September 18, 2008 8:55 pm
The first collisions
between subatomic
particles will take
place in the giant
Large Hadron
Collider (LHC) next
week, among fears
that it might create
a doomsday-like
scenario for our
planet.
The LHC circulates
particles in a
17-mile
circumference
underground tunnel
straddling the
French-Swiss border
at The European
Organization for
Nuclear Research,
near Geneva,
Switzerland, known
by the acronym
CERN.
According to a
report in Telegraph,
although there was
much uproar last
week about the first
particles - protons
- to whirl around
the LHC at a shade
under the speed of
light, the real aim
of the exercise is
to bring counter
rotating beams of
particles into
collision in the
four “eyes” -
detectors - of the
machine to recreate
conditions not seen
since just after the
birth of the
universe.
This is the aspect
of the experiment
that has triggered
all the angst and
hand-wringing by
doomsayers and
Jeremiahs, who fear
that the collisions
will mark the end of
the world, as it
tumbles into the
gaping maw of a
black hole.
These fears have
been dismissed as
nonsense by Dr
Evans, along with
scientists such as
Prof Stephen
Hawking, who say
that the end of the
world is not nigh.
The original plan
was to take 31 days
from the first
proton beams
circulating in the
LHC to smashing
protons for the
first time.
“We were going
along at a real good
lick,” Dr Evans
said of the days
after particles
first circulated.
But, the cryogenics
that keep the great
machine cooled went
down on Friday, as a
result of
thunderstorms
disrupting the power
supply.
“We have had
problems with the
electricity supply
for various reasons
and the cryogenics
is recovering from
that, so we will not
have a beam again,
probably until
Thursday morning,”
said Dr Evans.
The team now hopes
to achieve
collisions at
between one fifth
and one tenth of the
full energy in a few
days.
“We are very
confident that we
can go quite
quickly. The
experiments have
asked us for some
early collisions, at
low energy. If we
get stable
conditions, we will
get there next
week,” said Dr
Evans.