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| Science & Technology |
| Large Hadron Collider restarted |
| 2009-11-21 |
| THE world's biggest atom-smasher, shut down after its inauguration in September 2008 amid technical faults, has been restarted. "The first tests of injecting sub-atomic particles began around 1600 (01:00 AEDT),'' CERN spokesman James Gillies said. I'm happy to announce that if it created a black hole that sucked the entire world into an alternate universe it's a universe sufficiently similar to our old one that we haven't noticed yet... He said the injections lasted a fraction of a second, enough for "a half or even a complete circuit'' of the Large Hadron Collider built in a 27km long tunnel straddling the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva. The LHC promises to unlock scientific mysteries about the creation of the universe and the fundamental nature of matter. But the machine was shut down just nine days after its inauguration last September following a series of technical faults. Since then, the LHC's components had been tested to an energy equivalent of five teraelectronvolts at full power. The maximum output of what is currently the largest functioning collider in the world, at the Fermilab near Chicago in the United States, is one teraelectronvolt. CERN had said in August that upon its relaunch, the LHC will run at 3.5 teraelectronvolts in order to allow its operators to gain experience of running the machine. The first data should be collected a few weeks after the first particle beam was fired. CERN said the partial power level will be kept until "a significant data sample has been gathered" and ramped up thereafter. Designed to shed light on the origins of the universe, the LHC at CERN took nearly 20 years to complete and cost $6.3 billion to build. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 Say... If we are in an alternate timeline or something, how come I'm still a loser? This wasn't like that at the end of "back to the future". They need to tweak this thing, it's not working well yet. Or... maybe... I used to be successful and all... rich guy, married to a vulgar-looking-yet-beautiful (and not too bright) blonde tits-goddess, with four, no, five kids who love me, and an huge, sprawling home, several cars, great job, lean & fit with the proverbial six-packs and a manly, rugged physique... And they turned that thing on... and I woke up like THAT this morning. Dammit! I'm faaaaaaaaaack.... |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2009-11-21 16:42 |
| #2 Actually it caused a time warp as well and sucked us into an alternate universe on Jan 20th of this year. Didn't you see the bearded Mr. Spock? |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2009-11-21 14:40 |
| #1 I've notice my Pica Guage is off by a point. |
| Posted by: Perry Stanford White 2009-11-21 07:42 |