Sharma, a professor at the University of California at San Diego, >>> said the images of the first crashed proton beams were beautiful. >>> >>> "It's taken us 25 years to build," he said. "This is what it's for. >>> Finally the baby is delivered. Now it has to grow." >>> >>> ___ >>> >>> >> >> >> > > > -- > Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! > Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/ > >
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