![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The LHC at CERN officially turns on in T minus 5 hours.
This is one of the most exciting things to possibly happen to physics in decades. Scientists are hoping to answer questions about how the universe began, since the effect of the two particles colliding will produce energy levels theoretically not seen since the Big Bang.
Physicists are also hoping that the LHC will produce the Higgs boson, a currently-theoretical particle that, if observed, will confirm predictions and missing links in the Standard Model of Physics (such as how particles acquire mass). This is an important step towards a Grand Unification Theory (a theory unifying 3 of the 4 known fundamental forces in the universe), which is currently the Holy Grail of physics.
For more information on the LHC, check the UK page.
This is one of the most exciting things to possibly happen to physics in decades. Scientists are hoping to answer questions about how the universe began, since the effect of the two particles colliding will produce energy levels theoretically not seen since the Big Bang.
Physicists are also hoping that the LHC will produce the Higgs boson, a currently-theoretical particle that, if observed, will confirm predictions and missing links in the Standard Model of Physics (such as how particles acquire mass). This is an important step towards a Grand Unification Theory (a theory unifying 3 of the 4 known fundamental forces in the universe), which is currently the Holy Grail of physics.
For more information on the LHC, check the UK page.
◾ Tags:
(no subject)
we're going to smash together two atoms - two pieces of matter that are indisputably of our universe...
I don't doubt that we'll make some great discoveries with the CERN.
...but how does this tell us what things were like before our universe?
(think it was Hawking or somebody - Einstein? - who said that physics breaks down at the Big Bang and at the heart of a singularity)
still... IT'S GONNA WORK!
(no subject)
[I'm so torn about this. On the one hand the particle physics IS SO VERY EXCITING and I'm eager to see what's going to happen and, just, science glee. On the other hand I have deep affection for having spent a lot of my formative science years running around FermiLab and I'm sad it can no longer be called the most powerful accelerator in the world and more sad that, especially with all of Bush's budget cuts to science, it looks like Fermi is going to have to massively scale back (I mean, they're also working *with* CERN but...not the same)]
Still. PHYSICS!
(no subject)
From what I do understand, they're trying to recreate energy levels from just after the Big Bang happened, because, like you said, physics does break down at the Big Bang. So, I think, what they're trying to do is recreate something similar so they can actually make observations to see if their theoretical models work. Just like how classical physics and mechanics can be proven by throwing a ball in the air or compressing a spring.
Or, to prove Newton's Third Law, throw two balls at each other and see what happens when they collide. Since what we're looking for is now much more complex than that, the tools we need are much more sophisticated. Hence why CERN built the largest particle accelerator in the world.
(no subject)
[I know! Part of me wanted to be a physicist so I could work at FermiLab. And the recent budget cuts at FermiLab and in science education in general just make me SO SAD.]
YES. PHYSICS!
(no subject)
But if they find god, I have a few questions for her.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
*makes grabby hands*
(no subject)
Also, she had a boob-double for this amazingly gratuitious sex-scene and you could totally tell it wasn't her. It's just really a very unintentionally hysterical movie.
Maybe you can Netflix it? Because it's totally worth seeing.
(no subject)
See, I'm always on the lookout for really bad movies. My friends and I have this habit of really enjoying watching them. :D