Large Hadron Collider – Jupiter Broadcasting https://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com Open Source Entertainment, on Demand. Mon, 22 Feb 2016 02:45:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.5.3 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/cropped-favicon-32x32.png Large Hadron Collider – Jupiter Broadcasting https://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com 32 32 Paraplegic Therapy & Exomoon | SciByte 126 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/55232/paraplegic-therapy-exomoon-scibyte-126/ Tue, 15 Apr 2014 20:09:08 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=55232 We take a look at a new treatment for paralysis, spying a possible exomoon, troubles with the Space Station, Viewer Feedback, the Large Hadron Collider and more

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We take a look at a new treatment for paralysis, spying a possible exomoon, troubles with the Space Station, Viewer Feedback, the Large Hadron Collider, Curiosity news, and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Breakthrough Paraplegic Therapy

  • The belief that no recovery is possible and complete paralysis is permanent has been challenged now that four young men who have been paralyzed for years are now able to move their legs, as a result of epidural electrical stimulation of the spinal cord
  • Epidural Electrical Stimulation
  • In epidural stimulation, an electrical current is applied at varying frequencies and intensities to specific locations on the lumbosacral spinal cord
  • The stimulator delivers a continuous electrical current to the participants\’ lower spinal cords, mimicking signals the brain normally transmits to initiate movement in the dense neural bundles that largely control the movement of the hips, knees, ankles and toes
  • With the participants, once the signal was triggered, the spinal cord reengaged its neural network to control and direct muscle movements.
  • In an initial study, published in May 2011 scientists evaluated the effects of epidural stimulation in the first participant who recovered a number of motor functions as a result of the intervention
  • The New Study
  • The four paralyzed participants ranged in neurological level, two of them had absolutely no sensation or cognition below the site of their injury with no chance of recovery and all were at least two years post-injury at the time of the intervention
  • What is revolutionary is that the second, third and fourth participants were able to execute voluntary movements immediately following the implantation and activation of the stimulator.
  • Over the course of the study, the researchers noted that the participants were able to activate movements with less stimulation, demonstrating the ability of the spinal network to learn and improve nerve functions
  • Results
  • The study surprised the scientists, who believed at least some of the sensory pathway must be intact for epidural stimulation to be successful.
  • The participants\’ results and recovery time were unexpected, which led researchers to speculate that some pathways may be intact post-injury and therefore able to facilitate voluntary movements.
  • All four men were able to bear weight independently, as reported by the team
  • Beyond regaining voluntary movement, the research participants have displayed a myriad of improvements in their overall health
  • Increases in muscle mass and regulation of their blood pressure, as well as reduced fatigue and dramatic improvements to their sense of well-being.
  • This is groundbreaking for the entire field and offers a new outlook that the spinal cord, even after a severe injury, has great potential for functional recovery.
  • Widespread Use
  • When they first learned that the first patient in 2011 had regained voluntary control as a result of the therapy, scientists remained cautiously optimistic
  • Now that spinal stimulation has been successful in four out of four patients, there is evidence to suggest it could work on more individuals who previously had little realistic hope of any meaningful recovery from spinal cord injury
  • The implications of this study for the entire field are quite profound, and we can now envision a day when epidural stimulation might be part of a cocktail of therapies used to treat paralysis
  • Since this effect was observed this in four out of four people it suggests that this is actually a common phenomenon in those diagnosed with complete paralysis
  • The Future
  • The study offers hope that clinical therapies can be developed to advance treatment for the nearly 6 million Americans living with paralysis, including nearly 1.3 million with spinal cord injuries.
  • This study changes how we see motor complete spinal cord injury as it indicates that we don\’t have to necessarily rely on regrowth of nerves in order to regain function
  • The scientists are optimistic that the therapy intervention will continue to result in improved motor functions
  • Based on observations from the research, there is strong evidence that with continued advancements of the epidural stimulator, individuals with complete spinal cord injuries will be able to bear weight independently, maintain balance and work towards stepping
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube | Paraplegics Get Leg Function Back With Electrical Stimulation | News All Time News All Time
  • YouTube | Kent Stephenson on his recovery | ReeveFoundation
  • YouTube | Rob Summers on his recovery | ReeveFoundation
  • YouTube | Dustin Shillcox on his recovery ReeveFoundation
  • YouTube | Drew Meas on his recovery | ReeveFoundation
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation
  • Breakthrough therapy allows four paraplegic men to voluntarily move their legs | MedicalXPress.com
  • Reawakening Limbs After Years of Paralysis | ScienceFriday.com
  • \’Milestone\’ Therapy Produces Leg Movement in Paraplegics | consumer.healthday.com/

— NEWS BYTE —

ExoMoon?

