A French Electrician Unknowingly Saved the World

I did a blog posting last year about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which I had visited once upon a time and which was being switched on for the first time last September. Many scientists and doom mongers reckoned it would end the world as we know it, creating a big bang, followed by a black hole into which we’d all be sucked.

The posting is at this URL:

http://tomsfrenchblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/end-might-be-nigh-7-days-to-go-those-of.html

Of course, nothing of the sort happened, mainly because a few days after it was switched on, it all failed because of a bad electrical connection. Unfortunately, the launch at CERN was being filmed, resulting in embarrassment all round.

So, just before they switch it on again with less of a fanfare this time, it’s worth revisiting this colossal physics experiment to try and understand its scale:

• The build cost to date is some $10 billion
• Particles of matter will be fired in different directions round a 17 mile circular tunnel getting faster and faster as they repeatedly pass giant magnets
• There are 1624 large super-conducting magnets in the ring, some 50 feet long
• The particles will whiz around at near the speed of light before colliding on Dec 1st. The speed of light remember, is 186,000 miles per second or 670 million miles per hour which means a particle will hurtle around the 17 mile ring, 11,000 times a second!
• The subatomic particles will collide in vast detectors in rooms the size of cathedrals, 100 meters (300 feet) below ground.
• Because they hired a French electrician who did a typical job for what he thought was ex-Pats, an electric arc punctured the container holding the liquid helium used to keep the collider at a temperature colder than outer space for maximum efficiency. Six tons of helium leaked out, overpowering the relief valves and adding to the damage.
• The result of the particle collision will show on a tiny scale what happened micro seconds after the so-called Big Bang, which many scientists theorize was the massive explosion that formed the universe.
• A Superconducting Super Collider being built in Texas would have been bigger than the LHC, but in 1993 the U.S. Congress canceled it after costs soared and questions were raised about its scientific value.
• Despite the problems, thousands of physicists around the world insist the LHC will work and that it is crucial to mankind's understanding of the universe.

Summary - This is probably the single biggest experiment ever carried out and the moral of the story – never employ a French electrician when it’s an important job! If you look closely at the picture you might spot him at the bottom – he’s currently whizzing round the ring at the speed of light!