Geneva (Switzerland) - At 10:28am local time today, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was activated and successfully powered up navigating a beam of high-energy protons smaller than a human hair through a pipe running through the entire 17 miles of superconducting magnets. While the $20 billion device is not yet operating at full capacity or with high-energy collisions, the earliest stages of the required calibration, often down to one billionth of a second, are being carried out. The LHCs impact on science was echoed by the electricity felt in the air by LHC project leader Lyn Evans who said, "It is a fantastic moment!" as the device passed several of its initial power-on procedures.
More than 10,000 people over 20 years worked to make the LHC possible. And today, the cork flew off the champagne bottle as it begins its decades-long quest for the origins of the universe. A real-time status showing the current cooling state of the superconducting magnets is made possible to anyone who wants to check on the LHC from time to time.
When reading the press releases today I could not help but draw parallels to the movie Contact, written by Carl Sagan whereby, after receiving the plans to build a trans-dimensional teleportation device from an alien space signal, protests and debates raged on about whether or not mankind knew enough to warrant even engaging it. As it turned out, no one was harmed and Foster's character got to see someone who looked just like her dead father on a remote beach somewhere. All very peaceful and tranquill. Still, even in that movie, it was all about the teamwork.
Countless disciplines come together to make the construction of a device like the LHC possible. Consider the physical construction aspects of creating a 17 mile circular tube approximately 100 meters below the surface. And what about the difficulty bringing down and moving all of the complex, expensive and heavy magnetic and computer controlled materials required to fully populate the entire span, all from only a few sporadic shafts reaching down from the surface. And imagine the logistics of sequencing required to place all of the equipment exactly where it goes, down to a few thousands of an inch. And then finally consider last minute calibrations to make it all work in sequence with the rest of the machine, like one great living machine coming alive.
The bottom line is it's the people making it all work, not the machine itself. As impressive as the machine is, were it not for the cooperative efforts by countless millions of individuals all acting in concert over time (teachers, other scientists paving the way for future understandings and scientific foundations and premises), such an endeavor would never have been possible. So if you really stop to think about it, as impressive as the machine is, it would be absolutely nothing without the people. And as impressive as the answers are we might get from this machine, it will still not answer the big questions about how it is the people got here, no more than understanding how ink can cling to a sheet of paper explains how it is possible to arrange that ink into words and sentences, those things actually conveying the real meaning.
In short, the LHC represents man's biggest and most powerful achievement to date. The scientific minds powering on the device today are in search for nothing less than the answers to our biggest questions about where did it all begin?
Over the next few days, we expect more information about the technology used by the LHC to become available.
Read also: LHC is most definitely a ticking time bomb, or not
More than 10,000 people over 20 years worked to make the LHC possible. And today, the cork flew off the champagne bottle as it begins its decades-long quest for the origins of the universe. A real-time status showing the current cooling state of the superconducting magnets is made possible to anyone who wants to check on the LHC from time to time.
When reading the press releases today I could not help but draw parallels to the movie Contact, written by Carl Sagan whereby, after receiving the plans to build a trans-dimensional teleportation device from an alien space signal, protests and debates raged on about whether or not mankind knew enough to warrant even engaging it. As it turned out, no one was harmed and Foster's character got to see someone who looked just like her dead father on a remote beach somewhere. All very peaceful and tranquill. Still, even in that movie, it was all about the teamwork.
Countless disciplines come together to make the construction of a device like the LHC possible. Consider the physical construction aspects of creating a 17 mile circular tube approximately 100 meters below the surface. And what about the difficulty bringing down and moving all of the complex, expensive and heavy magnetic and computer controlled materials required to fully populate the entire span, all from only a few sporadic shafts reaching down from the surface. And imagine the logistics of sequencing required to place all of the equipment exactly where it goes, down to a few thousands of an inch. And then finally consider last minute calibrations to make it all work in sequence with the rest of the machine, like one great living machine coming alive.
The bottom line is it's the people making it all work, not the machine itself. As impressive as the machine is, were it not for the cooperative efforts by countless millions of individuals all acting in concert over time (teachers, other scientists paving the way for future understandings and scientific foundations and premises), such an endeavor would never have been possible. So if you really stop to think about it, as impressive as the machine is, it would be absolutely nothing without the people. And as impressive as the answers are we might get from this machine, it will still not answer the big questions about how it is the people got here, no more than understanding how ink can cling to a sheet of paper explains how it is possible to arrange that ink into words and sentences, those things actually conveying the real meaning.
In short, the LHC represents man's biggest and most powerful achievement to date. The scientific minds powering on the device today are in search for nothing less than the answers to our biggest questions about where did it all begin?
Over the next few days, we expect more information about the technology used by the LHC to become available.
Read also: LHC is most definitely a ticking time bomb, or not