REMOTE OPERATIONS CENTER
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Gravity's Engines
We’ve long understood black holes to be the points at which the universe as we know it comes to an end. Often billions of times more massive than the Sun, they...
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To unlock new secrets of the universe, Stephanie Majewski has to brush up on her French. The 27-year-old particle physicist is part of an international collaboration working on ATLAS, one of two experiments the size of small apartment buildings that will soon come online near Geneva, Switzerland.
Majewski, a postdoctoral fellow at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y., knew when she got her PhD last year that she wanted to work on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the circular particle accelerator 17 miles (27 kilometers) in circumference straddling the Franco-Swiss border.
In coming months, the LHC will begin to slam together twin beams of protons at the highest energies ever achieved in a science experiment. ATLAS and CMS are the two main particle detectors designed to sift the debris, looking for the long-awaited Higgs boson and other elusive quarry.
"It's the place to be for particle physics," she says. "This may be the last large accelerator that turns on, at least for awhile." To make herself known in a collaboration of more than 1,700 people from 37 countries, Majewski will spend the next year living in Meyrin, Switzerland, close to ATLAS and the LHC at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
The U.S. has been home to the premier particle physics experiment, the Tevatron at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Ill., for more than two decades. Now the LHC is taking up that mantle. Its imminent start-up—CERN plans to inject the first fully circulating beam through the LHC next week, followed in coming weeks by the first collisions—means a new phase in the lives of the nearly 2,000 U.S. researchers who are working on LHC experiments.
Not all of them will have to learn the French for, "no, black holes are not about to destroy the world." But as part of an international team, "the U.S. has to do its share," says Fermilab's Joel Butler, head of U.S. CMS operations.
The U.S. CMS group consists of about 130 engineers, technicians and computer scientists plus about 600 physicists and graduate students. Butler says he expects that at any given time, somewhere between 150 and 200 of them will be at CERN.
The LHC will only run for about seven months out of the year, from late spring to late December. Although the CMS detector is inaccessible during that time, a pair of control rooms—one underground, one above ground—contain much of the electronics for the experiment as well as computers for processing the data.
"Some problems can only be solved by going down into the underground control room and fiddling with the electronics or making replacements of failed components," Butler says. During the downtime from late December to March, workers may have to open the detector to fix problems or perform routine maintenance.
A typical experience for a postdoc might be to spend a year or two at CERN to speed communication within the experiment. Two other postdocs in Majewski's group are currently stationed at CERN, taking shifts in the ATLAS control room. "We have to watch to make sure that everyone in our group gets enough trips to CERN so that we all can attend meetings in person and stay connected to our collaborators," she says.
The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) has four postdocs working on the ATLAS experiment at CERN, along with two PhD students, one staff scientist and one co-team leader, Su Dong, co-leader of SLAC's ATLAS team, says. He recommends that young researchers spend 1.5 to two years at CERN. Although there's an added cost to moving there, extended stays end up being cheaper than many shorter trips, he says.
Having eyes and ears at CERN was definitely an advantage this year, as the lab scrambled to get the collider up and running on schedule after years of delays. "It was really important to have people there who could run into someone in the hall and get an update," Majewski says.
Once the LHC begins colliding protons, researchers will have to learn how to interpret the raw data from detectors and translate it into real physics. That's where conversations over the lunch table come into play: Talking to someone on site who knows the detectors may provide the key to interpreting a funny looking piece of data, Su Dong says. Ideally, relationships built at CERN translate to improved communication after researchers return to the U.S. "Once you get to know them it's much easier to talk to them over a remote link," Butler says.
Of course, not all institutions can afford to send researchers to CERN or take them away from teaching duties. Another option for U.S. CMS researchers who can't make the trek to Switerland is to take a shift at a remote operations center (ROC) established at Fermilab. From there, researchers can monitor day-to-day operations of the experiment and work with CERN staff to keep it running smoothly.
Historically, CERN experiments have not had remote operations, Butler says. But the CMS experiment and its control rooms are located on the far side of the LHC, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the main CERN campus. So the lab created a second monitoring station to allow researchers to track the experiment from the main office.
