Hadron Collider/Interviews w/ Experts

lhc-first-beam.web.cern.ch...

Q. 1. What is the importance or relationship between theoretical physics and the LHC project? Q. 2. What can be expected to happen on First Beam Day? Q. 3. What happens next in the story? Q. 4. What does this mean to you personally?

Interview with Aymar Director Genral of CERN

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Interview with Paul Collier - Group Leader AB-Operations

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Interview with Werner Riegler - Physicist ALICE

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Interview with Peter Jenni - Spokesperson ATLAS

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Interview with Mike Lamont - LHC Machine Coordinator

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Interview with John Ellis - Theoretical Physicist

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webcast.cern.ch... LIVE WEBCAST



[edit on 8-9-2008 by antar]

Success of the second and final test of the Large Hadron Collider’s beam synchronization systems - View of the bunch of particles through some camera screen inside the LHC machine.

I find this a time of unequivical excitement and concern. Will this experiment create the desired affects which thousands of the most brilliant scientic minds would hope, or are they crossing the boundaries of our technological abilities?

I for one will be watching this event as it is possibly one of the most significant tests of our lifetime.

The LHC is safe

cdsweb.cern.ch...

An interesting video designed to ease the public forum of any disasterous results stemming from the LHC activation set for 9-10-2008

on 2008-08-14T16:30:00on 2008-08-14T16:30:00

Subject category CERN Colloquium
Abstract Concerns have been expressed from time to time about the safety of new high-energy colliders, and the LHC has been no exception. The LHC Safety Assessment Group (LSAG)(*) was asked last year by the CERN management to review previous LHC safety analyses in light of additional experimental results and theoretical understanding. LSAG confirms, updates and extends previous conclusions that there is no basis for any conceivable threat from the LHC. Indeed, recent theoretical and experimental developments reinforce this conclusion. In this Colloquium, the basic arguments presented by LSAG will be reviewed. Cosmic rays of much higher effective centre-of-mass energies have been bombarding the Earth and other astronomical objects for billions of years, and their continued existence shows that the Earth faces no dangers from exotic objects such as hypothetical microscopic black holes that might be produced by the LHC - as discussed in a detailed paper by Giddings and Mangano(**). Measurements of strange particle production at RHIC constrain severely the possible production of strangelets in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC, which also present no danger - as discussed in an addendum to the LSAG report. On a different note: although the LHC is no danger to the Earth, it may reveal the fate of the Universe by probing the nature of the vacuum(***). (*) J.E., Gian Gudice, Michelangelo Mangano, Igor Tkachev and Urs Wiedemann: arXiv:0806.3414 (**) Steven Giddings and Michelangelo Mangano: arXiv:0806.3381 (***) S. Abel. J.E., J. Jaeckel and V.V. Khoze: arXiv:0807.2601

cdsweb.cern.ch...

A very open discussion leaving no stone unturned as to the safety of this project. I highly suggest if you still have apprehensions about this event take time to listen to this video.

www.nytimes.com...

Asking a Judge to Save the World, and Maybe a Whole Lot More

As discussed in the above video:

The world’s physicists have spent 14 years and $8 billion building the Large Hadron Collider, in which the colliding protons will recreate energies and conditions last seen a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Researchers will sift the debris from these primordial recreations for clues to the nature of mass and new forces and symmetries of nature.

Yet 1 Attorney with Physics degrees from Hawaii and his friend a researcher on Time theory see things differently:

But Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho contend that scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, have played down the chances that the collider could produce, among other horrors, a tiny black hole, which, they say, could eat the Earth. Or it could spit out something called a “strangelet” that would convert our planet to a shrunken dense dead lump of something called “strange matter.” Their suit also says CERN has failed to provide an environmental impact statement as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

The lawsuit, filed March 21 in Federal District Court, in Honolulu, seeks a temporary restraining order prohibiting CERN from proceeding with the accelerator until it has produced a safety report and an environmental assessment. It names the federal Department of Energy, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the National Science Foundation and CERN as defendants.

That was then and this is now... Still attempting to stop the LHC from being started on 9-10-2008

This artist's conception simulates the particle tracks that could be left behind by
the creation and decay of a black hole in the Large Hadron Collider ATLAS
detector. The researcher with a hardhat is shown only to give a sense of scale.

COURTS WEIGH DOOMSDAY CLAIMS

Critics who say the world's largest atom-smasher could destroy the world have brought their claims to courtrooms in Europe and the United States - and although the claims are getting further consideration, neither court will hold up next week's official start of the Large Hadron Collider.

The main event took place today in Honolulu, where a federal judge is mulling over the federal government's request to throw out a civil lawsuit filed by retired nuclear safety officer Walter Wagner and Spanish science writer Luis Sancho.

Meanwhile, legal action is pending as well at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. Last week, the court agreed to review doomsday claims from a group of professors and students, primarily from Germany and Austria. However, the court rejected a call for the immediate halt of operations at the LHC.

