Blunderov
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"We think in generalities, we live in details"
  
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Re:CERN hurling Earth into parallel universe
« Reply #16 on: 2008-09-14 05:46:33 » |
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Quote from: DJ_dAndroid on 2008-09-14 03:49:07 when will things start... colliding?
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[Blunderov] The BBC coverage that I saw was a little vague, saying only that about a month from the switch-on the first collisions would be attempted.
Meanwhile...
belfasttelegraph
<snip>Greek hackers break into Large Hadron Collider's computers
Saturday, 13 September 2008
Hackers have broken into Large Hadron Collider computers raising concerns about security surrounding the world's biggest ever scientific experiment.
A group calling itself the Greek Security Team is said to have been one step away from the control system.
The hackers reportedly managed to compromise the machines and left a message saying, "GST: Greek Security Team - We are Group 2600. Don’t mess with us."
No major damage was done but they did delete one file from the system.
Scientists, however, admitted that they were only one step away from the main machine, Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment, or CMS, which controls equipment crucial for the experiment. </snip>
telegraph
Large Hadron Collider: Scientists launch competition for a funkier name
Last Updated: 9:01am BST 12/09/2008
The Large Hadron Collider may do exactly what it says on the tin but, in an unusual move, scientists have asked members of the public to come up with a catchier name. Stephen Adams reports.
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) - perhaps motivated by a little professional jealousy at the media attention given to the physics experiment - has launched a competition to find a new moniker for the atom smashing machine buried beneath Geneva.
Dr Richard Pike, its chief executive, has said that the name "fails to reflect the drama of its mission, or the inspiration it should be conveying to the wider public".
The organisation has launched a competition, with a £500 prize, to find what it considers to be "the best alternative name ... which most effectively captures the imagination of both young and old, whether interested in science, or merely sceptical onlookers."
The LHC is the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator.
Its function is to get different particles whizzing in different directions around the 17-mile long circuit at the speed of light, to make them collide head-on.
Results obtained from tests should, theorize the scientists, help to answer some of the most fundamental questions about the nature of the universe.
While most people without a working knowledge of sub-atomic physics have struggled with what it actually does, a large proportion have also had problems with the basic spelling of Large Hadron Collider.
Web users have had particular trouble with the unfamiliar "hadron" - the collective name for the particles used in the experiments.
Their misspellings have given rise to a range of alternative websites [warning: explicit content] that have nothing to do with the multi-billion pound device or the search for the so-called 'God particle', the elusive Higgs boson particle.
The competition, at www.rsc.org/AboutUs/News/PressReleases/2008/RenameLHC.asp, "will close at noon on Wednesday 17 September 2008 - after one week's safe operation of the LHC. But the RSC warns that the prize will not be awarded if the Earth is destroyed before this time."
In launching the challenge, the RSC has laid itself open to accusations that it has launched the competition purely out of professional jealously at the amount of money the physics community has received.
Dr Pike said: "As the universe is 13 billion years old, this means that for more than 99.99 per cent of its existence chemistry has played a dominant role. Physics is therefore getting an enormous boost through funding of the LHC, in effect, to explore the first fleeting moments of why we are here.
"I would make a claim that chemistry, if it received pro rata funding, would be up for trillions of pounds to investigate the mechanisms of the origins and development of life, which would have immediate application within the community. That might be the basis of an RSC funding claim next year..."
[Bl.] My suggestion is for the new name is "The Gumbytron"; "...recurring Gumby elements are a violent and oafish clumsiness, and enthusiasm for banging bricks together."* ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumbies )
* "Second Gumby I would like to hear the sound of two bricks being bashed together."
http://www.ibras.dk/montypython/episode13.htm
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