Beaming With Anticipation

CERN Control CentreI just learned from the US/LHC blogs that the first circulating beam of the Large Hadron Collider will be attempted on September 10th. The press release is here, and is from where I stole the image (left) of the fancy-looking CERN Control Centre. This is so exciting! It’s not long now for possible new physics (some months or so beyond that date, or early 2009) from this long, long awaited machine. In the meantime, lots of other warm-up test will be going on too. Link here for more.

For more on the LHC and why we care, see several older posts here (this one links to lots of things), including the ones pointing to the nice NPR pieces (here, and here). Be sure to watch the excellent videos showing you the inside of one of the detectors (links in here). See also the CERN website.

Here’s the obligatory impressive picture of one of the detectors of this 27km-around marvel. This picture is over a year out of date, but still does the job of impressing, I hope:

ATLAS detector at Large Hadron Collider

(Image: The seven story tall Atlas detector at the LHC. (photo: Serge Bellegarde))

-cvj

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2 Responses to Beaming With Anticipation

  1. Clifford says:

    Hi,

    Thanks. No, I’ve not really been paying attention, so thanks for linking to it.

    By the way, what an excellent birthday present for your wife (assuming she likes physics too)!

    Best,

    -cvj

  2. David Levine says:

    Thanks for posting this Clifford. I’m a longtime fan of physics and have been fascinated with the LHC for a while. (Also a fan of your blog.) Maybe obsessed is a better word. As you’ve been reading the USLHC blogs, I imagine you caught that cute little rap video posted a few days back?

    I find the juxtaposition of the largest machine ever built to find the smallest things detectable to be riveting. I can’t get enough of the photography and video of this project. And now the announcement that the first circulating beams are expected on my wife’s 50th birthday.