Short Film About CERN's Large Hadron Collider 179
Lobster911 writes "Seedmagazine.com has posted a new film, Lords of the Ring, about CERN's Large Hadron Collider. NESTA fellow Alom Shaha takes us through the world's largest machine, as he lets the scientists who work at CERN explain the LHC and what they hope to accomplish with it. The highly-anticipated collider is set to start up in 2007, running at full speed by 2008."
Shortest Film Ever (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Shortest Film Ever (Score:3, Funny)
Gay Porno Film (Score:2)
Seriously, is it that hard to do a title search before you release a film?
Low content (Score:5, Interesting)
Basic research is often hard to justify (Score:3, Insightful)
The collider will give us a better view of basic particle interactions. Will it give us anti-gravity or make our teeth whiter? Probably not, but unexpected things will likely come of it.
Re:Basic research is often hard to justify (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Basic research is often hard to justify (Score:2)
As I understand it, the "possibility" of the LHC being dangerous stems from our uncertainty about particle physics, not really from any hard knowledge. Thus there is no was to calculate the odds. The most re-assuring evidence is of course that collisions of even higher energies take place in the atmosphere all the time from cosmi
Unimportant (Score:2)
Re:Unimportant (Score:5, Informative)
It was one of the other physicists (not the ones with whom Teller collaborated on the above report) who kept talking about it afterward, and allowed the story to live on, much to the annoyance of a number of Manhattan Project researchers.
Re:Low content (Score:5, Funny)
What, you mean forcing God to do something after an apaprent 2000 year absence (not counting toast apparitions)
It would be awesome if they ran that thing, and God came down from the heavens saying "Dude, I heard that... fricken loud man! I heard it all the way across the universe where I'm creating a planet consisting only of a beer volcano and a stripper factory... check it out".
ramen.
Re:Low content (Score:5, Funny)
I am interested in your God and would like to suscribe to your newsletter.
Re:Low content (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Low content (Score:2)
Yeah, it would be just like God to put that all the way across the universe, so we can't possibly get to it. Couldn't have put it out past Mars or around Alpha Centuri or something...
Re:Low content (Score:2)
Re:Low content (Score:2)
Re:Low content (Score:2)
Re:Low content (Score:2)
Re:Low content (Score:2)
Problem solved.
LHC@Home (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Low content (Score:3, Insightful)
The whole website is like that - it's kind of a Parade magazine for the 'hip' crowd. Nothing in depth, little that's controversial - a little science, a little nonsense, a little news, a little opinion. At the end, despite the minsicule effort involved to read it, you feel like you've accomplished something.
Re:Low content (Score:2)
> There is a Visine for that!
Yeah but...can you hear me now?
Sense of humour failure (Score:1)
Re:Sense of humour failure (Score:5, Funny)
Quirky? That's strange. If only you'd written it as "quarky", it would have been a truly beautiful and charming joke.
Re:Sense of humour failure (Score:1)
Re:Sense of humour failure (Score:3, Funny)
it would have been a truly beautiful and charming joke
Well, that post up there was a strange one. Those of us down here salute you.
Re:Sense of humour failure (Score:2)
>
>Well, that post up there was a strange one. Those of us down here salute you.
That's a strong response, I'd say it's on top. This one is weak by comparison. It wouldn't hit the bottom end of a barn. (The broad sides of the barn of course, having been open to permit the the large rod to pass through it. Honest honey, it's bigger when it's not moving!)
Re:Sense of humour failure (Score:3, Funny)
Sounds like Vista (Score:5, Funny)
When I read this I thought they were talking about Windows Vista.
Re:Sounds like Vista (Score:2, Funny)
I guess this is kind of a Microsoft Koan or something.
I wrote a little poem... (Score:5, Funny)
Seven of electrons with no atoms to call home,
Nine of protons from which Hydrogen we did pry,
One ring for the Physicists on their dark thrones
In the Land of Sweden where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to collide them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Sweden where the Shadows lie.
