Waiting for the LHC online-again date with bated breath? May want to inhale again
Posted 02.10.2009 at 12:53 pm
4 Comments
The Collider
Peter McCready
All those planning for the end of the world in July, rest easy and enjoy the summer.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is delaying the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) startup another two months. According to CERN, the LHC will go live in September and collisions will begin in October.
The collider was first switched on last September and just nine days later, was turned off due to a leak in its liquid-helium plumbing. To make up for missed time, CERN announced it will be running the LHC through the winter. Usually atom-smashers hibernate during the winter, avoiding the peak electricity rates and allowing for maintenance, but the LHC will have only a brief respite: Christmas vacation.
The two month delay in restarting the machine will give engineers time to install warning and protection systems, in hopes of preventing another premature shutdown. The system will include pressure-release valves to stop wide-spread damage should another rupture occur and an early turn-off system that would detect problems and shutdown the machine before major damage could be done.
Want to learn more about breakthroughs in electronics, medicine, nanotech, and more?
Subscribe to Popular Science today, for less than $1 per issue!
Subscribe to Popular Science today, for less than $1 per issue!
4 Comments
To comment, please Login.
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 2013: American Energy Independence
Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.
Popular on Popsci
Most Commented
Science
- Scientists Create First Cloned Human Embryo
- State Drops Charges Against High School Student Arrested For Science Experiment
- Dear Schools: Stop Treating Science-Curious Kids Like Criminals
- Space Tourism's Black Carbon Problem
- Giving White People The Illusion Of Darker Skin Makes Them Less Racist
- Cold Fusion Machine Gets Third-Party Verification, Inventor Says
- What Modern Humans Can Learn From The Neanderthals' Extinction
- FYI: Do Wind Farms Make It Less Windy?
- How Do You Make A Painkiller Addiction-Proof?
- Untouched For The Last Billion Years, Water In Canadian Mine Holds Ingredients For Life
Most Emailed
Science
- FEMA's 'Waffle House Index' Rates Moore, Oklahoma, At Disaster Level Yellow
- FYI: Could Climate Change Cause More (And Bigger) Tornadoes?
- FYI: Are Unvaccinated Kids Really Causing The Whooping Cough Resurgence?
- Climate Change Will Increase Heat-Related Deaths In NYC, Study Says
- Why Are Tornadoes So Hard To Predict?
- Scientists Reveal The Cause Of The Irish Potato Famine
- Reconstructing The Oklahoma Tornado From Start To Finish, In Videos
- Megapixels: A Parasitic Worm Infects An Ant
- Cold Fusion Machine Gets Third-Party Verification, Inventor Says
- Inside The World's Most Ambitious Eco-City
Most Viewed
Science
- FEMA's 'Waffle House Index' Rates Moore, Oklahoma, At Disaster Level Yellow
- FYI: Could Climate Change Cause More (And Bigger) Tornadoes?
- FYI: Are Unvaccinated Kids Really Causing The Whooping Cough Resurgence?
- Climate Change Will Increase Heat-Related Deaths In NYC, Study Says
- Why Are Tornadoes So Hard To Predict?
- Scientists Reveal The Cause Of The Irish Potato Famine
- Reconstructing The Oklahoma Tornado From Start To Finish, In Videos
- Megapixels: A Parasitic Worm Infects An Ant
- Cold Fusion Machine Gets Third-Party Verification, Inventor Says
- Inside The World's Most Ambitious Eco-City
Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Assistant Editor: Colin Lecher | Email
Assistant Editor: Rose Pastore | Email
Contributing Writers:
Rebecca Boyle | Email
Kelsey D. Atherton | Email
Francie Diep | Email
Shaunacy Ferro | Email
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2012 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Why weren't these safety systems in place before they started it up the first time?
Sabotage! or cocky engineers lol
I think the comparison you apply to people who may or may not have rational reasons to oppose cavalier start of the LHC is impolite. I am not opposed to pursuing the LHC due to religious reasons but reasons that to my knowledge the risks are not balanced with the ability to assure safety.
Why do you persist in labeling those who may have rational scientific based opinions as being from the lunatic fringe? Does that not make you the lunatic?
It's funny how easy it is for the general population to be irrationally frightened. It's easy, if you generally know nothing of the science behind a project like the LHC, to be persuaded that there will be bad effects because of the imagined consequences.
It's almost impossible to un-scare people - it doesn't matter how many scientific studies, as well as colliders that are already running, prove that the danger is fictitious, even imagined danger will strike fear in the public because fear suppresses mind's ability to think logically in regard to death. (These are the same people who would argue for a rational belief in God because the consequences of going to hell outweigh any possible benefit of refusing belief)