Large Hadron Collider sets atom-smashing record

[JamesK]

Toronto Star

[Danster]

Ahhhh.....that explains the loud bang we heard in NB this morning..

[wgauci]

I wonder if we'll get any warning before the black hole obliterates us all.

[Nuje]

I read quite a long piece in Vanity Fair a few months ago about the LHC, and that Black Hole thing was quite funny. As in, yes, they might occur, but they're barely detectable and have a half-life in the trillionth's of a second or something like that.
Basically, the idiot who hypothesized this as a possibility was stating there was a 50% chance that the LHC might cause a black hole that would swallow the earth because "either it will, or it won't - so there's a 50-50 chance".
Now that's science!

[JamesK]

LHC Repair Photos

[DJDiggler]

The whole black hole issue is so ridiculous... billions of collisions much more powerful than any man can create occur in the atmosphere when cosmic rays collide.

Cosmic rays with even higher energies have since been observed. Among them was the Oh-My-God particle (a play on the nickname "God particle" for the Higgs boson) observed on the evening of 15 October 1991 over Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah. Its observation was a shock to astrophysicists, who estimated its energy to be approximately 3 × 10^20 electronvolts (50 joules)—in other words, a subatomic particle with macroscopic kinetic energy equal to that of a baseball (142 g or 5 ounces) traveling at 96 km/h (60 mph).

The theoretical maximum I've heard about the LHC is "only" 1x10^13 EV. The above particle hit earth with 3x10^20 (3 with 20 zeros behind it!). There is nothing new or unknown going on in the LCH, the difference is these collisions are happening in a controlled and fully monitored experiment.

Now I'm not demeaning the incredible achievement of the LCH, it should be a wonder of the world like the pyramids, it's just humbling knowing our most powerful accelerator is a peashooter compared to mother nature!

[dezzpayne]

It amazes me that splitting something microscopic can create soo much energy. Wouldn't it be earth shattering cool if they could somehow use that reaction to create a near limitless supply of cheap, relatively clean energy? We can only dream of such fanciful ideas.....

[JamesK]

^^^^
That's what nuclear fission is all about, though on a larger scale. In the nuclear reactors, U-235 or other suitable material is split into other elements and releases large amounts of power.

[DJDiggler]

Originally Posted by dezzpayne

It amazes me that splitting something microscopic can create soo much energy. Wouldn't it be earth shattering cool if they could somehow use that reaction to create a near limitless supply of cheap, relatively clean energy? We can only dream of such fanciful ideas.....

Check out the other incredible project: The National Ignition Facility

NIF's main goal is to focus a number of lasers capable of generating 180 MJ of energy – more than 60 times more energetic than any machine in existence – onto a hollow sphere 2 mm in diameter made of beryllium.

Don't want to go OT, the INF could have a thread of it's own! It's an incredible time in science right now with machines like these coming online. Think of the things that could be done if we spent all the military money that goes to killing each other on stuff like this??

[dezzpayne]

Just for the record I didn't think I needed a /sarcasm tag there but I guess it goes to show that sarcasm and forums don't mix

Never heard about the NIF actually. Will give it a peek!

[wgauci]

Last month or so, I believe I read an article in Scientific America about this and the pursuit of cheap fusion power. They were pretty up front in explaining that it's really a pipe dream and will probably never be practical. There are no materials that exist that would be able to contain the energies and heat involved in housing the mini-suns this type of technology produces. Another thing they don't mention is the cost of the fuel they are using right now. If I remember correctly, it's in the millions of dollars per gram and they would need pounds of it per year.

[DJDiggler]

Yes, fusion today isn't practical as a power source, the NIF is only trying to sustain a reaction for a very short time, but the key is they expect to get more energy out than put in... a first key step.

It's incredible, we can recreate conditions from the big bang and form a mini star on earth for a paltry 14 billion all together, and people are constantly bitching these projects go over budget and cost to much... the US spent 855 billion on defense this year! (not to point the finger at just the US, every country is part of the problem).

[wgauci]

Originally Posted by DJDiggler

Yes, fusion today isn't practical as a power source, the NIF is only trying to sustain a reaction for a very short time, but the key is they expect to get more energy out than put in... a first key step.

I agree, however, the main theme of the piece I read was that everyone has been running around looking for the holy grail of producing more power than it takes to compress the material enough to induce fusion. When that really isn't the challenge, in fact it's the easiest part. The real issues will be sustaining a magnetic containment field that will hold the reaction, and then a material that will produce said fields. And then housing everything you need to produce the incredibly complex magnetic fields while being in close proximity to what in effect is a 'sun' and being able to handle all this for the life of a generating plant. What this experiment is doing is proving that water boils without being able to build a fire or a pot. The reality is that fusion power generation will probably be a pipe dream.