Scientists at CERN announce discovery: Higgs Boson.

[gourimoko]

That isn't what I meant by it, though. I'm aware of the "anti-matter" fiction piece of the book. I was referring to the underground CERN structure that is underground in Switzerland.

Ahh.. I see.. my bad..

 

[Hurl Bruce]

Let's hope the Camerlingo doesn't steal it.

Keep Robert Langdon on speed dial.

Everybody avoid Vatican City.

 

[Damage]

Yet another enormous discovery USA has nothing to do with.

But hey, at least them fags can't get married - you know, the things that truly matter...

 

[caf]

That isn't what I meant by it, though. I'm aware of the "anti-matter" fiction piece of the book. I was referring to the underground CERN structure that is underground in Switzerland.

To be a little more specific. CERN is an organization. You are referring to the LHC (Large Hadron Collider). This structure took roughly a decade to build. It has been operational for just a short period of time, however.

They actually circulated particles around LHC in 2008. However, there was an electrical problem that damaged some magnets IIRC. It took over a year to repair. The reason it took so long is that the LHC operates at near 0K (or -273 deg C). It takes about three months just to raise the temperature back to ambient... and then another three months to reduce the temperature to near zero.


On a side note. I am kind of surprised at all the success they are having with the LHC. There were rumblings that its circular nature would be very detrimental to measurements due to the creation of various fields that would contaminate the readings after a sufficient number of passes. However, it needed to be circular in order to reach the velocities desired. Which would be impossible in a linear particle accelerator.

 

[Soda]

To be a little more specific. CERN is an organization. You are referring to the LHC (Large Hadron Collider). This structure took roughly a decade to build. It has been operational for just a short period of time, however.

They actually circulated particles around LHC in 2008. However, there was an electrical problem that damaged some magnets IIRC. It took over a year to repair. The reason it took so long is that the LHC operates at near 0K (or -273 deg C). It takes about three months just to raise the temperature back to ambient... and then another three months to reduce the temperature to near zero.


On a side note. I am kind of surprised at all the success they are having with the LHC. There were rumblings that its circular nature would be very detrimental to measurements due to the creation of various fields that would contaminate the readings after a sufficient number of passes. However, it needed to be circular in order to reach the velocities desired. Which would be impossible in a linear particle accelerator.

Thanks. I knew that CERN is actually a few decades old, I was referring the the LHC. Although I didn't know it was called the LHC.

 

[Chardon]

I'll explain to you like you are all 80. I barely understand what this thing is. Take a marble, and look at all the pretty stuff inside and the designs. If you took that marble, and smashed it up against a wall and it broke. Scientists are now capable of looking inside the marble ( and the stuff inside of it) and what lead to it breaking apart. What this all means, I haven't got a clue.

 

[CHEECHREBORN]

The Higgs boson walks into a Catholic church. The priest asks, "what are you doing here?" To which the Higgs boson replies, "you can't have mass without me."

 

[KI4MVP]

some have asked why we spend money on research like this. Mankind has always explored. SOmetimes you you don't even know what the real questions are until after you make the discoveries. We've explored a lot - pretty much the entire surface of the earth is mapped and available online. Yet there are a some very interesting places left to explore

- the universe itself
- inside the computer (we're still just scratching the surface of what we can do with computers)
- inside the human brain
- inside of living cells
- inside atoms

We just found out another important key too how atoms work. There's still yet more to learn. The video I posted on page 1 suggests quite a bit about what may be left. I'm curious what others think of that talk.

As for some of the others, there is potentially some pretty exciting stuff coming in the next few years, including

SETI researchers think within a decade we will have scanned enough of the sky to find signals if they are there. The reason is that this is another area that benefits from exponential growth in capability.

Computer researchers think within a decade they will be able to reverse engineer a full human brain.

Does intelligent life exist outside of our planet and can computers attain consciousness. The quest for exploring the unknown can answer these and many other questions.

