CarmEmily » LHC

Movie Review/Science Education

Carmen — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:43:14 +0000

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.

A little LHC history…

Carmen — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:07:34 +0000

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.

LHC update…

Carmen — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:37:53 +0000

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.