This Wednesday scientists will work to recreate the big bang

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Quote:

(CNN) -- Deep underground on the border between France and Switzerland, the world's largest particle accelerator complex will explore the world on smaller scales than any human invention has explored before.


The collider's ALICE experiment will look at how the universe formed by analyzing particle collisions.

The Large Hadron Collider will look at how the universe formed by analyzing particle collisions. Some have expressed fears that the project could lead to the Earth's demise -- something scientists say will not happen. Still, skeptics have filed suit to try to stop the project.

It even has a rap dedicated to it on YouTube.

Scientists say the collider is finally ready for an attempt to circulate a beam of protons the whole way around the 17-mile tunnel. The test, which takes place Wednesday, is a major step toward seeing if the the immense experiment will provide new information about the way the universe works.

"It's really a generation that we've been looking forward to this moment, and the moments that will come after it in particular," said Bob Cousins, deputy to the scientific leader of the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment, one of six experiments inside the collider complex. "September 10 is a demarcation between finishing the construction and starting to turn it on, but the excitement will only continue to grow."

The collider consists of a particle accelerator buried more than 300 feet near Geneva, Switzerland. About $10 billion have gone into the accelerator's construction, the particle detectors and the computers, said Katie Yurkewicz, spokewoman for CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which is host to the collider.

In the coming months, the collider is expected to begin smashing particles into each other by sending two beams of protons around the tunnel in opposite directions. It will operate at higher energies and intensities in the next year, and the experiments could generate enough data to make a discovery by 2009, experts say.

I find it disturbing that this isn't even close to front page news. Britney Spears at the VMA's is far more important than possibly proving the existence of other dimensions, right? The media infuriates me.

Thoughts?

Personally, I'm anxious as all hell.

PS: I also find it slightly annoying that CNN felt it was necessary to point out that there is a "rap video dedicated to this event on YouTube".

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Jessie1311

and blowing things up underground? Who's brilliant idea was that?

Aside from the rest of your inane post, you do realize that "they" have been "blowing shit up" underground for ages now, right?

"They" would not go out on a limb with billions of dollars at risk.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I wonder what it means to "discover other dimensions". I know very little about these theoretics and the definition of what exactly a dimension is escapes me.

I doubt very much that they're talking about finding another level of existence or conciousness but rather a position in space in time.

What eludes me is what "other dimensions" they're hoping to discover.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Aardark

Existence of extra dimensions is predicted by the string theory. The string theory is one proposed 'theory of everything'; a theory that would unite the going-ons of the smallest scales (quantum mechanics) with the macroscopic scales (general relativity). It's the Holy Grail of physics today, and without such a theory we can't explain what happens when a lot of matter is packed in a very small space − the singularity of a black hole or the beginning of the big bang (hence the reference in this thread's title, I assume).

String theory says that the smallest building blocks of everything are little 'strings' (around the Planck lenght or 1.6 × 10-35 m) that can vibrate in different ways. Depending on the manner of vibration they can manifest themselves as different elementary particles, like photons (light) or quarks, which combine to form protons, which combine with neutrons to create atoms, which create macroscopic stuff that we know.

Now about dimensions. Here is an illustration, courtesy of professor Richard Wolfson:



In the upper part, you are looking from afar, and you see an ant that appears to be able to travel on a stem in one dimension only. When you move in close enough, you see that there is actually another dimension. That dimension is 'curled up on itself', in a kind of sphere. You couldn't see it before, because you were looking from a great distance.

Now, remember that these strings in the string theory are small as fuck. They operate at Planck length, the smallest physically possible length. What if there are more dimensions curled up there, and we simply aren't close enough to that tiny scale for them to have any effect on us? Of course, we can't really imagine another dimension very well, so to us it's just extremely complex mathematics, but for subatomic particles created by the strings, like the protons that they will be colliding in LHC, it may be a different story. It's also theorised that the hypothetical graviton particle, which supposedly 'carries' gravity, 'leaks' into these curled-up dimensions (since it's small enough to access them), which is why gravity is such a weak force and only becomes considerable when dealing with massive objects like planets.

I know this is not very clear. Since I don't really know what I'm talking about, I can't explain it very well, but hopefully this gives you at least some idea.

I sort of understand what you're talking about but it's definitely still confusing as all hell to me. Are there any books you'd recommend on the subject or is this stuff pure math?

How ya doing, buddy?

Excellent, thanks a bunch.

I was speaking idiomatically.