We recently brought you news that the Doomsday-machine that never was, the Large Hadron Collider, was due to begin smashin' dem atoms again in September.
But sadly, Earth will have to wait to be sucked into an artifical black hole*, as its long-awaited restart has been postponed until the winter.
CERN attributed the delay to a number of technical difficulties, including vacuum leaks in two sectors of the LHC that had been cooled down to 80 K.
* joke!
Showing posts with label Large Hadron Collider. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Large Hadron Collider. Show all posts
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Friday, 17 July 2009
Ring a ring o' particles ...
The Large Hadron Collider, the massive science experiment which broke down last year within days of being switched on, is to start up again in September - a year after it was first activiated.
Amidst the hoo-ha that in the race to discover the so-called 'God Particle' it would create a black hole and bring about the end of the world, the activation of the machine produced not even the slightesy hint of anything apocalyptic. And then it broke.
The machine is currently being readied for its restart and the first beams of particles will be fired around its 17-mile ring in September with the first collisions will follow about a month later.
The LHC, based at the Swiss headquarters of the European nuclear research organisation Cern, was switched on in September last year amid a fanfare of publicity. But just 10 days later an electrical fault led to a catastrophic leak of helium used to cool the machine's powerful magnets, causing a complete shut-down.
Amidst the hoo-ha that in the race to discover the so-called 'God Particle' it would create a black hole and bring about the end of the world, the activation of the machine produced not even the slightesy hint of anything apocalyptic. And then it broke.
The machine is currently being readied for its restart and the first beams of particles will be fired around its 17-mile ring in September with the first collisions will follow about a month later.
The LHC, based at the Swiss headquarters of the European nuclear research organisation Cern, was switched on in September last year amid a fanfare of publicity. But just 10 days later an electrical fault led to a catastrophic leak of helium used to cool the machine's powerful magnets, causing a complete shut-down.
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
Monday, 15 September 2008
ANALYSIS: web 'must separate rumour' from science
As a source of apocalyptic rumour and panic, the internet can't be beaten. Once upon a time, doomsayers were confined to preaching, pamphlet/book printing or - in usually quite extreme cases - bagging mainstream media attention to propagate their ideas, but now anybody with a copy of Dreamweaver and a broadband connection can be all over the internet like a rash.
Now obviously the flap over the LHC was something more than that, since those who launched the biggest legal challenge against the switch-on were scientists themselves, but you don't have to have an intimate understanding of Google's listing system to find websites that put an apocalyptic slant on scientific discoveries or ideas both old and new. Polar shifts, the conjunction of planets, asteroid strikes, shooting stars, even messages in the layout of the pyramids in Egypt - all these ideas and more (worse?) find a home on the World Wide Web. It's a boon for us - since it makes these people all the easier to find - but it also means the mainstream media are more likely to pick up on the latest predictions and by broadcasting them they encourage others to find or believe in them. It's a vicious circle that's not really been addressed by a loony-ignoring scientific community before.
It is therefore a sign of how significant the LHC flap was that Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the man who gave birth to the internet, has said he is "increasingly worried" about the way the web has been used to spread "disinformation".
Speaking to the BBC News website in advance of an announcement about a Foundation he has helped create that he hopes will improve the World Wide Web, Sir Tim has voiced concern about the use of the web to spread fears that flicking the switch on the LHC could create a Black Hole that could swallow up the Earth. He also linked this to general 'scientiphobia' such as the spread of rumours that the MMR vaccine could cause autism.
"On the web the thinking of cults can spread very rapidly and suddenly a cult which was 12 people who had some deep personal issues suddenly find a formula which is very believable," he said. "A sort of conspiracy theory of sorts and which you can imagine spreading to thousands of people and being deeply damaging."
It's obvious why the misguided interest in the LHC should provoke his ire - his pioneering work on the web was done at the collider's home of CERN at Geneva - but it must also be truly galling to see what could be one of the most important experiments in the history of mankind reduced to the status of a freakshow by journalists whose attention helped explode bog-standard apocalyptic scaremongering into a real 'silly season' summer story.
Sir Tim's solution? Systems that would give websites a label for trustworthiness once they had been proved reliable sources. Whether this is in any way workable or not, it's significant that the father of the internet (who thanks to his connections at CERN is also a major figure in the wider scientific community) has chosen to tackle such people head on, rather than ignore them lest the attention almost legitimise their ideas.
But did scientific rebuttals destroy the MMR allegations and lay parents' minds at rest? The downward spiral of uptake rates for the vaccine would suggest otherwise and it can be argued that suspicions of science, and those 'in charge', run much deeper than those behind paternalistic action plans maybe realise.
Apocalyptic ideas are ultimately an expression of our fear of the unknown, of things that come outside the world's received wisdom - they feed on uncertainty and the LHC just proves that no scientist can ever give the 100% guarantee of what will happen in an experiment (otherwise, what's the point of doing it in the first place?)
