danalwyn: (Default)
danalwyn ([personal profile] danalwyn) wrote2008-09-09 06:08 pm
Entry tags:

LHC Beam Tomorrow

So, 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.
ext_25882: (Great Old Ones)

[identity profile] nightdog-barks.livejournal.com 2008-09-10 02:28 am (UTC)(link)
Oh my God, Dan, I'm sitting here just laughing out loud (for real) at the LHC site.

That's hysterical.

[identity profile] danalwyn.livejournal.com 2008-09-10 03:09 am (UTC)(link)
It's guaranteed to be accurate - I'll say that.

[identity profile] aries-ascendant.livejournal.com 2008-09-10 02:52 am (UTC)(link)
Oooh, maybe we're all dead and just don't realize it yet.

[identity profile] danalwyn.livejournal.com 2008-09-10 03:09 am (UTC)(link)
In that case, I think hell is really, really boring.

[identity profile] spotts1701.livejournal.com 2008-09-10 04:59 am (UTC)(link)
No, we can't be dead.

If we were dead, where's Q to mock us and tell us he's God?

[identity profile] danalwyn.livejournal.com 2008-09-10 03:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Maybe he's on vacation.

[identity profile] eye-of-a-cat.livejournal.com 2008-09-10 01:02 pm (UTC)(link)
And yet, all the we're-going-to-DIE!!!! news coverage has served the definite good of letting me know that CERN is pronounced with a soft C. I'd been wondering about that for years.

[identity profile] danalwyn.livejournal.com 2008-09-10 03:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Huh. Odd, I never wondered about that. I guess us Americans ain't very good at pronunciating things.