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10 Comments
Add CommentTrès bon pour Mme Majewski,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDon't forget, safety before science.
Its only fun until someone loses a planet.
Got LHCFacts.org?
I think these folks are playing with fire. Remember what happens when you play with fire? Someone usually gets burned. I hope these folks are as smart as they think they are.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJiff
www.anonymize.kr.tc
Jtankers, you are a cretin of the highest order... Do you have nothing better to do than spam forums, with your inane ramblings. If I hear you describe, your poster boy, Rossler (a biochemist) as a physicist again, I may have to kill myself out of sheer frustration that a total crackpot like you remains in the genetic pool!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat said I will hugely enjoy it, when you scuttle back to the loony bin once it's demonstrated that you are totally deluded, and the world still exists. That some scientists connected with the LHC have received death threats is no doubt attributable to irresponsible campaigns, from jumped up misfits like yourself, with bizarre delusions of grandeur
Man's technology has exceeded his grasp. - 'The World is not Enough'
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisZealous Nobel Prize hungry Physicists are racing each other and stopping at nothing to try to find the supposed 'Higgs Boson'(aka God) Particle, among others, and are risking nothing less than the annihilation of the Earth and all Life in endless experiments hoping to prove a theory when urgent tangible problems face the planet. The European Organization for Nuclear Research(CERN) new Large Hadron Collider(LHC) is the world's most powerful atom smasher that will soon be firing subatomic particles at each other at nearly the speed of light to create Miniature Big Bangs producing Micro Black Holes, Strangelets and other potentially cataclysmic phenomena.
Particle physicists have run out of ideas and are at a dead end forcing them to take reckless chances with more and more powerful and costly machines to create new and never-seen-before, unstable and unknown matter while Astrophysicists, on the other hand, are advancing science and knowledge on a daily basis making new discoveries in these same areas by observing the universe, not experimenting with it and with your life.
The LHC is a dangerous gamble as CERN physicist Alvaro De R�jula in the BBC LHC documentary, 'The Six Billion Dollar Experiment', incredibly admits quote, "Will we find the Higgs particle at the LHC? That, of course, is the question. And the answer is, science is what we do when we don't know what we're doing." And CERN spokesmodel Brian Cox follows with this stunning quote, "the LHC is certainly, by far, the biggest jump into the unknown."
The CERN-LHC website Mainpage itself states: "There are many theories as to what will result from these collisions,..." Again, this is because they truly don't know what's going to happen. They are experimenting with forces they don't understand to obtain results they can't comprehend. If you think like most people do that 'They must know what they're doing' you could not be more wrong. Some people think similarly about medical Dr.s but consider this by way of comparison and example from JAMA: "A recent Institute of Medicine report quoted rates estimating that medical errors kill between 44,000 and 98,000 people a year in US hospitals." The second part of the CERN quote reads "...but what's for sure is that a brave new world of physics will emerge from the new accelerator,..." A molecularly changed or Black Hole consumed Lifeless World? The end of the quote reads "...as knowledge in particle physics goes on to describe the workings of the Universe." These experiments to date have so far produced infinitely more questions than answers but there isn't a particle physicist alive who wouldn't gladly trade his life to glimpse the "God particle", and sacrifice the rest of us with him. Reason and common sense will tell you that the risks far outweigh any potential(as CERN physicists themselves say) benefits.
This quote from National Geographic exactly sums this "science" up: "That's the essence of experimental particle physics: You smash stuff together and see what other stuff comes out."
Find out more about that "stuff" below;
http://www.SaneScience.org/
http://www.LHCFacts.org
http://www.risk-evaluation-forum.org/anon1.htm
http://www.lhcdefense.org/
http://www.lhcconcerns.com
Popular Mechanics - "World's Biggest Science Project Aims to Unlock 'God Particle'" - http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/extreme_machines/4216588.html"
Jesus Christ you fear-mongers really should take a basic science course, or i don't know, READ A BOOK !! (learn some actual physics) and at least try to rid yourself of at least a small percentage of your ignorance before you accuse others of such a digression. Saftey first... sure ; caution before curiosity, I'm all for it. That being said, COME UP WITH ONE COMPELLING ARGUMENT ON HOW LARGE PARTICLE COLIDERS WILL DESTROY THE EARTH and maybe just maybe, someone will listen. Until then for f''''s sakes please crawl into a hole and hibernate and yes i am angry.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisF''' you =D, Exordium.