So bear in mind that Robert J Oppenheimer, who created the world's first atomic bomb, ordered extensive calculations to prove that the detonation wouldn't set off a chain-reaction in the upper atmosphere which would engulf the planet in flame - which may well represent the first quantitative risk assessment of human extinction, something that has continued on and off for almost 70 years.
Now obviously the flap over the LHC was something more than that, since those who launched the biggest legal challenge against the switch-on were scientists themselves, but you don't have to have an intimate understanding of Google's listing system to find websites that put an apocalyptic slant on scientific discoveries or ideas both old and new. Polar shifts, the conjunction of planets, asteroid strikes, shooting stars, even messages in the layout of the pyramids in Egypt - all these ideas and more (worse?) find a home on the World Wide Web. It's a boon for us - since it makes these people all the easier to find - but it also means the mainstream media are more likely to pick up on the latest predictions and by broadcasting them they encourage others to find or believe in them. It's a vicious circle that's not really been addressed by a loony-ignoring scientific community before.
It is therefore a sign of how significant the LHC flap was that Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the man who gave birth to the internet, has said he is "increasingly worried" about the way the web has been used to spread "disinformation".
Speaking to the BBC News website in advance of an announcement about a Foundation he has helped create that he hopes will improve the World Wide Web, Sir Tim has voiced concern about the use of the web to spread fears that flicking the switch on the LHC could create a Black Hole that could swallow up the Earth. He also linked this to general 'scientiphobia' such as the spread of rumours that the MMR vaccine could cause autism.
"On the web the thinking of cults can spread very rapidly and suddenly a cult which was 12 people who had some deep personal issues suddenly find a formula which is very believable," he said. "A sort of conspiracy theory of sorts and which you can imagine spreading to thousands of people and being deeply damaging."
It's obvious why the misguided interest in the LHC should provoke his ire - his pioneering work on the web was done at the collider's home of CERN at Geneva - but it must also be truly galling to see what could be one of the most important experiments in the history of mankind reduced to the status of a freakshow by journalists whose attention helped explode bog-standard apocalyptic scaremongering into a real 'silly season' summer story.
Sir Tim's solution? Systems that would give websites a label for trustworthiness once they had been proved reliable sources. Whether this is in any way workable or not, it's significant that the father of the internet (who thanks to his connections at CERN is also a major figure in the wider scientific community) has chosen to tackle such people head on, rather than ignore them lest the attention almost legitimise their ideas.
But did scientific rebuttals destroy the MMR allegations and lay parents' minds at rest? The downward spiral of uptake rates for the vaccine would suggest otherwise and it can be argued that suspicions of science, and those 'in charge', run much deeper than those behind paternalistic action plans maybe realise.
Apocalyptic ideas are ultimately an expression of our fear of the unknown, of things that come outside the world's received wisdom - they feed on uncertainty and the LHC just proves that no scientist can ever give the 100% guarantee of what will happen in an experiment (otherwise, what's the point of doing it in the first place?)
So bear in mind that Robert J Oppenheimer, who created the world's first atomic bomb, ordered extensive calculations to prove that the detonation wouldn't set off a chain-reaction in the upper atmosphere which would engulf the planet in flame - which may well represent the first quantitative risk assessment of human extinction, something that has continued on and off for almost 70 years.
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
LHC Countdown 22.00BST 09/09/2008
10.5 hours and counting ...
There is SOME good news, however - I get interviewed about all this by BBC Radio Solent at 8.14am and then I'll be on BBC Radio Four's The World Tonight at 10pm.
(I love how the local radio station does it BEFORE the event, but Radio Four is suitably convinced nothing will happen so they're doing the interview in the evening ...)
There is SOME good news, however - I get interviewed about all this by BBC Radio Solent at 8.14am and then I'll be on BBC Radio Four's The World Tonight at 10pm.
(I love how the local radio station does it BEFORE the event, but Radio Four is suitably convinced nothing will happen so they're doing the interview in the evening ...)
NEWS: It's official - "Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a twat"
There are lots of things to get wound up about in the world, many of them truly apocalyptic - global climate change, world food supply, biosecurity etc etc.
However, let all doomsayers take note: particle acceleraters are not one of them ...
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is due to be 'switched on' (which basically means it will circulate a beam of particles through its entire 17km length for the first time) at 9.30am EST on Wednesday. For what is the beginning of a groundbreaking attempt to uncover the origins and the building blocks of the universe, it is only right the event will be broadcast around the world. However, we all know why there's so much media interest in this event - and it ain't a new appreciation for scientific endeavour.
The End is Nigh has been produced, on and off, for almost four years and yet it still comes as a surprise that scientists working on the LHC have not only had to fend off legal challenges, but have also apparently been receiving death threats. Once such recipient, according to the Daily Telegraph, has been Frank Wilczek, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
But an End is Nigh Common Sense Award goes to Prof Brian Cox of Manchester University, who bluntly told the Telegraph: "Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a twat."
