Starship Asterisk*

Quick restart of Big Bang machine stuns scientists

... which has now (so far) changed to ...

Restored machine to explore mysteries of Big Bang

Hey, I didn't write those headlines. And I understand that "Big Bang" is a pun or double entendre referring to an energetic particle collision, not to the origin of the universe or to any similarity between the two as the name implies. So I was a little bit hesitant to post the link because of the reaction the headline might evoke in the knee-jerk gallery, but they did restart the thing and I'm only lettin' y'all know.

And here's another article that creates an incorrect impression:

http://www.domain-b.com/technology/2009/20091121_cern_restart.html wrote:Scientist at Geneva-based European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) have managed to restart the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) designed to recreate the Big Bang of the universe, after more than a year of repairs, the organisation said yesterday.

I guess the phrase "Big Bang" is good for hooking readers, but please.

CERN is currently spamming everyone heavily on twitter. I had to unsubscribe for the time being.

makc wrote:CERN is currently spamming everyone heavily on twitter.

Sounds like a reason for happy people dancing on planet Earth. Hooray for progress! What a world.

Haha, forget it apodman. To the layman, looking at those deeply imposing photos of the LHC's gigantic pipey bits, calling it the Big Bang Simulator is about as good as you're gonna get. At least the doomsayers haven't gotten the thing blown up a la Contact yet. I don't think there's a hidden one somewhere in Japan as backup.

Two circulating beams bring first collisions in the LHC
CERN Press Release - 2009 November 23

Geneva, 23 November 2009. Today the LHC circulated two beams simultaneously for the first time, allowing the operators to test the synchronization of the beams and giving the experiments their first chance to look for proton-proton collisions. With just one bunch of particles circulating in each direction, the beams can be made to cross in up to two places in the ring. From early in the afternoon, the beams were made to cross at points 1 and 5, home to the ATLAS and CMS detectors, both of which were on the look out for collisions. Later, beams crossed at points 2 and 8, ALICE and LHCb.
...

symmetrybreaking
Atlas
Alice
CMS
LHCb

bystander (quoting CERN) wrote:With just one bunch of particles circulating in each direction, the beams can be made to cross in up to two places in the ring. From early in the afternoon, the beams were made to cross at points 1 and 5, home to the ATLAS and CMS detectors, both of which were on the look out for collisions. Later, beams crossed at points 2 and 8, ALICE and LHCb.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087332/quotes

Dr. Egon Spengler: There's something very important I forgot to tell you.
Dr. Peter Venkman: What?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Don't cross the streams.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Why?
Dr. Egon Spengler: It would be bad.
Dr. Peter Venkman: I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, "bad"?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
Dr Ray Stantz: Total protonic reversal.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Right. That's bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon.

Dr. Egon Spengler: I have a radical idea. The door swings both ways, we could reverse the particle flow through the gate.

Dr. Peter Venkman: How?

Dr. Egon Spengler: [hesitates] We'll cross the streams.

Dr. Peter Venkman: 'Scuse me Egon? You said crossing the streams was bad!

Dr Ray Stantz: Cross the streams...

Dr. Peter Venkman: You're gonna endanger us, you're gonna endanger our client - the nice lady, who paid us in advance, before she became a dog...
.........................................................
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002228/