  • NASA-funded researchers have spotted the first signs of an \”exomoon,\” and though they say it\’s impossible to confirm its presence
  • Discovery
  • The discovery was made by watching a chance encounter of objects in our galaxy, which can be witnessed only once so they won\’t have a chance to observe the exomoon candidate again
  • Scientists expect we can expect more unexpected finds like this.
  • It was discovered with an international study using a telescope technique, called gravitational microlensing, takes advantage of chance alignments between stars
  • When a foreground star passes between us and a more distant star, the closer star can act like a magnifying glass to focus and brighten the light of the more distant one
  • These brightening events usually last about a month
  • If the foreground star, or what astronomers refer to as the lens, has a planet circling around it, the planet will act as a second lens to brighten or dim the light even more
  • Free Floating Planets
  • Microlensing surveys have discovered dozens of exoplanets so far, in orbit around stars and free-floating
  • A previous NASA-funded study, also led by the MOA team, was the first to find strong evidence for planets the size of Jupiter roaming alone in space, presumably after they were kicked out of forming planetary systems
  • The new exomoon candidate, if real, would orbit one such free-floating planet.
  • The Object
  • By carefully scrutinizing these brightening events, astronomers can figure out the mass of the foreground star relative to its planet.
  • In the new study, the nature of the foreground, lensing object is not clear. The ratio of the larger body to its smaller companion is 2,000 to 1.
  • That means the pair could be either a small, faint star circled by a planet about 18 times the mass of Earth—or a planet more massive than Jupiter coupled with a moon weighing less than Earth
  • One possibility is for the lensing system to be a planet and its moon
  • A lower-mass pair closer to Earth will produce the same kind of brightening event as a more massive pair located farther away
  • Once a brightening event is over, it\’s very difficult to take additional measurements of the lensing system and determine the distance
    The true identity of the exomoon candidate and its companion, a system dubbed MOA-2011-BLG-262, will remain unknown
  • In The Future
  • Astronomers have no way of telling which of these two scenarios is correct, the answer to the mystery lies in learning the distance to the circling duo
  • In the future, it may be possible to obtain these distance measurements during lensing events
  • NASA\’s Spitzer and Kepler space telescopes, both of which revolve around the sun in Earth-trailing orbits, are far enough away from Earth to be great tools for the parallax-distance technique.
  • The basic principle of parallax can be explained by holding your finger out, closing one eye after the other, and watching your finger jump back and forth
  • A distant star, when viewed from two telescopes spaced really far apart, will also appear to move
  • When combined with a lensing event, the parallax effect alters how a telescope will view the resulting magnification of starlight
  • Though the technique works best using one telescope on Earth and one in space, such as Spitzer or Kepler, two ground-based telescopes on different sides of our planet can also be used
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube | MOA-2009-BLG-319b – Gravitational microlensing – iPad Exoplanet App | Hanno Rein
  • YouTube | Dark Jupiter Detection | TelescopeFeed
  • YouTube | Gravitational Microlensing | Kowch737
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Faraway moon or faint star? Possible exomoon found | Phys.org

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

International Space Station (ISS) Glitch

  • April 11
  • It was confirmed Friday night (April 11) that a backup computer on the exterior of the International Space Station (ISS) called a Multiplexer-Demultiplexer (MDM) was not responding to commands
  • The primary computer continued to work so the crew was safe and there were no “immediate” change to space station operations,
  • The failure was uncovered Friday “during a routine health check” of a box called EXT-2, which backs up a primary component that sits outside on the S0 truss (near the station’s center)
  • It was decided that tf the computer did need to be replaced, crew members of Expedition 39 would need to do at least one spacewalk
  • NASA is allowing contingency spacewalks in American spacesuits to go forward as the agency addresses problems raised in a report about a life-threatening spacesuit leak in July
  • Multiplexer-Demultiplexer (MDM)
  • This primary MDM not only controls a robotics mobile transporter, but also radiators and a joint to move the station’s solar arrays, among other things.
  • NASA needs to reposition the arrays when a vehicle approaches because plumes from the thrusters can put extra “loads” or electrical power on the system.
  • Luckily, the angle of the sun is such these days that the array can sit in the same spot for a while, at least two to three weeks
  • NASA configured the station so that even if the primary computer fails, the array will automatically position correctly
  • NASA also will move a mobile transporter on station today so that the station’s robotic arm is ready to grasp the Dragon when it arrives, meaning that even if the primary computer fails the transporter will be in the right spot
  • April 12
  • NASA began preparing a contingency spacewalk to deal with a broken backup computer component
  • April 13
  • NASA doesn’t want to go ahead with a space walk until spare spacesuit parts arrive, in the aftermath of a life-threatening suit leak that took place last summer.
  • Those parts are on board the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft
  • The Dragon is carrying a new spacesuit, components to fix an existing spacesuit, critical research experiments and food for the six crew members of Expedition 39.
  • If Dragon is delayed again, the next launch opportunity is April 18 and the spacewalk would be pushed back
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube | NASA and the International Space Station Help Show It\’s a Small World After all | NASA
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Backup Computer Glitches On Space Station But Crew Safe, NASA Says | UniverseToday.com
  • Failed Space Station Computer Spurs Contingency Spacewalk Plans | UniverseToday.com
  • Contingency Spacewalk Planned Next Week, But Dragon Must Arrive At Space Station First | UniverseToday.com

