LHC Offline Until April 2009 (Or Longer) 298
rufey writes "The recent problems at the Large Hadron Collider will now keep it idle until spring 2009. The official press release is here. The LHC went offline due to a suspected failure in a superconducting connection, which overheated and caused around 100 of the LHC's super-cooled magnets to heat up by as much as 100 degrees. This resulted in the accidental release of a ton of liquid helium. The process required to repair the failed superconducting connection involves weeks of warming up the affected area from -456 degrees Fahrenheit to room temperature, and then several more weeks to cool it back down after the repair is made. The total amount of time to do this will spill over into CERN's scheduled winter maintenance/shutdown period, which is partly done to save money on electricity during the period of peak demand."
Re:-456 F? What is that? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Now what do I do? (Score:2, Interesting)
Given the recent stock crisis, that was probably the best thing you could have done with your money anyway.
Re:Damn (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Your telling me maintenance people cannot work (Score:5, Interesting)
But seriously, what about space suits? They allow people to survive in absolute 0. Why can't they be used?
Re:I can wait (Score:3, Interesting)
Because if we were in one of the unlucky universes we wouldn't be having this conversation, that's what the thought experiment is. The idea goes like this, there are an infinate number of universes so anything that could even remotely happen will happen in one of them. Since you will only be aware of a universe if you are in it to experience it, you (as in yourself) will never die.
Lets say I hook a nuclear bomb up to a detector that detects whether a single radioactive atom has decayed yet. After each half life of the particle, a new universe is created, one in which I am dead, and one in which I am alive. Needless to say, I'm not around to care about the universes that I am dead in. From my point of view, the bomb will never detonate because if it does than that cannot be my point of view any longer.
Of course, this only works if the many worlds interpetation is correct, if it isn't then you will eventually die. Also, the argument only works for you. If someone else does the experiment they will die, at least according to your point of view. Luckily, anything that will destroy the world will also kill me, so the world is safe.
A possible reason for the setback (Score:2, Interesting)
Can this [fqxi.org] explain the reason for the setback?
"the paper suggested that future effects caused by the production of particles, such as the Higgs, could ripple backwards in time and prevent the LHC from ever operating."