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To make it easier for people who find this subject very distressing, we've decided to keep all Baby P posts in one thread. So please can you restrict any posts about the case to this thread.
Thanks, MNHQ
The only thing they are doing on September 10th is switching it on and sending one beam ALL the way round the circuit. They seem to have been taking months just to get the whole thing to cool down until it's COLDER than space Brrrr!
Actually, the collisions won't happen until 21st October 2008, so we can all breathe easy in September. Might even manage to squeeze in an indian summer! Lol.
Very impressed by Ani and slur. In the way that only a history grad can be. I do find the CERN stuff exciting, but just in the way that I find all massive great big things exciting (ships, tall buildings, etc etc).
Okay, my understanding of quantum physics is a line over there in the distance, but I am trying.
The key is that the universe is odd. Matter and energy are related, they are interchangeable, like one can become the other and back again.
The Higgs boson is what governs matter being matter. Matter is like energy condensed and Higgs as something to do with that.
Right got that? Cos I don't think I do really. But let's keep going.
In understanding the universe and why it behaves in the way it does, why particles do what they do and so on. You can imagine it like a jigsaw being worked on. And lots of pieces are understood and fall into place, matter has antimatter and things are tested and it all fits. But there is a gap in the jigsaw. Its like you know its shape and can guess what it looks like how it'll fit, but you can't see it. The higg's boson particles are that.
They are inferred and the LHC might be able to detect them, actually 'see' them. If it can then it vindicates the standard model of understanding. Which in turn explains how matter exists as matter and not energy.
I think.
Maybe.
But FFS particle physics is soo hard and I haven't even attempted to think about the different particle families because my head hurts.
Lookit Understanding the way things work is good and useful. We understood electrons and electricty and wayhey we were off! I don't know how the experiment will help in the long term but I think it will.
They're doing a special exhibition on the Large Hadron Collider at the Liverpool museum... anyone been and know if its good? We were thinking of going but its a bit of a trek
ps. I nearly mistyped Large Hadron do you think the physicist who came up with that term was very naive or a bit wicked?
I may be really stupid but I wasn't worrying about this at all. Haven't they already had a similar but smaller one somewhere. It really didn't occur to me that it might be dangerous but am going to read the NS article.
I started reading the New Scientist article but got distracted by the fact that the female detector designer they'd interviewed was called Bilge. Am only doing my periodic Mumsnet lurk in the hope of a baby names thread...
Well, I think even if the world and universe implodes into nothingness and non existance, there will still be pedants and Ikea. Erternally battling with their strange code words
what was that show that had all the possible end-of-the-world scenarios on it. It was on in the last couple of years. docu-drama kind of thing. they did one on these idiots. Probably will be jerking off while the world EXPLODES
"I have a trip to Ikea planned in a few weeks" - the end of the world seems a fairly reasonble price to pay in exchange for getting out of a trip to IKEA.
have been intruged by cern for as long as i have known about it- i think ken campbell did a fab programme about it a few yrs ago- very very interesting
It was so fun...I got to press the button ( well the return key on a computer) that sent a neutrino into an electron..... then all the monitors went a bit weird ( think very large magnet on your TV weird), every one got excited except me and then it was upstairs to the bar.
Shame I had to be going out with a total jerk to get the gig [hmn]
"When activated, it is theorized that the collider will produce the elusive Higgs boson, the observation of which could confirm the predictions and "missing links" in the Standard Model of physics and could explain how other elementary particles acquire properties such as mass. The verification of the existence of the Higgs boson would be a significant step in the search for a Grand Unified Theory, which seeks to unify three of the four known fundamental forces: electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force, leaving out only gravity. The Higgs boson may also help to explain why gravitation is so weak compared to the other three forces. In addition to the Higgs boson, other theorized novel particles that might be produced, and for which searches[7] are planned, include strangelets, micro black holes, magnetic monopoles and supersymmetric particles."
Cooooool! AND it's like, inside a mountain! Like a Bond villian's lair!
3 x FREE CHILDRENS BOOKS FOR EVERY READER
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