TOP 100 SCIENCE SITES
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| Large Hadron Collider repaired for relaunch Scientists have repaired the world's largest atom smasher and plan by this weekend to restart the machineScientists have repaired the world's largest atom smasher and plan by this weekend to restart the machine that was launched with great fanfare last year before its spectacular failure from a bad electrical connection, a spokesman said yesterday.This time the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, known as Cern, is taking a cautious approach with the super-sophisticated equipment, said James Gillies. It cost about $10 billion, with contributions from many governments and universities around the world.Scientists expect to send beams of protons around the 27-kilometer (17-mile) circular tunnel housing the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, but they have refrained from setting a date. That stands in stark contrast with the hype of the 10 September 2008 launch, when the startup was televised globally.Some scientists blamed the failure nine days later on keeping to that schedule because the problem section had yet to be fully tested.The first day of last year's launch went unusually well: Beams of protons were quickly sent in both directions, happily surprising many of the scientists around the world used to delays and problems with such superconducting equipment.But nine days later a single electrical splice overheated because it had been badly soldered, and disaster struck.Fifty-three of 1,624 large superconducting magnets, some of them 15 metres long, were damaged and had to be replaced.An electric arc punctured the container holding the liquid helium used to keep the collider at a temperature colder than outer space for maximum efficiency. Six tons of helium leaked out, overpowering the relief valves and adding to the damage.Cern had to clean "soot-like dust" from the firehose-size pipes meant to contain an extreme vacuum so that nothing would obstruct the proton beams passing through."It was a disaster, no question about it," said Chip Brock, a physics professor at Michigan State University. But he said Cern had taken a number of innovative steps to avoid a repeat."This problem won't happen again," he said.The current caution gives a little more time to the collider's chief rival, the United States' Tevatron at Fermilab outside Chicago, to beat the European machine to the discovery of the elusive Higgs boson.The winner of that race would almost certainly be in line to win the Nobel Prize for physics.CernParticle physicsSwitzerlandFranceguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Global Health: Campaign to Eradicate Guinea Worm in Hard-Hit Nigeria May Have Worked The Carter Center, which has battled the worm for 20 years, says none have been found for 12 months in a row. feeds.nytimes.com |
Inventor unveils hummingbird robot Japanese researchers say they have developed a "hummingbird robot" that can flutter around freely in mid-air with rapid wing movements. abc.net.au |
Crisis of belief Where climate change is seen as God's will news.bbc.co.uk |
Scientists discuss climate change, bushfire link Climate experts are meeting in Canberra to discuss the impact of climate change on health and natural disasters. abc.net.au |