Well one thing for certain regardless of which side of the fence you sit on with this issue, we will not have to wait long as the big start up is just hours away now.

But will we actually be able to know the true consequences immediately or will the longer term affects takes weeks or even months to fully comprehend?

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Some very cool videos, kind of make you wish you were there. I would LOVE to work with Alice, think of the great magnetism pranks you could play on your colleagues...

*Bump*

Hey let someone else get a reply in here! I personally haven't worried much because, if the doom sayers are right, then I must die and don't see anyway out of it lol!

you should see the party's I throw! Some of the best ones over the years were vacant.

Really just had a lot of questions about the 'event' and could not seem to find any threads when I was looking for some basic answers.

I had a nice afternoon, well day checking out the above videos and figured I would share. Things got pretty dull around here so I just kept adding... thanks for your reply.

I forgot to ask, what is your personal take on it? End of the world as we know it or another non issue? I salute you for giving two different perspectives by the way.

Thanks Vance and that is the way this should be approached as there are too many people that take sides with an issue before they look at 'all' the evidence.

I personally know that day after tomorrow people will continue to work, play and go about their business, at the subatomic level they will see it as another day.

Are you in RATS? There was a mysterious thread started many years ago by William over there that I think has some hidden answers in to this situation as it affects our future.

I think it is going to become a culmination of events in the years between 2010 and beyond which will shape the future of our known existence and this experiment if it works will enable us to carry on into the future as close what we know as possible. There again for most it will just be another day.

Again thanks for responding, I was begining to feel like a one man band.

Lots more info out there about this issue but I think people like to worry more than examine the truths in the variables of unknowns.

I have placed a request for a good live feed for the event, no response yet, does anyone have a better source than CERN?

Here we go friends, the start up will begin 830am GMT+2
wwp.greenwichmeantime.com...

Welcome to CERN,
the world's largest particle physics laboratory
LHC First Beam on
10 September 2008

CERN reiterates safety of LHC on eve of first beam
Geneva, 5 September 2008. A report published today in the peer reviewed Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics provides comprehensive evidence that safety fears about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are unfounded. The LHC is CERN’s new flagship research facility. As the world’s highest energy particle accelerator, it is poised to provide new insights into the mysteries of our universe.
Welcome to CERN,
the world's largest particle physics laboratory
LHC First Beam on
10 September 2008

press.web.cern.ch...

Geneva, 5 September 2008. A report published today in the peer reviewed Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics1 provides comprehensive evidence that safety fears about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are unfounded. The LHC is CERN’s2 new flagship research facility. As the world’s highest energy particle accelerator, it is poised to provide new insights into the mysteries of our universe.

“The LHC will enable us to study in detail what nature is doing all around us,” said CERN Director General Robert Aymar. “The LHC is safe, and any suggestion that it might present a risk is pure fiction.”

Safety has been an integral part of the LHC project since its inception in 1994, and the project has been subject to numerous audits covering all aspects of safety and environmental impact. A comprehensive report by independent scientists addressing safety issues related to the production of new particles at the LHC was presented to CERN’s governing body, the CERN Council, in 2003. It concluded that the LHC is safe. This report was updated and its conclusions strengthened in a new report incorporating recent experimental and observational data that was presented to Council at its most recent meeting in June 2008. This new report confirms and strengthens the conclusion of the 2003 report that there is no basis for any concern about the safety of the LHC.The CERN Council is composed of representatives of the governments of the 20 European Member States of CERN.

The report was prepared by a group of scientists at CERN, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The papers comprising the report have been accepted for publication in leading peer-reviewed scientific journals. The report was reviewed carefully by the Scientific Policy Committee (SPC), a body composed of 20 independent external scientists that advises the CERN Council on scientific matters. Five of these independent scientists, including one Nobel Laureate, examined in detail the 2008 report and endorsed the authors’ approach of basing their arguments on irrefutable observational evidence to conclude that new particles produced at the LHC will pose no danger. The full SPC agreed unanimously with their findings.

“The LHC safety review has shown that the LHC is perfectly safe,” said Jos Engelen, CERN’s Chief Scientific Officer, “it points out that Nature has already conducted the equivalent of about a hundred thousand LHC experimental programmes on Earth – and the planet still exists.”

As we draw ever closer to the final moments, can you imagine what the excitement levels(and stress)are for not only the professionals dedicated to the experiment but also the people of Geneva? Wow would I love to be there to observe.

CERN has chosen Eurovision to host the live coverage of the scheduled first attempt of LHC Start Up:

www.eurovision.net...

This is going to be exciting! I hope you will watch.

Edit to say ah crud, looks like eurovision is a paid company? I dont know, anyone? I will fill out the request form to see where it goes.
The OP cern link is probably down, hope it goes back up before this mornings start up.

[edit on 9-9-2008 by antar]