LHC Beam Tomorrow
Sep. 9th, 2008 06:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
danalwynSo, if you believe that the LHC will destroy the world, you now have only about six hours before first beam enters the ring (9am CERN local time). Make your plans wisely.
Actually, that's a lie. Consistent rumor is that beam entered the ring today somewhere, so that if there was some sort of critical failure (the probability of which is depressingly high), they would not have to run an hour-long calibration tomorrow while Sarkozy stood there, tapping his foot. So the world has probably not ended.
Not that it would end tomorrow either. This is just a beam test, at energies lower then are currently used in the Tevatron, and there aren't even any collisions. Those won't start until accelerator division is convinced that the magnets are holding. And even then, we may not get up to this year's 10 TeV maximum energy before mid-October, or November, or whenever. So relax. You still have lots of time to launch lawsuits. The real fun will start with the first high-energy collisions, whenever those are.
But you, and all of you who don't believe that the LHC will destroy the Earth, should visit the excellent site Has the LHC Destroyed the Earth? for up-to-date information on, well, whether the LHC has destroyed the Earth.
Just don't bother to call CERN to complain. I predict that regardless of whether the turn-on is a success or a disaster, there won't be a single person in the facility sober by 10am.
Actually, that's a lie. Consistent rumor is that beam entered the ring today somewhere, so that if there was some sort of critical failure (the probability of which is depressingly high), they would not have to run an hour-long calibration tomorrow while Sarkozy stood there, tapping his foot. So the world has probably not ended.
Not that it would end tomorrow either. This is just a beam test, at energies lower then are currently used in the Tevatron, and there aren't even any collisions. Those won't start until accelerator division is convinced that the magnets are holding. And even then, we may not get up to this year's 10 TeV maximum energy before mid-October, or November, or whenever. So relax. You still have lots of time to launch lawsuits. The real fun will start with the first high-energy collisions, whenever those are.
But you, and all of you who don't believe that the LHC will destroy the Earth, should visit the excellent site Has the LHC Destroyed the Earth? for up-to-date information on, well, whether the LHC has destroyed the Earth.
Just don't bother to call CERN to complain. I predict that regardless of whether the turn-on is a success or a disaster, there won't be a single person in the facility sober by 10am.