Re:I wrote a little poem... (Score:2)
Re:I wrote a little poem... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I wrote a little poem... (Score:3, Informative)
(I actually did look it up while composing, I just wasn't thinking.)
Re:I wrote a little poem... (Score:3, Funny)
Actually... (Score:2)
Alternative poem (Score:4, Funny)
Seven for the cyclotrons in their shields of stone,
Nine for superconducting supercolliders doomed to die,
One for the CERN Lord in his quark Hadron
In the Alps of Switzerland where the gluons lie.
One Ring to hew them all, One Ring to grind them
One Ring to smash them all and in the black holes slime them
In the Alps of Switzerland where the gluons lie.
Heavy or slow (Score:4, Funny)
The highly-anticipated collider is set to start up in 2007, running at full speed by 2008."
It's going to take a year to get those particles up to full speed? Heavy.
A comment prediction, if I may. (Score:4, Funny)
Religious fundamentalists complaining that we do not need to spend billions of dollars figuring out what happened at the so-called “Big Bang” (God created the universe, afterall) and that those funds would be better spent on more ambitious projects [outsidethebeltway.com] that would help save America from immorality and godlessness.
Re:A comment prediction, if I may. (Score:2)
God doesn't seem to mind scientists trying to figure out how He did it. If He did object to His atoms being smashed, He'd have made them unbreakable. As it is, it appears they are pretty tough little buggers. I know, since I helped build what is still the most powerful electron accelerator. This new collider will however still be far short of the energies God imparts to cosmic rays. The beam current of cosmi
Who killed the supercollider? (Score:2)
The Clinton Administration, not known for its religious fundementalism, killed the Supercollider [hep.net] to divert funds to social programs.
Re:Who killed the supercollider? (Score:4, Insightful)
Taking your claim at face value, I would respond by stating that he was or they were fools for doing so. Instead, they ought to have revoked tax exempt status for religious organizations (which contribute nothing to human progress and have not done so for thousands of years) and used that revenue to fund science.
Thank you for pointing this out so we can remind ourselves that partisan politics are silly and politicians are deeply fallible. And for that very reason, each and every person ought to be concerned about the doings of their government so that they become educated about and engaged in its proper function.
Judeo-Christian roots of secular liberalism (Score:2)
Clinton is indeed a fool. But Judeo-Christian ideas are a vital component of western secular law. In that sense religion has contributed much. Your secular liberal ideas did not just spring into b
Re:Judeo-Christian roots of secular liberalism (Score:2)
But Judeo-Christian ideas are a vital component of western secular law. In that sense religion has contributed much.
All of the commandments in the bible save the first three were secular in nature. The Chinese, Greeks, Pre-Christian Rome, Indians and many other civilisations had a lot of the same laws before they became 'judeo/christian'. I think it's time to stop the myth that a bunch of secular laws are based on some magical creature's decree. It's insulting to say that humanity can't figure things out
Source of secular law (Score:2)
The deficiency and depravity of most of these civilizations highlight my point. Secularists like yourself see the law and concepts of freedom as self-evident. They are not. Judeo-Christia
Re:Source of secular law (Score:2)
Exactly what deficiencies or depravities are possessed in these societies that are not evident in western culture today? Let me pick on America. We torture people, violate rights without due process, and engage in empire-building wars. All these things, might I remind you, are at the behest of or at least supported by an Administration headed by an evangelical Christian. If these are allowed by Judeo-Christian values, spa
Re:Judeo-Christian roots of secular liberalism (Score:2)
It is ironic you call Bill Clinton a fool for supporting social programs when Christianity purports to have a central tentant of generosity to those less fortunate. Instead, one trait I commonly find amongst Christians is they are extremely greedy. They are aghast at any of their money being given to the impovished [slashdot.org]. Nevermind that the fundamental reason we form societies is to improve the lives of everyone in the group. The mutual benefit of all participants is the very reason we come together and build
Re:Judeo-Christian roots of secular liberalism (Score:2)
The question is does government do a better job of providing charity than religious organisations. Most conservatives would say "no" emphatically. American religious organisations are the most charitable in the world.
