LHC experiment explained

The Large Hadron Collider is the largest and most complex scientific instrument ever built and the highest energy particle accelerator in the world.
The accelerator is located 100 m underground and runs through both French and Swiss territory. (27km circumference)

Latest: Geneva, 20 September 2008. During commissioning (without beam) of the final LHC sector (sector 34) at high current for operation at 5 TeV, an incident occurred at mid-day on Friday 19 September resulting in a large helium leak into the tunnel. Preliminary investigations indicate that the most likely cause of the problem was a faulty electrical connection between two magnets, which probably melted at high current leading to mechanical failure. CERN s strict safety regulations ensured that at no time was there any risk to people.

A full investigation is underway, but it is already clear that the sector will have to be warmed up for repairs to take place. This implies a minimum of two months down time for LHC operation. For the same fault, not uncommon in a normally conducting machine, the repair time would be a matter of days.

CERN press release

Offical site

http://www.cern.de/

Latest news about the LHC including this video can be seen at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?menuId=6370&menuItemId=10403&...

This video is supplied for nonprofit educational purposes only.

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[TheMimeGogo]

And if it finds nothing (as it did) what would that mean for Physics? and what of String theory then?

[infinit888]

@TheMimeGogo Give it some time. The research project only officially started in 2010 and they need to perform trillions of collisions and sieve through the data it produces. That said however if they do not manage to find what the standard model predicts they will either have to throw the whole model aside or they'll need to update it (this however would be the least elegant solution).

Not really sure about string theory. In my knowledge the LHC could have the potential to test it.

[Kattarina98]

Fascinating! And the money is well spent: Make science, not war.

[pokerstaaars]

how about ... NO. You come to our religion, become a jedi like us:)

[worldends08]

Didn't we see this in "Angels & Demons"?

[Bearz314]

@infinit888 Lazy to reply LOL Sorry!

[infinit888]

@Bearz314 "And I do not agree with the scientific explanations for the non-existence of spirits."

Science doesn't say that. The best it can say is that according to the best available evidence one has no reason to believe in spirits. Something else 'might' always exist but that's not how we go about discerning what is true and what isn't.

[infinit888]

@Bearz314 "All of this is just an illusion."

No - People held those beliefs because they had insufficient evidence. I even think that someone in the bronze/stone age was justified in believing the earth is the center but again it's just because they had insufficient evidence.

[Bearz314]

And I do not agree with the scientific explanations for the non-existence of spirits. Those explanations are often made by focusing on one detail and the other details are covered up and are not explained. So in the end, *something* else might exist, but are regarded as "spirits" by human. So I always hope there would be Physics, Chemistry, Biology and *Spiritualogy* LOL Who knew?

[Bearz314]

@infinit888 I would like to remain neutral, but we can take it this way: We know that earth revolves round sun, but ancient ppl thought sun & moon revolves round earth! Why? We see sun & moon moving, so they're revolving round earth! Reasonable? All of this is just an illusion. The same goes to spiritual stuffs. People made claims based on things reasonable (like ghosts and god) just like ancient scientists made claims that moon and sun revolves around earth. The world isn't that simple.

[infinit888]

@Bearz314 "Can we prove that God or Allah exist? No. Can we prove that they don't exist? No."

Actually we can because their existence is tied to many falsifiable claims. Take the global flood. We know that the event as described did not happen and thus the god of the bible does not exist.