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GENEVA (AP) — The world's largest atom smasher will likely be fired up again in October after scientists have carried out tests and put in place further safety measures to prevent a repeat of the faults that sidelined the $10 billion machine shortly after startup last year, the operator said Saturday. The Large Hadron Collider was meant to restart in late September, but that will probably be pushed back two to three weeks, a spokesman for the European Organization for Nuclear Research said. "We're pretty confident about the dates," James Gillies told The Associated Press, adding that scientists believe they...

The Large Hadron Collider is to be run flat out throughout the year in order to make up for lost time and to beat an American rival to finding the elusive Higgs Boson – known as the "God Particle". The £4bn particle accelerator, which broke down last year, was to be turned off in winter to reduce energy demands during peak electricity prices. But the delays and the news that a smaller less powerful accelerator at Fermilab in Illinois is closing in on the particle has meant it will continue running throughout the year – at an extra cost of...

Still worried that the Large Hadron Collider will create a black hole that will destroy the Earth when it's finally switched on this summer? Um, well, you may have a point. Three physicists have reexamined the math surrounding the creation of microscopic black holes in the Switzerland-based LHC, the world's largest particle collider, and determined that they won't simply evaporate in a millisecond as had previously been predicted. Rather, Roberto Casadio of the University of Bologna in Italy and Sergio Fabi and Benjamin Harms of the University of Alabama say mini black holes could exist for much longer — perhaps...

When the LHC first went down, it was believed that repairs could get the system up and running by April 2009. Then we saw repairs pushing the timeline back to summer 2009. But now, CERN has arrived at a fork in the road regarding LHC repairs. According to spokesperson James Gillies, the complicated repairs can be simplified into modest Plan A and Plan B approach. Plan A is a quick and dirty fix, getting the particle accelerator online as quickly as possible (late summer 2009) at the cost of operating at lower power. In this scenario, 3 of 8 pressure...

Broken magnets at CERN will need to be replaced.M. Brice/CERN Details of last month's accident at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's premier particle accelerator, are emerging -- and confirm that the machine will not restart before late May or early June 2009. Officials at CERN, Europe's particle-physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, say that the time is needed to overhaul a sector of the 27-kilometre-long machine, after an electrical failure on 19 September caused some 6 tonnes of ultra-cold liquid helium to leak into its tunnel. A preliminary report issued on 16 October says that as many as...

HONOLULU — A federal judge in Hawaii has dismissed a lawsuit trying to stop the world's largest atom smasher. U.S. District Court Judge Helen Gilmor ruled Friday that federal courts don't have jurisdiction over the Large Hadron Collider in Europe, near Geneva. Two Hawaii residents sued because they feared that the machine could create small black holes or other phenomena that could destroy the planet.

The Large Hadron Collider near Geneva will be out of action for at least two months, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) says.Part of the giant physics experiment was turned off for the weekend while engineers probed a magnet failure. But a Cern spokesman said damage to the £3.6bn ($6.6bn) particle accelerator was worse than anticipated. [snip] Section damagedOn Friday, a failure, known as a quench, caused around 100 of the LHC's super-cooled magnets to heat up by as much as 100C. The fire brigade were called out after a tonne of liquid helium leaked into the tunnel...

"Plans to begin smashing particles at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) may be delayed after a magnet failure forced engineers to halt work." "The failure, known as a quench, caused around 100 of the LHC's super-cooled magnets to heat up by as much as 100C." "The fire brigade were called out after a tonne of liquid helium leaked into the tunnel at Cern, near Geneva." "The LHC beam will remain turned off over the weekend while engineers investigate the severity of the fault."

The internet needs a way to help people separate rumour from real science, says the creator of the World Wide Web. Talking to BBC News Sir Tim Berners-Lee said he was increasingly worried about the way the web has been used to spread disinformation. Sir Tim was speaking in advance of an announcement about a Foundation he has helped create that he hopes will improve the World Wide Web. Sir Tim talked to the BBC in the week in which Cern, where he did his pioneering work on the web, turned on the Large Hadron Collider for the first time....

