Discussion of Large Hadron Collider reboot
My name is Ernest Kovacs and I am a chemist in the Biosciences organization at GE Global Research. You may be familiar with some of my work on the “$1000 genome” DNA sequencing project headed by John Nelson. You may also recognize me from my (very) brief encounter with fame as part of the “American Renewal” ad campaign that quite possibly appeared during one of the commercial breaks of your favorite television program.
In addition to my work in the lab and on the small screen, I have recently started contributing to our organization’s internal newsletter, The Bioscientist, with a column entitled “Biosciences EXTRA”. This column is intended to highlight items of crucial interest to scientists and engineers, but which nonetheless lie beyond the scope of our day-to-day research here at GE. To further disseminate what I feel to be fascinating and important topics to ponder, I have also decided to include this column on Edison’s Desk. Below is my recent discussion of the Large Hadron Collider reboot.
After more than a year of repairs exceeding $50 million, the world’s most advanced—and certainly infamous—particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland is finally set to run again at full strength. This monstrosity, with its 18-mile circumference, 9300 magnets cooled with 10,080 tons of liquid nitrogen, and 120 megawatt electricity consumption will, towards the end of this month, begin conducting those jugular experiments that have long entranced not only particle physicists, but scores of curious, skeptical, baffled individuals the world over. It is no stretch to say that the nearly mystical promises and perils of the Large Hadron Collider represent a fascinating intersection of science, engineering, ethics, philosophy, and religion.
To some, the collision of those accelerated beams of protons may provide crucial experimental verification of some of the most head-scratching aspects of modern theory: “supersymmetric particles” that comprise “dark matter”, the as-yet undetected component of a quarter of the universe; the presence of the Higgs boson, the so-called “God particle” from which all mass is said to originate; the hidden six dimensions proposed by string theory and which are said to exist within the realm of our mundane three-dimensional world. Some doomsday prophets fear that the Large Hadron Collider may produce tiny black holes that could consume the entire planet. Still others fear the production of hypothetical particles called “strangelets” which may cause a chain reaction with ordinary matter eventually rendering the Earth into a hot, large, lump of “strange matter”.
I am not making this stuff up! People with knowledge of far more math than me (and, presumably, possessive of much more facial hair) can point to accepted equations predicting just such results. Even worried skeptics, however, will concede that such scenarios remain highly improbable—though unfortunately nonzero. I suppose we have no choice at this point but to find out what happens.
If you want to read even more about the Large Hadron Collider, I’ve found the following links very useful:
- A good introduction to both the Large Hadron Collider and the baffling theories of modern physics from the European Organization for Nuclear Research
- An article from the UK’s The Guardian
- NY Times 2008 essay exploring ethical dilemmas facing the Large Hadron Collider
- And last, but certainly not least, the Large Hadron Collider Rap video!
Happy Holidays!
So far so good… The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is up and running (true, not yet at its highest potential)!