Most of the media attention of this event has focused on hyping up or refuting such outlandish claims, and the Telegraph goes on to report that the head of PR James Gillies, the public's contact for info on the £4.5 billion machine, is inundated with people fearing for their lives. "There are a number who say: "You are evil and dangerous and you are going to destroy the world," he said. "I find myself getting slightly angry, not because people are getting in touch but the fact they have been driven to do that by what is nonsense. What we are doing is enriching humanity, not putting it at risk."
With apocalyptic fears usually fuelled by the attention the media pay to anyone with a scary theory, the LHC would appear to be teaching us as much about human ignorance as it is about the foundations of existence.
The LHC Switch On: 32 hours and counting ...
However, let all doomsayers take note: particle acceleraters are not one of them ...
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is due to be 'switched on' (which basically means it will circulate a beam of particles through its entire 17km length for the first time) at 9.30am EST on Wednesday. For what is the beginning of a groundbreaking attempt to uncover the origins and the building blocks of the universe, it is only right the event will be broadcast around the world. However, we all know why there's so much media interest in this event - and it ain't a new appreciation for scientific endeavour.
The End is Nigh has been produced, on and off, for almost four years and yet it still comes as a surprise that scientists working on the LHC have not only had to fend off legal challenges, but have also apparently been receiving death threats. Once such recipient, according to the Daily Telegraph, has been Frank Wilczek, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
But an End is Nigh Common Sense Award goes to Prof Brian Cox of Manchester University, who bluntly told the Telegraph: "Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a twat."
Most of the media attention of this event has focused on hyping up or refuting such outlandish claims, and the Telegraph goes on to report that the head of PR James Gillies, the public's contact for info on the £4.5 billion machine, is inundated with people fearing for their lives. "There are a number who say: "You are evil and dangerous and you are going to destroy the world," he said. "I find myself getting slightly angry, not because people are getting in touch but the fact they have been driven to do that by what is nonsense. What we are doing is enriching humanity, not putting it at risk."
With apocalyptic fears usually fuelled by the attention the media pay to anyone with a scary theory, the LHC would appear to be teaching us as much about human ignorance as it is about the foundations of existence.
The LHC Switch On: 32 hours and counting ...
Saturday, 6 September 2008
All kinds of crazy
There's nothing like a sublimely over the top scientific experiment to bring the doomsayers out of the woodwork ...
Yours truly got interviewed on Friday by the BBC News website, which is doing a feature about why we're obsessed by the end of the world. I can only compliment the reporter concerned for him tracking me down, though to be fair my name's all over the internet like a rash ...
Anyways, the 'angle' behind the story is the many scare stories about the switching on of the massive Large Hadron Collider near Geneva this week, the operators of which saw off a legal attempt to stop it in the European Court of Human Rights. A group of scientists, headed by Professor Otto Rössler, a German chemist at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, had applied for an injunction to stop the collider being switched on because they feared that rather than reveal the secrets of the universe, the machine would actually either create mini black holes that would swallow the Earth 'within 50 months' or splurge exotic killer particles everywhere.
Now, I'm excited about the scientific possibilities as anyone but what's really got my attention is the huge kinds of crazy this experiement has drawn from the EotW community, a small sample of which can be viewed in the comments on the New Scientist's blog about why the collider won't suck us all into a black hole.
What's interesting to note is that although the collider is being switched on, it's not being switched on to FULL power. That's a few months down the road. Will be interesting to watch the doomsayers once nothing happens in the next few days - will they, in the main, leave the issue alone and switch back to 2012 or will they eagerly watch for the date of when the collider goes to full strength? Should be fun ...
Yours truly got interviewed on Friday by the BBC News website, which is doing a feature about why we're obsessed by the end of the world. I can only compliment the reporter concerned for him tracking me down, though to be fair my name's all over the internet like a rash ...
Anyways, the 'angle' behind the story is the many scare stories about the switching on of the massive Large Hadron Collider near Geneva this week, the operators of which saw off a legal attempt to stop it in the European Court of Human Rights. A group of scientists, headed by Professor Otto Rössler, a German chemist at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, had applied for an injunction to stop the collider being switched on because they feared that rather than reveal the secrets of the universe, the machine would actually either create mini black holes that would swallow the Earth 'within 50 months' or splurge exotic killer particles everywhere.
Now, I'm excited about the scientific possibilities as anyone but what's really got my attention is the huge kinds of crazy this experiement has drawn from the EotW community, a small sample of which can be viewed in the comments on the New Scientist's blog about why the collider won't suck us all into a black hole.
What's interesting to note is that although the collider is being switched on, it's not being switched on to FULL power. That's a few months down the road. Will be interesting to watch the doomsayers once nothing happens in the next few days - will they, in the main, leave the issue alone and switch back to 2012 or will they eagerly watch for the date of when the collider goes to full strength? Should be fun ...
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