Feb. 10, 2009
"Big Bang" Machine's Restart Delayed Again
Scientists Built World's Largest Particle Accelerator In Hope Of Unlocking Secrets Of Universe
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Play CBS Video Video The Collider Steve Kroft descends into the Large Hadron Collider some call it the "big bang machine" - that took billions of dollars and 9,000 physicists to build in the hope it will provide valuable insights.
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Video The Big Bang See how the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland operates.
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Video Tour The Collider Web Exclusive: Scientist Austin Ball and collider spokesman James Gillies give Steve Kroft a tour of the Large Hadron Collider, called by some the "Big Bang machine."
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The Large Hadron Collider (CBS)
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Photo Essay "Bang" Up Idea European scientists hope to recreate conditions just after "Big Bang" using huge particle collider.
LHC operations were suspended last September after a transformer malfunction in its cooling system allowed a helium leak -- just nine days after the controversial project became operational. An investigation concluded that the malfunction was caused by a faulty electrical connection between two of the accelerator's magnets.
As a result, the 53 magnets used to accelerate sub-atomic particles around the machine's 17-mile underground tunnel had to be cleaned or repaired. At the time, the repair costs for the $5 billion LHC were expected to top $16 million.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, the organization that built the LHC, announced Monday that it expects the first beams to begin in September, with the first collisions expected by late October.60 Minutes: A Trip Inside The "Big Bang Machine"
The delay is the latest in a string of restart dates CERN has announced. CERN had originally expected to have the LHC back online at the beginning of April, following CERN's annual maintenance period. But that target was revised last November to June. Later that month, CERN's head of communications, James Gillies, told ZDNet UK that the new plan was to restart the LHC in late summer.
"The schedule we have now is without a doubt the best for the LHC and for the physicists waiting for data," CERN Director General Rolf Heuer said in a statement. "It is cautious, ensuring that all the necessary work is done on the LHC before we start-up, yet it allows physics research to begin this year."
The LHC, located along the French-Swiss border, is designed to smash beams of protons into each other, test fundamental physics theories, and help understand the nature of matter.
By Steven Musil
Copyright ©2008 CNET Networks, Inc., a CBS Company. All rights reserved.


Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."





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See all 43 CommentsThe final truth is at the beginning of the universe and the LHC will prove it.
Posted by TRUTHin20091
What evidence? There are several groups studying the origin of life presently. It has been proved that amino acids can be formed by electrical discharge passing through a mixture of carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen, ammonia and water vapor. It haas been proven that these amino acids will react together and self arrange into cell-like structures. Once this has been achieved the jump to cells themselves is merely a matter of time and remember the earth was around for 2 billion years before life first formed. Once you have cells, elementary biology teaches how they divide and multiply to form organisms. So, although science hasn''t made a cat yet, the mechanisms and building blocks are pretty well understood. To say that a being waved a magic wand for a week 6,000 years ago and everything popped into existence is poppycock. But a creationist never let science get in the way of illogic.
Posted by cbs_tom at 12:04 AM : Feb 12, 2009
You''ve said it best. It takes FAITH to believe in God. I do. But learning about our natural world (which is an ongoing and self-correcting process - if one uses the scientific method) is not faith based. The reality is, if you spend all your time studying one approach, say the bible, then you will be biased to that view as such and willfully ignorant of the other. It works both ways. If you are looking for answers to these difficult scientific questions, then you must DIG IN and start reading and researching yourself. I do. It''s time consuming and sometimes confusing, and I certainly don''t understand all the scientific jargon, but it''s challenging and I''m interested, so I continue on. To the best of my ability I will not be willfully ignorant.
Posted by elpaulito at 01:29 PM : Feb 11, 2009
And because of your lack of faith in God, it must be evolution. Which brings us back to the original question. In your original thoughts, how do you believe that out of nothing came everything that is in existence? How also, does a simple cell somehow become more intelligent and evolve into a higher form?
"But can you explain through your many proven scientist how the very first cell was created? out of nothing? It is much more likely that something of higher intelligence rather than a random "sudden appearance of cells" brought the universe into being."
Ahhhh, if we can''t explain it right now, it must be god.
And the creep that is telling aetheists that we are dumb....well, I dont base my life on a book written 300 years ago saying that I should beat my slaves. How dumb is that? What gives you the nerve to tell me/us what we actually really believe? I believe the universe was created without some all-knowing space entity. But, leave it to you christians to carry on and tell people what they think and what they should think according to their pathetic little book.
Posted by usclimey at 09:57 AM : Feb 11, 2009
But can you explain through your many proven scientist how the very first cell was created? out of nothing? It is much more likely that something of higher intelligence rather than a random "sudden appearance of cells" brought the universe into being.
In order to be an atheist, you have to believe that NOTHING made everything.
Posted by TRUTHin20091
I know there''s no use arguing with you Rick - you are a TRUE believer and that position demands respect. I, on the other hand believe the thousands of highly educated, brilliant scientists who come closer to explaining the big bang every day than the thought of some being somewhere clicking his (her?) fingers 6,000 years ago and have everything spring to life.
Maybe that''s the answer to timbuckthree''s question - "How does creating a black hole help science again?" Maybe the Hadron Collider can disprove the existance of God once and for all.
Posted by ballpen1 at 04:17 PM : Feb 10, 2009
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............and how exactly do you know these Kroxcons of Zeta Omicron 8 in NGC 220119 (or whoever) didn''t do this exact thing with the result of destroying ''Their'' universe...thus producing a ''big bang'' which created ours? All this matter had to come from someplace....
Posted by usclimey at 07:27 PM
How does creating a black hole help science again?
Posted by scottyusa
You''re letting your imagination run wild here. They only fired the Hadron up in one direction; you need collisions to even think about making a black hole - to make collisions you need forward and reverse to be working.
Posted by Displeased at 05:18 PM
Later dude!
But, you aren''t addressing what I said, are you? Just how DO you conceptualize a "Big Bang"?
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