MSU faculty join scientists to test Big Bang Theory
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If you’re reading this, the world didn’t end this morning.
And that means scientists — including several MSU faculty — halfway across the globe successfully initiated one of the biggest science experiments in history that some feared could obliterate the planet.
Their aim is to simulate conditions akin to those immediately following the Big Bang.
At about 3:30 a.m. today, two beams of protons were scheduled to be sent around a 17-mile tube about 300 feet below the Swiss-French border with an energy force of about 5 trillion electron volts. The experiment is designed to cause high energy collisions between protons in a Large Hadron Collider, or LHC.
“Every time these protons crash together at the LHC, we’re recreating, briefly, exactly those same energy density conditions that existed shortly after the Big Bang,” MSU physics professor Chip Brock said. “There are a lot of questions we want to understand. How do we go from electrons and quarks zipping around — too hot to come close to one another and stick — to trees and flowers and birds?”
The $8 billion project, which has been in the works for 14 years, caused concern for many around the world because of the possibility the experiment could create a black hole with the capability of ending the universe.
However, officials from CERN, the laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland where the LHC is located, said the doomsday predictions are unlikely.
Today’s launch will not run the LHC at full capacity and protons will not begin colliding for a couple of weeks. The goal is to begin proton collisions at 5 trillion electron volts before the end of the year.
“There will then be a break over Christmas and, starting next year, they will try to work up to 7 trillion electron volts with collisions every 25 nanoseconds,” said Patrick Ryan, an MSU postdoctoral student in Switzerland. “Eventually, they want to work up to 14 trillion electron volts, the energy which the LHC was designed for.”
The project is broken down into four different experiments, each with a detector inside the LHC. MSU is involved with the ATLAS detector, one of two multifunctioning detectors, which takes readings.
Faculty from the university helped build the ATLAS detector and install it in Europe. MSU professor Maris Abolins designed software and high-speed electronics to help analyze the data from the project.
MSU also plays another role in the project. Brock is in charge of MSU’s computing center that, along with a number of other centers across the world, will attempt to process the information.
“The amount of data that’s going to come out of this monster is just scary huge,” Brock said. “It’s so much stuff that no single place on earth has enough computing capability to analyze it.”
Commentary
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anominous
(09/09/08 11:24pm)Report
l reackon you have no right to create another big bang and try to travel time because think of all the people who wont make the transformation and die earlier becuase of this stupid act that you are trying to re-inact and just because the government approves of it doesnt mean the public are going to except it, because this is sooo stupid and an act of selfishness.
what are you stupid scientists thinking? this is utterly insane
all the granparents wont survive because you are travelling time and going ahead which is l might add is also insane, l mean just beacuse Docter Who does it doesnt mean guys have to too.
also when you people fail(and you will fail) think about the whole world that has to suffer because of your stupid recklessness and your bright ideas
l do have more to say but l reckon no matter what l say you still wont listne because you guys think you are all god!!!
you are all insane and so selfish, maybe when you do fail i’ll be happy that your not going to heaven
Richard Thomas
(09/09/08 11:55pm)Report
There is a leaked video on You Tube from CERN (LHC Black hole simulation Large Hadron Collider CERN) there is more to this than meets the eye, the black hole is not the concern, it is the revelation that may shatter our perception of reality.
The link is on http://godparticle.net which has insight into the revelation. Do you really think they would spend 6 billion dollars just to find a particle? The truth is related to energy, the ability to turn mass on and off, and the revelation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFYlbsTlCk0
Richard Thomas
(09/09/08 11:57pm)Report
Sorry Link Text
Link Text
Richard Thomas
(09/09/08 11:59pm)Report
I get it now.
Video LHC Black hole simulation Large Hadron Collider CERN
GodParticle.net
anonimous
(09/10/08 12:09am)Report
I think this is really stupid of you scientist. You think your stupid recreation is going to work well your jus stupid because if it doesnt then we are all going to die!!! You know there are over a billon people living in this world and you retards are probably going to end up killing all of us. you people are so flipping selfish!
Des
(09/10/08 1:24am)Report
Wow a new energy source congrats. Well if there is not enough concern with NP plants we now have big bang power plants. If it is so safe why did you put it underground and half on one side of the country why not build it in Paris? Ah yes it may be potentially disastrous!!!! To me the money you have spent would be better used for research on how to cure Cancer or help some poor country to get out of poverty with your knowledge. I think God will call you to account for your time, you have a brain bigger and smarter than mine and I think you have wasted 14 years of your precious life over some theory. By the way to the last believer No one can say who will get into heaven and who will not, I think this program is a typical government decision for wasting money because they want to be the first one to trump the last smart ass to come up with a new power source.
Yes, I am a bit green but I would have windmills and solar any day.
I love science when it helps
Matthew Zarimis
(09/10/08 1:27am)Report
Ok now why are we all going to die if it didnt work. Sure it would make a explosion but it doesn’t make that big of a explosion. imagine what we could do with this new help from this simulation. it could help us find how humans evolved and even more.