Re:Who killed the supercollider? (Score:2)
I think it was foolish to kill the project though. One of the dumber thinks the Clinton administration did.
Re:A comment prediction, if I may. (Score:4, Insightful)
Your dignity, and the sense of self required to make the most of the brief life our species enjoys.
A little time hanging out with nice people who have high morals?
I don't think "morals" means what you think it means. Your "morals" are simply your "values." Some people's value systems include the wonderfulness of molesting children, or seriously embracing the sacrificing of chickens to persuade your dead ancestors to alter the weather for your wedding reception. "High" morals doesn't mean anything. You have to identify which morals, and speak to the underlying system of thought - or in the case of religion, childish fantasy - upon which the world view in question, and thus the system of values (morals) that a person develops (or simply takes out of a story book).
people who believe in a hard days' work, who are willing to feed themselves and raise their children with a good education and proper values
The people I know that most fit this description are the least religious. Conversely, the more religious ones tend to keep talking in terms of their food being provided by the mystical personality they pray to before dinner, and indicate that when the going gets tough, it's not hard work or personal accountability, but Jesus(tm) that's actually responsible for everything that happens. What a cheap cop-out.
laying on the couch living off government welfare, eating cheesy poofs bought with government food stamps
Well, at least we can see that you don't belong to one of those charitable churches that does things like collect canned food for people, or shelter lazy homeless women who are running from their abusive husbands, etc. I mean, taking that sort of handout is a sure sign of moral weakness, so any church that would dole out such support is surely a major player in Satan's campaign to make people morally weak. No doubt.
Good luck in hell
Heh! Joke's on you. There isn't one, other than that which you make for yourself while you (meaning, your functioning brain, which pretty much requires you to be alive in order to do things like fire the synapses that allow you to actually be yourself) are actually alive. And since you're so scared of actually living your real life, in the face of a sure eventual death, you're focused on an imaginary afterlife that doesn't exist... and I'd call all of that wasted time and fretting to be a current, living hell that you personally occupy. And when you die, it will end - but you'll never get back the time you spent obsessing over such absurdities as original sin and whether you've properly entertained, through treacly hymns and magic hand-waving, a cruel and capricious god that allows priests to bugger altar boys and beautiful, innocent children to burn alive in crashed church vans or whither away from blood cancer no matter how much everyone prays they won't. Hell's right here, bub, if that's all you can think about... but those of us who don't attach a personality to the laws of physics get to produce our own meaning in life, and live our actual lives undistracted by fairy tales we should have grown out of when we were five years old.
Re:A comment prediction, if I may. (Score:2)
Re:A comment prediction, if I may. (Score:2)
Ignoring, for the moment, that you don't provide any substantiation for that claim (which I find highly doubtful, seen in any categorical way), I'd say yo
Re:A comment prediction, if I may. (Score:2)
I kept the article in my closet for a while which had the reference, but since moving I can't find it. A quick google on Life Expectancy of Christians shows +3 years.
>>I'd say you're confusing causation and correlation - the hallmark of weak conjecture and rhetoric.
>>What mechanism would mysticism emply to, say, make you less susceptible to carcine
Wow. (Score:4, Insightful)
If this is a troll, masterfully executed and I salute you.
If not, then you have some fairly bizarre notions. I think it is not, so allow me to make some comments.
Certainly the desired intent.
Alright, 80% of the world population is theistic. Seems right. But in addition to many divisions of belief, what has been believed has changed for all recorded human history. Religion that has fallen out of fashion is regarded today as silly nonsense. We do not revile people because they reject Zeus or do not call pharaoh a god. We have evolved improved sensibilities about the natural world and society. It may take a thousand years, but we will one day laugh at all the religions of today the same way we now laugh at river gods and fire spirits.
