CERN LHC = danger?

Link: http://bigsciencenews.blogspot.com/2008/10/politics-and-science-at-lhc.html

This is a quote from The Science of Conundrums posted October 1st 2008:

'In the days before Madison Avenue, public relations and spin doctors, Science was free to speak for itself. Like any other activity it was criticized and judged on its activites and results by media and the people. If the public had questions, the scientists answered them. Political games were for government and business. Now big science instituitions and labs with their own bewildering bureaucracies, have developed an interface to present an ideal world of science through their press offices and lobbyists. They sell science like GM sells cars. Somehow the media seems not to have noticed the difference, taking spin doctors' science press kits and sound bite analysis at face value.'

And later:
'If the politics of safety can override safety concerns, like chicks sprawled on red sports cars, are there other similar sales jobs on safety approximating the scientific? Where is the CERN Model hiding out? Look no further than the pharmacuetical industry. When people die, safe products are recalled. Tons of safety reports and tankers on a magazine sunset, and then a giant oil tanker spills and kills birds and animals and fish by the thousands. With 6 months of downtime at the LHC thanks to accidents can happen, they've got plenty of time for gearing up for a new sales campaign, CERN TV commmercials.'

Read the full article at:
http://bigsciencenews.blogspot.com/2008/10/politics-and-science-at-lhc.html

Link: http://bigsciencenews.blogspot.com/2008/09/lhc-quench-stops-cern-re-start-delayed.html

This is a quote from the Science of Conundrums posted 25th September 2008:
'After last Friday's massive quench at the LHC, CERN has announced that re-starting the collider will have to wait even beyond 2 months for repairs and downtime. With a planned winter shutdown in late November, even if the collider were ready, there would not be enough time to continue tests. Re-start of the LHC should be in April 2009.'

And later:
'Coming on the heels of two other major failures, the hacking of part of the CMS computer system, during the big September 10th media launch, and the destruction of a 30 tonne surface transformer during a thunderstorm shortly afterwards, powering 2 sectors of the LHC cooling system, the need for a more careful re-launch of the collider is apparent to CERN, hence the further delay to spring.

CERN publicly has put on a brave if vague face, with its first very short press release of the 20th September, "Incident in LHC sector 3-4", though it was abundantly clear the day of the accident September 19th that it was more than an incident, as reported by the BBC that day. Even on the day of the accident, according to Scientific American, "CERN said on Friday that "The LHC is on course for [its] first collisions in a matter of weeks", just a day later it announced the minimum two-month repair job." Lately Dr Robert Aymar, Director General of CERN referred to the accident as "undoubtedly a psychological blow."'

Read the full article on:
http://bigsciencenews.blogspot.com/2008/09/lhc-quench-stops-cern-re-start-delayed.html

Link: http://bigsciencenews.blogspot.com/2008/09/accident-cripples-lhc.html

This is a quote from bigsciencesnews published September 19th 2008:
'No collisions, no beams either next week at the LHC. The BBC reports an alarming quench of about 100 superconducting magnets today, that heated up as much as 100 C. A tonne of liquid helium spilled into the tunnel and the CERN fire brigade went in. Cause of the quenching has not been announced, nor have any injuries been reported. Liquid helium leaks vaporize back to a gas almost instantly and would freeze or choke personnel present.'

And concludes:
'
The damaged Sector3-4, an eighth of the 17 mile collider has still not been stabilized since this morning's accident. About half of it or a mile length was well above normal 1.9 K design temperature, about a quarter of the sector and its magnets this afternoon at 15:46 PM were about 82 K to 110 K. Currently all magnets have warmed. The warmest show a slight recovery from 110 K down to 99 K. and Sector 3-4 is still in crisis as of the 20th September 0:418 AM, with no accurate readout for about half the magnets, and the rest showing more warming, with a few outside the spike zone climbing abruptly in temperature since this afternoon.

Given the gravity of the accident, repairs would take a week or longer.'

Read the full article on:
http://bigsciencenews.blogspot.com/2008/09/accident-cripples-lhc.html

Link: http://bigsciencenews.blogspot.com/

This is a quote from an article on bigsciencenews posted September 17 2008:
'Nature had her own ideas about testing LHC safety. A thunderstorm last Friday knocked out some transformers at the LHC near Geneva that are part of the helium cooling system, that cools the magnets that keep the proton beams travelling (near light speed) on a circular path through the collider. Technicians have been scrambling to fix the problems, but not before some magnets warmed well above standard operating temperatures, some reaching almost 7K from the usual ultra cold 1.9K .'

And ends with:
'Like any machine the LHC is vulnerable to its environment and its own weaknesses, not forgetting the colossal energies and particle collisions it will produce.'

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http://bigsciencenews.blogspot.com/

Link: http://bigsciencenews.blogspot.com/

This is a quote from bigsciencenews from September 12, 2008:
'The Greek Security Team, computer hackers who know Greek at least, left this souvenir behind on the CMS experiment's computer system. The attacks went on for two days, September 9 and 10, part way into First Beam commissioning. "We are 2600 --dont mess with us" was their sign-off.

One of the CMS team fighting off the hackers said it was a "scary experience". Dr James Gillies, chief spokesperson for CERN said "It was quickly detected." A half dozen files were uploaded by the hackers. One CMS computer file was damaged. It could have been worse. An CERN insider commented that if the attackers had penetrated into a second computer system, some of the CMS could have been turned off, adding, "it is hard enough to make these things work if no one is messing with it." The CMS is a gigantic solenoid magnet that could slow down traffic in Paris, though here it will be used to detect muons with its millions of pixels and sensors, or whatever else registers during proton beam collisions of extraordinary power.'

Read the full article on:
http://bigsciencenews.blogspot.com/