EDIT: the above comment was not intended for any one speicific post.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismillion remember-this lab was started in texas in the 90s-was stopped after spending $900 million by jealous liberals
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRE:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSeptember 4, 2008 in Physics | 7 comments | Post a comment
How U.S. Researchers Are Making the Switch to the Large Hadron Collider
Remote operations means the move to Geneva is not always mandatory
By JR Minkel
-------------------
NEW LETTER TO SENATOR BARACK OBAMA
Laval, Canada, August 28, 2008
SENATOR OBAMA,
It is in adversity, I was going to say in darkness, that one recognizes true friends.
Energy of the Sixties tested, confronted by Todayss Energy crisis, what does Science hold for us in this field at the crossroad of the third millennium?
Each of us should express solidarity, according to his means.
My contribution, apparently futuristic, refers, Senator Obama, to an inexhaustible source of energy, which one should tame now.
In a book with limited publication, translated in English for the needs of the cause, entitled BILL A RI And There Was Light, addressed during his last American election campaign to President Bill Clinton who acknowledged having received it, I dared to tackle this subject.
Its like to say to you, Senator Obama, that in the exceptional circumstances in which we live today - in the point of view of energy - no exploration in the mid or long term, by the american expertise , of an additional source of energy, at the same time safe and profitable, should not be ruled out.
There is no witchcraft at all involved in all that, Mister Obama. In spite of my Ha�tian ascent and my carefully phrased remarks. It is undoubtedly so when a taboo should be broken through. A taboo of magnitude, Sir, I admit it. A scientific taboo, seldom encountered.
The taboo arises as a negative categorical imperative, affirms Roger Caillois.
It is not saying little. Especially when it is a question of adequately correcting the theory of Newton on light and colors.
However, at the dawn of the twenty first century, to denounce this taboo, to reverse it, should I say, what an asset! Moreover, at the same time the multiple taboos grow blurred which surround another phenomenon of the highest scientific range, the well known phenomenon under the abusive name of Black Holes, synthesis of light and colors. Indeed Newton, in good faith undoubtedly in his time, really reversed the interpretation of the phenomenon of light. He took the part for the whole ! So much and so well that today like yesterday, the visible appears so much more tempting. Physicists say it: ninety to ninety nine percent of the matter of the universe (Grosso Modo - said here roughly by Lucien BONNET - for more precisions see LINKS or GOOGLE ) is made up of a dark matter, invisible, which generates, propels and surrounds the visible, like the sea surrounds the continents. Scientists such as Stephen Hawking affirm it. The Hubble Telescope confirms it. But theoretical Optics is stagnant.
My intervention, here, Senator Obama, would mean that. It is possible to use another form of energy. By decoding the Black Matter.Without a play on words. Theoretically initially. While returning the elevator to Newton - without a play on words. By the Act which consists in making an AMENDMENT TO THE LAW OF NEWTON ON LIGHT AND COLORS.
Presently, why should we take the result instead of the cause?
Objectively and in a pragmatic way, how not focussing on the new synthesis?
Consequently, what a liberation !
At the threshold of the third millennium, let light live, invisible by synthesis, visible by analysis !
Synthesis and analysis are two wings of the same bird, the rythm of the universes heartbeat, tamed inside the infinitely small having mass. Successively contracted and deployed. In the benefit of humanity.
One small step for Man, one giant leap for Mankind - I also said myself - in BILL A RI and there was light !&
Unfortunate, yes, but how much a convenient Energy crisis if I dare say, which invites us to explore other avenues, other concepts and, therefore, other resources so far neglected.
Invitation to go from the invisible to the visible and vice versa. Taking advantage of the sequence of colorless and colored luminous speeds. In order to better understand the Universe. Where Law and Order prevail. Just like in Democracy !
Energetic formula with a unique character !