Perhaps a lifetime. Instead of engaging myself with the task of improving the human race, I have wasted it chasing after an invisible man in the sky. One might as well spend a life believing in Santa Clause or the Tooth Fairy.
I am an atheist [infidels.org] and I too have morals. I know I should not commit violence against people because I would not want others to commit violence against me. I know I should not steal or cheat for the same reason. It is purely logical for me to follow certain principles and adhere to morals, without some supernatural entity threatening me with punishment. It is logical because I have a survival instinct which makes me avoid injury. Also, human beings are social creatures since society increases our chances of survival. Harming others harms the group, thus diminishing our prosperity. In my opinion, these are much better reasons to live morally than threats of eternal fire and brimstone. Morals do not come from religion and they never have. Furthermore, not all religious people have “high morals,” such as those whom use their religion to write moral blank checks which they cash to commit acts of rape [legalaffairs.org] and cold-blooded murder [salon.com].
But do you not see that critism is the only way to progress! I “complain” because I care. I see faults and I want to understand those faults such that they can be corrected. That is akin to the scientific method which seeks to disprove claims so that only those which are true become establish facts. And then they are questioned again and again. Critism is the crucible of knowledge and it is an ever-tempering force. If we resort to patting each other on the back, proclaiming to one another of how righteous and great we are, we will go nowhere.
Whew. Where to begin. Thank you for your concern, but I am well-employed. I prefer natural food to cheesy poofs, but I must admit I enjoy a fine glass of wine and even, dare I mention, a nice dry, gin martini from time to time. Such are lifes little pleasures. I personally have had no abortions given that I am a male, ho
Re:A comment prediction, if I may. (Score:2)
if you call your entire life 'next to nothing', sure.
A little time hanging out with nice people who have high morals?
yeah, cause only people who believe in god have high morals. like those crazy religious fundamentalists in the middle east. i'll go hang out with them. they believe in god, so they're alright.
Hanging out with people who believe in a hard days' work, who are willing to feed themselves and raise their children
It was worth it. (Score:2)
My comment appears to have stirred up some activity.
Lords of the Ring? (Score:1)
"One Large Hadron Collider to rule them all, one Large Hadron Collider to find them, one Large Hadron Collider to bring the protons, and in the 14 teraelectron darkness bind them" ?
We wonders, precious, we wonders...
OK, jokes are fine, but . . . (Score:3, Interesting)
I read on a theoretical physics blog (yes, there are such things) that there is a fear that this LHC might actually generate black holes.
link [columbia.edu]
Now that could make things very interesting, for a short time. .
Re:OK, jokes are fine, but . . . (Score:1)
Do we actually know what would happen if small scale black holes were produced? Could they grow and swallow everything? Or would they only exist for the briefest of moments before disappearing?
Re:OK, jokes are fine, but . . . (Score:5, Insightful)
You'd need a nano-blackhole with the mass of everest or so for it not to decay in seconds, iirc. 2 protons don't cut it buddy.
Re:OK, jokes are fine, but . . . (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:OK, jokes are fine, but . . . (Score:2)
Re:OK, jokes are fine, but . . . (Score:5, Informative)
this machine will only reproduce these collisions in very controlled conditions, letting us learn from them.
btw, this is not a concern i've ever heard an actual physicist raise. all theories of micro black holes predict they burn themselves out as fast as they are created, as there is a critical mass needed for self-sustainment. i have doubts regarding the reliability of your "science" blog.
Re:OK, jokes are fine, but . . . (Score:2, Interesting)
That would actually be ultra cool. A black hole would evaporate in a minute fraction of a second, giving off a very different signature than the expected quark-gluon plasma. If that were the case, physicists would get insight towards new physics, like string theory - the first experimental data about it. It seems, however, that chances are slim.