Soapy
(09/10/08 1:28am)Report
If I die because of you and your theory doesn’t work well whoop-dee-doo. There will be no Earth and our unique human race will be extinct, just like the dinosaurs. Wow you have wasted 14 years of your precious life over some theory. If I were you I would rather spend 14 years enjoying life instead of finding a way to kill us all. Oh great i am going to die young, yes young
Acellus
(09/10/08 2:08am)Report
Matthew the reason we would all die is not because of the explosion. It is the resulting black holes that may form from the Dark Matter.
Matter can be very unstable and when forced to occupy the same area it can be catastrophic.
maddy
(09/10/08 3:03am)Report
who cares if you recreate the big bang.
your not going to know anyway, everyone will be dead. including the scientist that came up with this riduculous idea.
hi
(09/10/08 3:06am)Report
the peeps who dont like this is coz its goner prove god is not real
kels
(09/10/08 3:27am)Report
herrrooo,
just to tell you all, there’s more probability of a bus crashing into your house and killing you, than us all dying because of this experiment.
do you really think they would do it if there was even a 0.1% chance of us dying? of course not.
theree is a possibilty not a probabilty.
but anythings possible
think about that.
Ron Gavisk
(09/10/08 3:39am)Report
Information is Power! Who will have ultimate control? Provided, that good results occur and new discoveries are made!
Will average people of the world even be told of such findings?
Will History Repeat itself with another, New 1000-Year Race, to take over control of the world with such “Miracles?”
Many questions remain unanswered!
Retired electrical engineer,
Ron Gavisk
Lord quarkervegas
(09/10/08 7:49am)Report
Ha! my punny widdle earth friends, i have align the brains of the malignant anti social peeps of the world to build my new computergame “earth gone” gravity does not exist, only in my last game “apple drop” so foolish are the bigger brained people of the world (insert evil laugh here)…….
ahhh crap..whats the last 3 letters of your alphabeta
Chaely
(09/10/08 9:37am)Report
We didn’t die! Whoo!
beau
(09/10/08 9:49am)Report
The flat earth folks are having a field day with this project. Did you know that there really is no gravity, the earth just sucks all the time. Humours cause disease, the evil eye can kill a person dead as stone, and we never went to the moon. In 2000 all the computers on earth will crash and the earth will end. Bring out your dead, bring out your dead (insert ringing bell sound). Dang there’s a lot of really stupid people out there!
Neil
(09/10/08 11:08am)Report
Basicly Yourr Tryingg To Kill Us!!!!!!!!! Selfish people + you wont no if ot wrked anyway cause yu’ll be dead .. Pethetic
common sense
(09/10/08 12:27pm)Report
As someone who worked in both high energy physics research (Fermilab, where billions are spent looking for the Higgs boson) and then switched to biophysics, I am disturbed that there are people as dumb as the commentors here. You don’t just take 9 billion going towards one set of new technologies and then randomly dump it at cancer and boom, it’s cured.
You wouldn’t have HIV vaccine unless x-ray diffracting crystallographers had started the field of structural biology. Biologists didn’t discover x-rays.
World’s not going to end. It’s not built in Paris because that’s expensive real estate to put a freaking 12km ring, the ground gives good shielding and cooling.
I’m also pro life but I wish some of your mothers had gone the abortion route.
Scaleability
(09/10/08 12:35pm)Report
You know, it is on a scale about 1/1000000000000000 of the original explosion at the begining of THIS universe. Any black hole created would be small, very small and take a long, long time to become big enough.
Selfish – those that are selfish are the religous nuts who are afriad the vail will be lifted off the book of tails they have been bowing down too for 1900 years. They would rather that stay the same than mankind find solutions to the problems we are facing and will face.
alguém que conhece muito bem os efeitos
(09/10/08 12:49pm)Report
esta não é a primeira vez que foi feito !!!
as causas não serão boas ao tempo neste planeta.
isto deve ser feito em planetas não habitados.
senão todos com o passar do tempo notarão severas modificações.
principalmente nos pólos e campos magnéticos.
mas levará algum tempo pois todo efeito há uma causa.
não é assim que vocês falam ????
draizenyste kirosemi….
cuidado !!
aveen
(09/10/08 1:42pm)Report
no need to worry.
if they were able to do this massive project running successfully,
then it sure that they will not let us die ….
Science = Facts
(09/10/08 1:51pm)Report
Are some of you really this dense? Did you ever really think a scientist would risk all the entire planet for a “stupid” experiment. Does it not occur to you that scientists use hard facts and use years and years of proven theory to run their experiments.
My last point, how many people have died in the name of science, verses the name of religion? Spare me your ignorant ramblings.
Science = Facts
(09/10/08 1:54pm)Report
Anominous….firstly…learn to spell. Learn to communicate. Grow a brain and then attempt to use it. And you wonder why people don’t listen to the rants of morons.
Casual SN Reader
(09/10/08 2:31pm)Report
My guess is that “anominous” works at the NSCL.
Perseid
(09/10/08 7:30pm)Report
Casual SN Reader:
Why would “anominous” work at the NSCL? I’m pretty sure the employees at the NSCL are much more intelligent than “anominous.”
Quite a few of the commentors on this article are prime examples of why people should research a topic before they criticize it. But wait, they wouldn’t understand if they tried, sorry.