— VIEWER FEEDBACK —

Lunar Eclipses Tetrad

  • For people in the United States, a lunar eclipses tetrad is about to begin, when a series of 4 consecutive total eclipses occurring at approximately six month intervals
  • Check This Out | Lunar Eclipse Tetrad
  • Brian McCoskey, Nogal
  • Types of Lunar Eclipse
  • On average, lunar eclipses occur about twice a year, but not all of them are total. There are three types
  • Penumbral eclipse | The Moon passes through the pale outskirts of Earth’s shadow. It’s so subtle, sky watchers often don’t notice an eclipse is underway
  • Partial eclipse | Is more dramatic that a penumbral as the Moon dips into the core of Earth’s shadow, but not all the way, so only a fraction of Moon is darkened.
  • Total eclipse | The entire Moon is shadowed, is best of all. The face of the Moon turns sunset-red for up to an hour or more as the eclipse slowly unfolds.
  • Lunar Eclipse Tetrad
  • The total eclipse of April 15, 2014, will be followed by another on Oct. 8, 2014, and another on April 4, 2015, and another on Sept. 28 2015.
  • Usually, lunar eclipses come in no particular order
  • Occasionally, though, the sequence is more orderly. When four consecutive lunar eclipses are all total, the series is called a tetrad.
  • During the 21st century, there are 9 sets of tetrads so it is a frequent occurrence in the current pattern of lunar eclipses, although during the three hundred year interval from 1600 to 1900, for instance, there were no tetrads at all
  • The most unique thing about the 2014-2015 tetrad is that all of them are visible for all or parts of the USA
  • Why red?
  • Imagine yourself standing on a dusty lunar plain looking up at the sky. Overhead hangs Earth nightside down, completely hiding the sun behind it when the eclipse is underway
  • As you scan your eye around Earth\’s circumference, you\’re seeing every sunrise and every sunset in the world, all of them, all at once
  • This incredible light beams into the heart of Earth\’s shadow, filling it with a coppery glow and transforming the Moon into a great red orb.
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube | NASA | Understanding Lunar Eclipses | NASA Goddard
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • NASA Eclipse Web Site
  • A Tetrad of Lunar Eclipses – NASA Science | science.nasa.gov

— Updates —

Large Hadron Collider – Beginning of Startup

  • Scientists working at CERN\’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) facility has reported that the process of restarting the massive experimental mechanism has begun, though it won\’t finish until sometime next year
  • Last Time on SciByte …
  • The Shutdown | SciByte 82 | Meteorites & Asteroids | February 19, 2013
  • The Upgrade
  • The facility is in the process of an upgrade, which has been in the planning stages for several years and will include upgrades to several pieces and parts of the facility that support the LHC as well as the main accelerator itself
  • The team recognized that the facility had begun to suffer from diminishing returns and that many parts could be improved due to the development of new technology and improvements on old ways of doing things.
  • The collider will have to be restarted in pieces to ensure that each is operating properly before the next can be brought online
  • The team has successfully restarted the part they call the source, the piece of equipment responsible for stripping electrons off of hydrogen atoms for use in producing protons.
  • What\’s Next?
  • Team members have made much of the complete upgrade to the control system that integrates all of the systems and which of course will be central to a successful reboot.
  • The team plans to fire up Linac2, an accelerator whose job it is to give protons their initial push
  • After that a booster will be started that will be used to push the protons even faster, for the LHC to be used in its proper context, it must receive protons that are already moving exceedingly fast.
  • In addition to swapping out parts for new and improved technology, technicians will also be replacing worn cables or other minor but necessary components
  • If all goes well, the LHC should be ready and back in business sometime early 2015.
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube | CERN in 3 minutes CERN
  • Image |
  • Social Media
  • CERN @CERN
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • CERN Website
  • Large Hadron Collider team announces beginning of restart | Phys.org