 

[KB]

^^^

Another place left to explore is the ocean. I think the exploring the ocean is almost as important as exploring space.

In regrads to computers attaining consciousness I think it will happen, not anytime soon but it will happen. Unless they outlaw making AI's and even then it will still probably happen.

 

[slp447]

You are quite right, we can't be sure just yet. But we are fairly certain. If it has a spin of anything but 0 it isn't the Higgs Boson, or that the Higgs Boson doesn't exist. From all the data we have at present, that just seems unlikely.

Consider that the probability of spin 1 was determined to be insignificant by the photon decay on diphoton channel, and spin 2 was further deemed (extremely) unlikely by the Tevatron and Fermilab experiments preceding CERN's discovery. While it is possible, it would, again, be extremely unlikely.

Interesting, I was aware that spin 1 had been ruled out, but I hadn't heard anything about spin 2 yet. Do you have any lit on that so I can read up? Still holding out for dark matter in the Standard!

Side note, dark matter filament discovered:

http://www.nature.com/news/dark-matter-s-tendrils-revealed-1.10951

 

[Soda]

Asking why humans spend money on things like this is incredibly short-sighted. Why did researchers look into gravity? What about computer technology? Fire? Buoyancy? Good luck living the comfortable, cynical, computerized life you're living without pioneers such as the very ones who've discovered the Higgs. While you're at it, you can go grab an aluminum can of pop or a plastic cup of juice. All shit founded by using money. But fuck it, we could all still be hunters and gatherers, that way we could've saved some dough.

 

[caf]

Asking why humans spend money on things like this is incredibly short-sighted. Why did researchers look into gravity? What about computer technology? Fire? Buoyancy? Good luck living the comfortable, cynical, computerized life you're living without pioneers such as the very ones who've discovered the Higgs. While you're at it, you can go grab an aluminum can of pop or a plastic cup of juice. All shit founded by using money. But fuck it, we could all still be hunters and gatherers, that way we could've saved some dough.

Some of my favorite quotes regarding science/inventions:

"Railroad Carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 mph by engines which, in addition to endangering life and limb of passengers, roar and snort their way through the countryside, setting fire to the crops, scaring the livestock, and frightening women and children. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed." -- Martin Van Buren

"X-rays will prove to be a hoax." -- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895

"Heavier than air flying machines are impossible." -- Lord Kelvin

"A popular fantasy is to suppose that flying machines could be used to drop dynamite on the enemy in time of war." -- William H. Pickering, Director, Harvard College Observatory, 1908

"The energy produced by the breaking down of the atom is a very poor kind of thing. Anyone who expects a source of power from the transformations of these atoms is talking moonshine." -- Ernest Rutherford, 1930

"I must confess that my imagination, in spite even of spurring, refuses to see any sort of submarine doing anything but suffocating its crew and foundering at sea." -- H. G. Wells, 1901

"I am bold enough to say that a man-made Moon voyage will never occur regardless of all scientific advances." -- Lee De Forest, "the father of electronics"

"Fooling around with alternating currents is just a waste of time. Nobody will use it, ever. It's too dangerous. . . it could kill a man as quick as a bolt of lightning. Direct current is safe." -- Thomas Edison

Okay... okay... this one is more business PR since Edison was battling Tesla in their epic DC vs AC battle

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" -- H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy." -- Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859

And my personal favorite shortsightedness of all time comes from the great Bill Gates:

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981

 

[Bill Walton.]

Some of my favorite quotes regarding science/inventions:
























And my personal favorite shortsightedness of all time comes from the great Bill Gates:

Yeah that Gates guy is a total idiot. He is probably one of those guys who thinks the earth is really flat

 

[Soda]

Yeah that Gates guy is a total idiot. He is probably one of those guys who thinks the earth is really flat

Edit: A comment on Bill Gates and future predictions, though. In the 90's, I remember hearing him say that one day your music, telephone and camera would all be on one device. I was pretty much awe-spoken.

 

[MoneyMP3]

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