Also, a black hole is
Re:OK, jokes are fine, but . . . (Score:2)
NASTA Fellow (Score:4, Funny)
Wouldn't it be interesting... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Wouldn't it be interesting... (Score:2)
Re:Wouldn't it be interesting... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wouldn't it be interesting... (Score:2)
Just get in line behind the alpha centaurians.
a little hasty (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:a little hasty (Score:2)
and out of curiousity, where do you go to school?
Re:a little hasty (Score:3, Interesting)
not surprising... (Score:2)
Re:a little hasty (Score:2)
Re:a little hasty (Score:2)
It's not quite that simple anymore. Ten years or so ago, you were right. These detectors have always produced a lot more data than could be saved on magnetic tape or disc, so there is a process called triggering or filtering in which the data flow was reduced. 10-20 years
Interesting professional history... (Score:4, Interesting)
Large Hadron (Score:2, Funny)
-Peter
Re:Large Hadron (Score:2)
Lest we forget ... (Score:4, Interesting)
America's Discarded Superconducting Supercollider: [damninteresting.com]
Anyone know what the total cost will be? The U.S. version was supposed to top $US 8 billion, and I saw something about a U.S. government grant of $US 500 million in the late 90s. Curious to know if there were lessons learned and if the approach wound up making more fiscal sense.
&laz;
Re:Lest we forget ... (Score:2)
Its not the ring that are cool (Score:2)
Anri-Matter research (Score:1)
I think Bob was supposed to bring it (Score:2)
...
"I said, we will harness...the power...of ANTIMATTER!"
...
"Okay, whose job was it to bring the #$*@ antimatter???"
I forgot Bob's excuse: (Score:2)
Flysh! (Score:2)
What speed? (Score:2)
Does this mean it's only running at half speed in 2007, and 1/4 speed here in 2006? Does this mean that the collisions are only fender-benders that don't even deploy the airbags in the particles yet?
Chirst, I hope he's not in charge... (Score:3, Funny)
Apparently they travel 11,000 times a second around the 27km, reaching 0.999997828 the speed of light.
LHC Facts [web.cern.ch]
New Universal Unit of Measurement (Score:2)
Flashforward (Score:2)
wtf am I doing at IBM in a call center? (Score:2)
I want to help. I want to learn more. I'm sure I have skills that can be used in that kind of research.
The only interesting career path I see right now is Project Manager, and it's scaring me.
GET ME OUT OF HERE!
(.. and I'll know in around two weeks if I can do c
Re:Am I the only one... (Score:1)
Re:Am I the only one... (Score:1)
I did!! (Score:2)
Re:Am I the only one... (Score:1)
Re:Am I the only one... (Score:2)
~X~
Re:Impressive (Score:5, Funny)
"I've wanted to do the two-slit experiment for years, but my wife won't let me!"
To which the reply was:
"Good luck with that. Try explaining to her afterwards that you couldn't tell which slit you came through. You'll be sleeping next to the particle collider for a month."
Don't know where this came from though; it's not original to me...
Re:Impressive (Score:3, Funny)
If all you're colliding with is other hardons, then I don't think it's the ladies you're impressing...
Re:Can't play it (Score:2)
Nuff said
Re:Not to bash physicists, but... (Score:2, Interesting)
The reality is that there are a number of good reasons to be doing this. There are an enormous number of tech spinoffs that result (you're using one of them). Medical, industrial, informatics, etc - we're solving problems (out of necessity) that the rest of the world hasn't even run into yet. The data rate from one detector is greater than every human being
Re:Titor? (Score:3)
I normally treat conspiracy theory stuff with a bit of disdain, but having read about John Titor and his predictions back in 2003 when the US invaded Iraq, I began to wonder. Like most, I was shocked when the World Trade Center attacks happened. Yet less than two years later, any sympathy I had for the US had vanished when I began to see what the US government was heading towards - a totalitarian police state. Readers of Orwell would not fail to notice the similarities.
I