— CURIOSITY UPDATE —

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

  • April 22, 1575 : 439 years ago : Surgery Book : The printing of Ambroise Paré\’s book Oeuvres Complètes (Complete Works) was finished, but its publication was opposed by establishment physicians. His previous texts on surgery had popularized a new way to treat gunshot wounds without cauterisation, reintroduced the ligature in amputation, and improved midwifery techniques. These many writings were gathered together in this one new volume, which spread his teachings throughout the world. It remained in print for a century and ran to thirteen editions. He wrote in French instead of Latin with practical, common sense so that many barber-surgeons, who (like Paré) were unable to interpret Latin, had access to medical knowledge otherwise unavailable from Latin texts
  • Ambroise Paré\’s was a French physician, one of the greatest surgeons of the European Renaissance, known as the \”father of modern surgery\” for his many innovations in operative methods. While an army surgeon, he introduced the method of treating wounds by ligature of arteries instead of cauterisation with red-hot irons or boiling oil. Paré also invented prostheses. \”Le Petit Lorrain\” was a hand, operated by springs and catches, for a French Army Captain, which he then used in battle. Paré also invented a kneeling peg leg and foot prosthesis. It had an adjustable harness, knee lock control, and other engineering features used today. He was surgeon to Henry II and his three successors. He wrote books on anatomy, surgery, plague, obstetrics, and deformities

Looking up this week

The post Paraplegic Therapy & Exomoon | SciByte 126 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> Higgs Bosons & Tough Materials | SciByte 25 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/14913/higgs-bosons-tough-materials/ Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:48:22 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=14913 We take a look at the breaking news on Higgs Bosons, materials tougher than diamonds, Hubble research hits a milestone, and some surpises from Science history!

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We take a look at the breaking news on Higgs Bosons, materials tougher than diamonds, inserting objects in pictures become more realistic, Hubble research hits a milestone, dinosaurs, talking parrots, down-loadable knowledge, information on the unbelievable Lunar eclipse we just had, a quick spacecraft update and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Support the Show:

[asa default]B001CWXAP2[/asa]

Higgs-Boson confirmation just around the corner?

Tougher than diamond?

*— NEWS BYTE — *

Tricking the eye in photographs

Scientific papers from Hubble hit a milestone

The North American “terrible (large) lizard”

Polly want an explanation for how parrots talk

  • The low down
  • Parrots have neither lips nor teeth, but that doesn’t stop them from producing dead-on imitations of human speech
  • Significance
  • Part of the reason is that, like humans, parrots use their tongues to form sounds
  • Scientists took x-ray movies of monk parakeets
  • Parrots use their mobile, muscular tongues to explore their environment and manipulate food
  • Those capable organs also help parrots utter greetings in words that even humans can understand.
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube VIDEO : X-ray movie of a vocalizing monk parakeet
  • Social Media
  • Twitter Results for [#]()
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • How Parrots Talk @ ScienceMag.org](https://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/12/scienceshot-how-parrots-talk.html?ref=hp)

Learning by the Matrix/Chuck way

  • The low down
  • Pictures gradually build up inside a person’s brain, appearing first as lines, edges, shapes, colors and motion in early visual areas
  • The brain then fills in greater detail
  • New research in the journal Science suggests it may be possible to use brain technology to learn to play a piano, reduce mental stress or hit a curve ball with little or no conscious effort
  • Significance
  • Researchers could use decoded functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to induce brain activity patterns to match a previously known target state and thereby improve performance on visual tasks
  • Think of a person watching a computer screen and have brain patterns modified to match those of a high-performing athlete or modified to recuperate from an accident or disease
  • This research is a novel learning approach sufficient to cause long-lasting improvement in tasks that require visual performance
  • None of these studies directly addressed the question of whether early visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning
  • * Of Note*
  • The approached worked even when test subjects were not aware of what they were learning
  • The decoded neurofeedback method might be used for various types of learning, including memory, motor and rehabilitation
  • On the flip side the neurofeedback mechanism could just as soon be used for purposes of hypnosis or covert mind control
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Learning high-performance tasks with no conscious effort may soon be possible (w/ video) @ Midical Xpress
  • Download Knowledge Directly to Your Brain, Matrix-Style @ PopSci
  • Scientists say they’re getting closer to Matrix-style instant learning @io9

