Big Fizzle: The Large Hadron Non-Collider

Davey Winder
Wednesday, 10 September 2008 15:06

Science - Energy

Yet the truth is today is just another boring day in the world of science. No, really. All that has happened is that the boffins have turned the thing on. That is it!

Well, OK, they turned it off again and rebooted it after it went pear shaped to begin with. That is about as exciting as it gets.

Today is a one-way street in terms of proton racing. The hadrons are going one way only to start with, and the other stream will not get fired up for many weeks, once the boffins are happy it is working as it should.

When they have both lanes working properly, firing those protons around at close to the speed of light in opposite directions, then and only then do you need to adopt the position and start praying to your maker.

So enjoy yourself for a couple more months, there really is nothing to see or fear here. The Large Hadron Collider is not colliding today.

In fact, it has all been less of a big bang and more of a big fizzle...