THREE hundred feet below the outskirts of Geneva lies part of a 17-mile-long tubular track, circling its way across the French border and back again, whose interior is so pristine and whose nearly 10,000 surrounding magnets so frigid, that it’s one of the emptiest and coldest regions of space in the solar system. The track is part of the Large Hadron Collider, a technological marvel built by physicists and engineers, and described alternatively as heralding the next revolution in our understanding of the universe or, less felicitously, as a doomsday machine that may destroy the planet. After more than a...

Scientists who are preparing to 'switch on' the most powerful particle accelerator ever built, have received death threats from critics who fear it could destroy the Earth. The £5 billion Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will smash protons - one of the building blocks of matter - into each other at energies up to seven times greater than any achieved before. In the flashes from the collisions, scientists expect to reproduce conditions that existed during the first billionth of a second after the Big Bang at the dawn of creation. But some of those working on the LHC have received threatening...

September 10 marked the startup of the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland--the first attempt to circulate protons through its full 27 km circumference. International Science Grid This Week (www.isgtw.org) brings you podcasts straight from the local control centers and a report from the scene at Fermilab’s Remote Operations Center in Batavia, Illinois. We all know about the event at CERN, but what else is happening to mark this event? That is where LHC First Beam Events <http://www.uslhc.us/first_beam> comes in. It has information about what several U.S. institutions, involved in the construction and startup of the LHC, are doing. Probably...

The work of the Large Hadron Collider is crucial for the survival of humanity, according to Professor Stephen Hawking. Prof Hawking said the £4.4bn machine, in which scientists are about to recreate conditions just after the Big Bang, is "vital if the human race is not to stultify and eventually die out." And he sought to ease fears that the machine could have apocalyptic effects. "The world will not come to an end when the LHC turns on," Prof Hawking said, adding: "The LHC is absolutely safe." Scientists at the CERN research centre in Switzerland are aiming to use the...

It really is awesome.

Sept 9 (Reuters) - Following are five facts about the 10 billion Swiss franc ($9 billion) Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which will smash together particles at close to the speed of light after its start-up on Wednesday at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN): * Though built to study the smallest known building blocks of all things -- known as particles -- the LHC is the largest and most complex machine ever made. It has a circumference of 27 km (17 miles) and lies 100 metres (330 feet) under the ground, straddling French and Swiss territory. * At full...

The man behind the world’s biggest scientific experiment, which critics claim could cause the end of the world, is a Welsh miner’s son who has admitted blowing things up as a child. Dr Lyn Evans, who has been dubbed Evans the Atom, will this week switch on a giant particle accelerator designed to unlock the secrets of the Big Bang. But the 63-year-old physicist revealed yesterday that his passion for science was fuelled by the relatively small bangs he had created with his chemistry set at his council house in Aberdare in the Welsh valleys.

It has been called an Alice in Wonderland investigation into the makeup of the universe — or dangerous tampering with nature that could spell doomsday. Whatever the case, the most powerful atom-smasher ever built comes online Wednesday, eagerly anticipated by scientists worldwide who have awaited this moment for two decades.

GENEVA — It's been called an Alice in Wonderland investigation into the makeup of the universe — or dangerous tampering with nature that could spell doomsday.

Scientists preparing to fire up the world's largest atom smasher are being flooded with phone calls and emails – even death threats – from people worried that the Large Hadron Collider, when activated, will obliterate planet Earth.

If all goes according to plan, a massive underground facility in Switzerland will begin smashing particles together later this summer in an effort to provide a clearer understanding of the physical universe than has ever before been possible. Known as the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, the project is composed of a 17-mile circular tunnel beneath Geneva, containing thousands of magnets meant to send beams of subatomic particles hurtling toward each other. The resulting collisions are expected to release matter similar to that present at the "Big Bang" that created the universe.