Blogs / Discoblog

The collisions are coming! The collisions are coming!

Yes, CERN scientists opened the bubbly last Wednesday after their first successful tests of the Large Hadron Collider’s particle-firing parts. But none of those secrets-of-the-universe-revealing proton collisions have actually happened yet. Never fear, LHC chief Lyn Evans told The Telegraph—next week could be the week.

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The computer maestros tinkering with Yahoo’s code at their all-night hackathon weren’t the only hackers that have been busy lately.

Late last week, a group hacked into one of the Large Hadron Collider’s main computer systems. Calling themselves part of the “Greek Security Team,” the hackers said they wanted to expose the weaknesses in the particle smasher’s computer systems. The attack against the Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment, one of the LHC’s four main experiments, did little direct harm, save some embarrassment for the LHC scientists, but they did bring down the CERN Web site.

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“The Ultra-Mega-Huge Proton Destroyer.”

“Yet Another Physics Experiment That Won’t Bring About the Apocalypse.”

“Old Smashy.”

Ah, forget it. I can’t think up a new name for the Large Hadron Collider, but maybe you can.

Britain’s Royal Society of Chemistry, perhaps jaded that their experiment didn’t involve billion-dollar holes in the ground, have decided to get in on the fun of the LHC. They want people to submit suggestions for a new name, because let’s face it: While accurate enough, “Large Hadron Collider” as a name doesn’t exactly stir the emotions.

To send in your suggestion for a moniker that better captures the LHC’s potential to unveil secrets of the universe, go here. Good luck—the contest ends Wednesday.

Image: flickr/μμ

· So the LHC hasn’t destroyed the world yet? Great. Have a T-shirt to celebrate.

· The International Space Station goes wireless. Now, if only we could get there after 2010…

· If you’re going to drive a solar car in Alaska, make it more normal-looking than this one, unless you want trouble from the cops.

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We’ve been over and over the fact that the chances the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest particle acclerator, will destroy the Earth are infinitesimal at best. But the doomsday crowd is still nervous, and growing more so as the official launch date—this coming Wednesday—draws near. In fact, The Telegraph reports, top physicists affiliated with the LHC have been receiving numerous nasty letters and even death threats from paranoid people.

Some call the public relations office with tearful requests to stop the project, CERN officials say, or send emails asking the scientists to reassure them that the world won’t come to an end next week. One of the angrier letter-writers says, “You are evil and dangerous and you are going to destroy the world.”

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· You can buy land on Mars. Seriously. You just have to figure out how to live there.

· The world’s space agencies might not speak the same language, but one small box could connect them all.

· The Simpsons was right—bottlenose dolphins are vicious killers.

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Question: How do you celebrate the culmination of 14 years of work to build the world’s largest particle accelerator?

Answer: By rapping (and bad dancing.)

Yes, the Large Hadron Collider, that 17-mile ring under the Swiss and French Alps, is fast approaching its official launch date a week from tomorrow. And while scientists have been running tests and warming up its accelerators to prepare for the day, something else has been heating up: an online video of a rap about the LHC, created by Kate McAlpine of Michigan State University.

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· Scientists have found the next great weapon against bacteria: marijuana.

· The Large Hadron Collider isn’t going to destroy the Earth, but if it did, it would look really cool from afar.

· Chris Mooney looks at Gustav, the storm forming in the Caribbean, and says, “Uh-oh.”

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The Large Hadron Collider is almost ready. Scientists are cooling the components of this giant underground accelerator to extreme temperatures—already -350 degrees Fahrenheit in some places—in anticipation of activating it next month. But don’t expect immediate answers—first physicists are going to have to wade through the sea of numbers.

Nature reports today that the LHC will create 700 megabytes of data per second. If you stacked the number of CDs necessary to store a year’s worth of LHC’s data, the pile would reach 20 kilometers into the air, or about 12.5 miles.

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