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Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

Someone who is currently at my old alma mater, but normally works at CERN, has created a swedish meatball collider.

I feel this might also help aid in our understanding of meatball-related weather phenomena.

Meatball collider
 
I thought it must be April Fools' Day! :chuckle:

CERN approves two new experiments to transport antimatter

CERN’s Antimatter Factory is the only place in the world where low-energy antiprotons – the antimattercounterparts of protons – are produced.

But in the not-so-distant future it could also be the first place to dispatch trapped antiprotons to another location.

On 17 March 2021, the CERN Research Board approved the development of two new experiments to carry antiprotons from the Antimatter Factory to other facilities, for antimatter and nuclear-physics studies.

BASE-STEP and PUMA, as the experiments are called, are compact enough to be transported in a small truck or van.
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Vardoger said:
More tasteful than the "Large Hardon Collider".
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C'mon now, this is a serious business.


Oh go on then, have a tasteless visual pun -

Large Hardon Collider.jpg
 
Researchers achieve world's first manipulation of antimatter by laser

phys.org
31 March, 2021

Researchers with the CERN-based ALPHA collaboration have announced the world's first laser-based manipulation of antimatter, leveraging a made-in-Canada laser system to cool a sample of antimatter down to near absolute zero. The achievement, detailed in an article published today and featured on the cover of the journal Nature, will significantly alter the landscape of antimatter research and advance the next generation of experiments.

Antimatter is the otherworldly counterpart to matter; it exhibits near-identical characteristics and behaviors but has opposite charge. Because they annihilate upon contact with matter, antimatter atoms are exceptionally difficult to create and control in our world and had never before been manipulated with a laser.

"Today's results are the culmination of a years-long program of research and engineering, conducted at UBC but supported by partners from across the country," said Takamasa Momose, the University of British Columbia (UBC) researcher with ALPHA's Canadian team (ALPHA-Canada) who led the development of the laser. "With this technique, we can address long-standing mysteries like: 'How does antimatter respond to gravity? Can antimatter help us understand symmetries in physics?'. These answers may fundamentally alter our understanding of our Universe."

Since its introduction 40 years ago, laser manipulation and cooling of ordinary atoms have revolutionized modern atomic physics and enabled several Nobel-winning experiments. The results in Nature mark the first instance of scientists applying these techniques to antimatter.

By cooling antimatter, researchers will be able to perform a variety of precision tests to further investigate the characteristics of antimatter, including experiments that may shine a light on the fundamental symmetries of our Universe. These tests could offer clues as to why the Universe is made primarily of matter and not equal parts matter/antimatter as predicted by Big Bang models.

"It was a bit of crazy dream to manipulate antimatter with laser," said Makoto Fujiwara, ALPHA-Canada spokesperson, TRIUMF scientist, and the original proponent of the laser cooling idea. "I am thrilled that our dream has finally come true as a result of tremendous teamwork of both Canadian and international scientists."

(...)

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-canadian-built-laser-chills-antimatter-absolute.html#lightbox
 
... And, in other news, Japanese scientists create the first antimatter bo-... [LOST CARRIER]
 
escargot said:
My son starts there in July, after a month in Texas. :D

Hope he's careful though -



:shock:

Guardian
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There's a great account of Anatoli Bugorski's mishap here:

On July 13, 1978, particle physicist Anatoli Bugorski was working his job at the U-70 synchrotron, the largest particle accelerator in the Soviet Union. The 36-year-old was inspecting a piece of equipment that had malfunctioned when the accident happened. Unbeknownst to him, several safety mechanisms had also failed, meaning that when he leaned over to get a good look at his task, a proton beam shot through the back of his head at close to the speed of light.

Or at least, closer to the speed of light than you'd like a proton beam to be traveling at when it shoots clean through your face.

Full Story:
https://www.iflscience.com/health-a...particle-accelerator-while-it-was-switched-on
 
SHAYBARSABE said:
LHC hit by power cut

Details at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_ ... 197967.stm

Is something trying to stop this project? (Like something from the future, I mean.)

Cue spooky music.
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Apparently it's birds with baguettes that are worried about what might happen:
"A previous outage in November 2009 which halted the machine is thought to have occurred when a bird dropped a baguette it was eating at one of the points where the mains electricity supply enters the collider from above ground."
https://www.bbc.com/news/10197967
 
Who checks the fact checkers? Just saying like.....
 
Mythopoeika said:
I guess that just means they're still negotiating with the demonic entities. I mean, they didn't make a specific rebuttal of that one, did they?


:evillaugh:
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Whilst looking up LHC on the net I came across these pictures from the opening ceremony.
 

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SimonBurchell said:
Those pics appear to be from the opening ceremony of the Gotthard Rail Tunnel.
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That's weird. When I type in 'pictures from the opening ceremony CERN', I get more results to do with the Gotthard Rail Tunnel than I do for CERN. I don't seem to be having much luck with pictures from the CERN ceremony.

Is there a connection between the two?
 
kesavaross said:
That's weird. When I type in 'pictures from the opening ceremony CERN', I get more results to do with the Gotthard Rail Tunnel than I do for CERN. I don't seem to be having much luck with pictures from the CERN ceremony.

Is there a connection between the two?
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I've no idea - I know very little about Switrzerland except that its mountains, like its cheese, are full of holes. I Googled pictures of the CERN opening ceremony and clicked through to an article, to find that there was no mention of CERN at all. Usual rubbish Google search results.
 
kesavaross said:
I've absolutely no idea. It's a bit weird though.

There's also a 2m high diety of Shiva outside the front of the CERN building. Why?
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According to CERN:

The statue is a gift from India, celebrating CERN's long association with India which started in the 1960's and continues strongly today. It was unveiled by the Director General, Dr Robert Aymar, His Excellency Mr K. M. Chandrasekhar, Ambassador (WTO-Geneva) and Dr Anil Kakodkar, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary, Dept of Atomic Energy, India.

In the Hindu religion, this form of the dancing Lord Shiva is known as the Nataraj and symbolises Shakti, or life force. As a plaque alongside the statue explains, the belief is that Lord Shiva danced the Universe into existence, motivates it, and will eventually extinguish it. Carl Sagan drew the metaphor between the cosmic dance of the Nataraj and the modern study of the 'cosmic dance' of subatomic particles.

From: https://cds.cern.ch/record/745737
 
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