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  • Carmen 4:43 pm on December 18, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: dark matter, LHC   

    Movie Review/Science Education 

    So I watched Angels and Demons last night and my official review is this:  SO Good!

    It was actually quite beautiful as it takes place in Rome and the characters are whisking themselves to all the gorgeous historical buildings with all of their statues and fountains.  Also, I’m sure it was factually accurate so all of the information that Dr. Langdon spouts regarding Catholic and architectural history is an education in itself!  Not only that, but they show the Vatican Archives! (I’m sure its real and not a replicated set)  Now, the best part of this movie is in the beginning when they show the Large Hadron Collider in all its glory.  I had no idea that this movie was going to be such a treat with all of my favorite things, including a great soundtrack.  So in the beginning they show all the scientists busy at their LHC computers in a crisis about how and when to “harvest” some stuff which turns out to be antimatter.  Antimatter looks pretty cool in the movie – all glowy and powerful – but what is it exactly?  I have no idea.  So  I’m doing a little research…

    Turns out CERN (home of the LHC) has an Antimatter Academy.  Their site has tons of information about it and I am still trying to understand it and its implications.  Antimatter is definitely the way of the future.

     
    • Dave 11:58 am on December 21, 2009 Permalink

      Carmen, how does antimatter relate to strange, degenerate, exotic or dark matter? Speaking of elusive dark matter, indicators of it’s existence have been felt in a mine in Minnesota: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/dec/17/dark-matter-detected

      Happy Winter Solstice to you both!

    • Carmen 2:57 pm on December 21, 2009 Permalink

      Good article! Very interesting. I had no idea there was a group called the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search, I’ll have to contact them and see if they’re looking for new members. There is one thing in that article that seems contradictory… They were saying that dark matter has a unique characteristic that allows it to move through matter as if it didn’t exist and yet the only way they can detect it is to wait for dark matter particles to bump into their high powered sensing machines. Maybe what they meant to say is that their machines can sense when dark matter particles are passing through them, not bumping into them. Anyways, if thats true dark matter is probably in here right now!
      Also, thanks for the pop quiz Dave! Lucky for me the answer to your question is simple = Theoretically.

    • Emilily 10:13 pm on December 22, 2009 Permalink

      I have not yet seen the movie, but I did read the book, and really enjoyed the parts about the LHC. I am not really crazy about Tom Hanks, I feel he is a little too old and soft-looking to play the dashing Dr. Langdon (who is, I like to think, more of an Indiana Jones type, but maybe that’s just me romanticizing it) especially opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones, but I will probably check it out nonetheless…my superficial view of what the characters are supposed to look like will not get in the way of my love of CERN!

    • Emilily 10:46 pm on December 22, 2009 Permalink

      That was a great article, Dave. That was the first I had heard of supersymmetry being one of the goals of the LHC, or that dark matter might explain why time only travels forward. Fascinating! Although, I did question why a dark matter detector was located at the bottom of a mine in Minnesota? I would have thought they would put them in space, but underground? Where else do they have dark matter detectors? How many are scattered around the world…like, enough that I could run into one someday? What does it looks like? More research is in order….

  • Carmen 9:07 am on December 12, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: LHC   

    A little LHC history… 

    In reading the New York Times this morning I came across an article that taught me alot about the history of supercolliders.  Did you know there was a miniature one built really close by, in Berkeley? Way back in 1932!  It was only a foot in diameter as opposed to the 17 mile loop of the LHC.  And speaking of big loops did you know there was one being built in Texas with a 54 mile loop?  Its true.  It was called the Superconducting Supercollider (an arrogant Texan obviously thought up that name).  But the SS program was shut down in 1993 because costs exceeded 11 Billion. Oh poor babies. 11 Billion? Oh yeah, thats way too much, especially because we have to spend 1.8 billion per week on our wars in the Middle East (according to msnbc).  So now because of that brilliant decision by Congress there will be no new discoveries concerning particle physics coming out of the U.S.  Which is probably a good thing, Europe will do a better job anyways.

     
    • Emilily 9:11 am on December 16, 2009 Permalink

      Well, you know I am as big a fan of cool science as you are, so I read the New York Times article too! I have to say, I did not know we had any supercolliders in this country, but props to the one in Illinois – even if it is a measly 3.9 miles around, Tevatron is an awesome name. Although we are about to get our physics butts kicked in a serious way.

  • Carmen 12:37 pm on November 23, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: LHC   

    LHC update… 

    I just wanted to update you on the progress of the Large Hadron Collider.  Apparently, thier website gives out bulletins keeping everyone up to speed.  Unfortunately, these updates make no sense at all and are only written in their super secret science language.  So, I’d like to take a stab at translating for everyone (i’m talking to you emily (and my mom) since you’re the only one reading this).  Here is their bulletin, and here is my translation:

    “We have been shooting beams of energy into these pipes since last week and they have gotten about half way around this big ass circle we built.  We’re using some really expensive and sensitive equipment to track the particles moving around in there and so far, nothing has broken.  Pretty soon we’re going to start shooting particles into another tube going the opposite direction and in about a week we should be able to see these particles getting into some head-on collisions.”

    So there is your update, not too exciting yet.  Even if I don’t understand the specifics of what they are talking about I love reading bulletins that talk about such things as: “beams dumped just upstream of  the experiment cavern.” and “particles produced by the impact of the protons on the tertiary collimators left their tracks in the calorimeters and the muon chambers of the experiment.”

    And here’s a bonus if you are interested in learning the facts about a baguette being the guilty party in the LHC’s emergency shut down.

     
    • Atom Ant 5:17 pm on November 23, 2009 Permalink

      I beg your pardon? Emily is the only one reading? Far from true my little lily pad. I am a religious reader.

    • Carmen 5:29 pm on November 23, 2009 Permalink

      Ay dios mio! my apologies! I didn’t mean to exclude any of our religious readers. Please allow me to edit that part out…

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