In the name of Science and Technology, vapor is being reverse !
A winning formula !
In The United States Of America.
By The United States Of America.
For The United States Of America and abroad !
With you today, Senator Obama, I repeat this sentence - since 1972 and 1978 - that is to say forty years old, but always, in my opinion, carrying the same message that I wish more and more positive for the years to come, in the third millennium, as I said since 1972 and on April 10, 1978, in a Letter to Doctor Carl Sagan:
On the cosmic scale as on the terrestrial scale, darkness or blackness forms an integral, sine qua non part, of color and light pocess.
Is it still broad daylight
in the shadow of the black sun?
Yours truly,
Lucien BONNET
you can success this experiment but at glance there is no one to see what will hapen in all over the world. the money which is invested in the project it's better usefull at development places. -- faiyaj shaikh
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe mad CERN ’s way.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn 1906, Rutherford studied internal structure of atoms,
bombarding them with high energy a- particles.
This idea helped him understand the structure of atom.
But the clever Devil interfered and gave advice to physicists
to enlarge the target. Bomb them!
And physicist created huge cannon-accelerators of particles.
And they began to bomb micro particles in the vacuum, in hoping
to understand their inner structure. And they were surprised with
the results of this bombing. Several hundreds of completely new
strange particles appeared. They lived a very little time and do not
relate to our world. Our Earth needs its real constants of nature.
But this was forgotten.
What God carefully created, is destroyed in accelerators.
And they are proud of that. They say: we study the inner structure
of the particles. The clever and artful Devil is glad. He again has deceived man.
Physicist think, that an accelerator - is first of all the presence of huge energy.
And the Devil laughs. He knows, that an accelerator - is first of all the Vacuum.
But this, he has withheld from man.
He has not explained that the Vacuum is infinite and inexhaustible.
And in infinity there is contained an infinite variety of particles.
And by bombing the vacuum, one can find centaurs and sphinxes.
But my God, save us from their presence on Earth.
========= .. ========.
Rutherford was right.
His followers are mistaken.
Why?
Imagine, that I want to plant a small apple- tree.
For this purpose I shall dig out a hole of 1 meter width and 1,20 m depth.
It is normal.
But if to plant a small apple- tree, I shall begin to dig
a base for a huge building (skyscraper),
or if to begin drill ground with 10 km. depth,
will you call me a normal man?
========== .. ===============.
Imagine a man who breaks watches on the wall.
And then he tries to understand the mechanism of the watches
by thrown cogwheels, springs and small screws.
Does he have many chances to succeed?
As many as the scientists have who aspire to understand
the inner structure of electron by breaking them into accelerators.
If not take into account the initial conditions of Genesis,
the fantasies of the scientists may be unlimited.
========== . ======== .
The Nature works very economical.
For example, biologists know 100 ( hundred ) kinds of
amino acids. But only 20 ( twenty) kinds of amino acids
are suitable to produce molecules of protein, from which all
different cells created on our planet. What are about another
80 % of amino acids? They are dead end of evolution.
The physicists found many ( 1000 ) new elementary particles in
accelerators. But we need only one ( 1) electron and one (1 )
proton to create first atom, to begin to create the Nature.
All another elementary particles (mesons, muons , bosons, taus,
all their girlfriends - antiparticles, all quarks and antiquarks…etc)
are dead end of evolution.
============.
What was before - “ the big bang” or the vacuum ?
The physicists created “ Europe’s Large Hadron Colider “
Please, look at how our physicists made this accelerator.
They made the vacuum and after they generated a big reaction
between two colliding particles in some small imitation of the
“big bang”. They didn’t make this process in the reverse.
So, what was prior in the Universe: “ big bang” or vacuum?
===========================..
The Universe as whole is Vacuum, first of all.
Best wishes.
Israel Sadovnik. / Socratus.
http://www.socratus.com
http://www.wbabin.net
http://www.wbabin.net/comments/sadovnik.htm
http://www.wbabin.net/physics/sadovnik.pdf
====================..
P.S.
Will CERN find the God - Particle?
Hawking bets CERN will not find the God Particle
http://www.physorg.com/news140161003.html
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