Spotlight on CERN : LHC is back 2/2

[tedhuntington]

i think the important work is to transmute common atoms (silicon, iron) into more useful atoms (hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen) in bulk.

[88think]

that is fusion,

fusion research is complimented by the LHC experiment

[tedhuntington]

I wonder if two protons might collide to form helium and other atoms. But transmutation may not involve fusion necessarily, but instead may be simply dividing/separating larger atoms into smaller atoms. There are the two processes building atoms up and separating them down.

thanks - CERN rocks keep up the good werk!

[88think]

the energy required to turn silicon and iron atoms into hydrogen, etc would be immense...

hydrogren and oxygen can be made from water through electrolysis, and nitrogen gas is abundant in the earths atmosphere

[tedhuntington]

one key idea about energy is that energy is a generalization - in my view mass and motion cannot be interchanged, and so mass and motion are always conserved, but separately.

Yes, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen are common on earth, but not on the other planets - except as part of larger atoms - or as a result of joining atoms together, so the possibility and need exists for converting the massive amounts of silicon on the moon, mars, venus,

[tedhuntington]

mercury, the moon of jupiter, jupiter itself (which may have a terrestrial 6 times the size of earth many miles under its surface) to hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen.

[Fentro]

You're kidding me- the only three comments are about the host? Hey, she's got brains, too! It's terrific there is some intelligent media out there covering this fascinating instrument (system). Although I think the idea of the Higgs Boson is chasing a ghost - let's not forget that mathematics says there are infinite divisions between any two numbers, so perhaps there is no absolute limit which energy can be divided into. As our instrumentations improves, so will the resolution.

[grofuss]

woot, they finally got rid of the bimbo. Her voice is much better :)

[phatpat63]

Yes! Hot, new hostess.

[Ziran007]

Whoho!