Rick Raw: Large Hedron Collider Revisited–Biggest Anticlimax of 2008

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

After tons of hype from CERN (LHC’s controlling body) about the magnificence of the Big Bang Machine a.k.a. the Large Hedron Collider– it’s debut fizzled. It was an inauspicious anticlimax after so much anticipation.

The LHC is 17 miles in circumference located near Lake Geneva in Switzerland. It’s a cyclotron on steroids that will be capable of accelerating subatomic particle to 99.9999 % of the speed of light. Then high speed digital cameras in the collector chamber called ATLAS will photograph the aftermath of the collision. The photographs will show the paths of subatomic partials released from the collision.

The Genesis Machine, as it was dubbed by hip media mavens, was designed to recreate the conditions just before the Big Bang to study the formation of the accelerating astral bodies to understand the mysteries of the birth of our universe. Naysayers were predicting the end of the world. These ignorant yahoos preached that when the machine was turned on it would form an earth swallowing black hole that would suck us up like mice caught in a vacuum cleaner.

Ah yes, the moment arrived and the preeminent astrophysicists gathered around the control room, wide eyed, like 12 year old boys looking at their first Playboy centerfold. When they excitedly switched on the LHC-- Nada! A blip on a screen appeared. It was the biggest anticlimax since the first pictures coming back from the Hubble Telescope were blurry.

The Big Bang went poof! The much ballyhooed showcase opening of the LHC was foiled by large helium leak caused by an electrical connection between two of the accelerators’ magnets. Now, a restart date is uncertain since the cooling down of the sector to room temperature may take months, and then opened up for inspection and repair. By the time all this happens, a restart may not be possible until early spring. It was a disappointing beginning to this cutting edge instrument.

However, the CERN’s astrophysicists are confident the $ 4 billion project will deliver new discoveries and solve some of the nagging questions being asked by elite scientists, such as the discovery of the so called "God partial" that could lead to the formulation of a general theory of everything, beyond Einsteinian physics. Like the Hubble debacle that was ultimately fixed, the LHC has grandiose scientific possibilities when it is repaired.

The LHC could answer puzzling questions, such as, are Dark Matter and Dark Energy one in the same thing? Dark Matter is the stuff that holds the galaxies together other than gravity, which in some galaxies defies the rules of physics. Since variable gravity is unlikely, then it must be Dark Energy causing planets in some solar systems in far off galaxies to orbit faster further out and slower closer to their sun. This is just the opposite from our solar system. Could Dark Energy and Dark Matter be what we call God? It’s a big machine to answer big questions.

"The LHC is a very complex machine, huge in scale and pushing technological limits," said Peter Limon how helped develop the Tevatron at Fermilab in the United States. The general public is vaguely aware of the LHC, but could care less. However, the LHC promises the most exciting discoveries in history. So, people who are keenly aware of advances in science (including me) are watching the progress of the LHC closely. Stay tuned. I will be writing frequent updates.