LHC To Idle All Accelerators In 2012 117
sciencehabit writes "Particle physicists and science fans everywhere knew that the European particle physics laboratory, CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland, would shut down the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest atom smasher, for all of 2012 for repairs. Many expected that the shutdown would stretch to more than a year, which CERN officials confirmed today. But most probably did not expect CERN to idle all its other accelerators at the same time, shutting down a variety of smaller projects and forcing hundreds of scientists not working on the LHC to take an unanticipated break in data taking. The longer shutdown could be a chance for US scientists working on the Tevatron at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, if researchers there can persuade lab management to keep the machine going instead of shutting it down in 2011 as currently planned."
Reader suraj.sun notes other CERN news making the rounds right now about plans for the International Linear Collider, a 31-kilometer-long collider designed to complement the LHC. Construction on the ILC could begin as soon as 2012.
Relief... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Relief... (Score:3, Funny)
This is how it'll happen (Score:5, Funny)
"No! This is our only chance to beat CERN! While they're still doing repairs!
"You have to stop, the numbers! They're not stable!"
"Almost there... almost there..."
"GORDON! GET OUT OF THERE!"
*green electrical storm*
"My god... I never thought I'd see a resonance cascade, let alone create one!"
and that's it people. We sent the crowbar to CERN. We're doomed.
DAMNIT!!! (Score:2, Funny)
Refractory Period (Score:5, Funny)
Getting tired.. (Score:2, Funny)
of reading about LHC repairs. Just create the damn black hole
Re:Relief... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Not sure what to make of the LHC so far (Score:3, Funny)
Re:2012 (Score:5, Funny)
But how will we shrink the Earth to an object the size of a pea on December 21, 2012?
Narf!
FTFY.
Re:kraft dinner (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Refractory Period (Score:1, Funny)
Forever?
Those commercials say that if your large hadron lasts 4 hours, you should call your doctor.
Personally, if my large hadron lasts 4 hours, I'm calling everybody!
Re:This is how it'll happen (Score:3, Funny)
Sell the idea to Valve. I mean it.
Re:kraft dinner (Score:2, Funny)
I work on the LHC, and if its pinnacle of achievement, its major contribution to the progress of humanity, turns out to be cheaper Kraft dinners, I think I'm going to go lie under a bus.
Re:Relief... (Score:4, Funny)
No! That's exactly what the Mayans would have us believe, from their time traveling relative dimension pocket near the Andromeda galaxy. The only way to prevent the catastrophic end of the B'ak'tun is to RUN the Large Hadron Collider and create a Higgs Boson that will counteract all the neutrino emissions from the sun.
For the love of god, we must run the LHC or we may yet pass through the CGI event horizon, our imaginations running wild, causing the ruination of all the good creatures and the ultimate victory of the Woodland Critters!
(Oof. Perhaps I shouldn't have watched the John Cusack 2012 movie and South Park back to back on Netflix last night?)
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Toro
It's all falling into place (Score:3, Funny)
OMG. Here is confirmable data, streaming in newsfeeds from all over the world, that the LHC is actually involved in a time travel paradox [newscientist.com] with a Higgs boson it can never create. Eventually the entire site will be nuked from orbit by the Higgs boson, because it's the only way to be sure.
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Toro