Lunar eclipse, with a twist

SPACECRAFT UPDATE

DAWN Spacecraft reachest closts orbit to the asteroid Vesta

  • Vesta:
  • Discovered: March 29, 1807 by Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers of Germany (fourth asteroid discovered)
  • Dimensions: About 578 by 560 by 458 kilometers (359 by 348 by 285 miles)
  • Shape: Nearly spheroid, with a massive chunk out of the south pole
  • Rotation: Once every 5 hours, 20 minutes
  • About the length of Arizona, it appears to have a surface of basaltic rock – frozen lava – which oozed out of the asteroid’s presumably hot interior shortly after its formation 4.5 billion years ago, and has remained largely intact ever since.
  • DAWN:
  • Launch Date : Sep 27, 2007
  • Mission will go through through July 2015
  • Framing Camera (FC) : Scientific imaging system of the Dawn Mission to the two complementary protoplanets, 1 Ceres and 4 Vesta.
  • Visible & Infrared Spectrometer (VIR) : Accomplishes the Dawn mission’s scientific and measurement objectives of producing spectral images. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft successfully maneuvered into its closest orbit around the giant asteroid Vesta today
  • Gamma Ray and Neutron Spectrometer (GRaND) : Measures elemental abundances on the surface of Vesta and Ceres.
  • Gravity Science : The team utilizes the radio link used for communications and carefully observe the Doppler shift in the link’s carrier frequency (when received at ground stations) due to
    gravitational forces acting on the spacecraft center-of-mass in the environment of Vesta and Ceres.
  • Multimedia
  • DAWN Media Gallery @ NASA
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • NASA DAWN website
  • NASA DAWN website

SCIENCE CALENDER

Looking back

  • Dec 15 1612 – 399 years ago – A telescope meets the Andromedo galaxy : [Simon Marius](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Marius, namer of Jupiter’s 4 inner satellites, is first to observe Andromeda galaxy through a telescope. Andromeda is the nearest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way, but not the closest galaxy overall. The Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi wrote a tantalizing line about it in his Book of Fixed Stars around 964, describing it as a “small cloud”.
  • **Dec 14 1807 – 204 years ago – Meteorite gets scienced ** : In Weston, (now called Easton) Connecticut at 6:30 am, a meteorite was seen with an aparent size of 2/3 the size of the moon. Eyewitnesses reported three loud explosions, as it fell and broke apart to fall in at least six locations. This meteor became the first to fall in the New World to be documented, collected, and chemically analyzed and received much attention in the national and international press. The largest and only unbroken specimen weighing in at 36.5 pounds (16.5 kilograms) was recovered and made a hole 5 ft long and 4.5 ft wide (1.5 m long and 1.4 m wide) now resides within the oldest collection of meteorites in the United States. Out of the approximately 350 pounds of the meteorite that fell on the town of Weston, less than 50 pounds can now be accounted for. Yale Peabody Museum – Weston Meteorite
  • **Dec 17 1903 – 108 years ago – The Wright brother fly ** : In 1903, the first powered flight was achieved by the [Wright brothers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers#Flights in the Kitty Hawk, at Kill Devil Hill, North Carolina. That morning, the biting cold wind had a velocity of 22 to 27 miles an hour. As ten o’clock arrived, the Wrights decided, nevertheless, to get the machine out and attempt a flight. Orville Wright launched from a track, taking off into the wind. The aircraft covered 120 feet, aloft for 12 seconds. Thus for the first time, a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into the air in full flight, had sailed forward without reduction of speed and had finally landed at a point as high as that from which it started. First flight photo

Looking up this week

  • You might have seen …
  • On Dec. 8th, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observed an unusual event on the sun: An erupting cloud of plasma was eclipsed by a dark magnetic filament. VIDEO By studying how the light of the explosion is filtered by the foreground material, SDO mission scientists might be able to learn something new about dark filaments on the sun.
  • Keep an eye out for …>
  • Wed, Dec 14 : Orion is up in the east-southeast after dinnertime, and higher in the southeast later in the evening. IMAGE
  • Thurs, Dec 15 : The Moon has a bright companion as it rises late this evening: Regulus, the brightest star of Leo, the lion, sits to it’s upper left.
  • Fri, Dec 16 : Mars is close to the upper left of the Moon as they climb into view after midnight, and looks like a bright star.
  • Sat, Dec 17 : Last-quarter moon. Above it around midnight is Mars
  • More on whats in the sky this week
  • Sky&Telescope
  • AstronomyNow<
  • SpaceWeather.com
  • HeavensAbove
  • StarDate.org

The post Higgs Bosons & Tough Materials | SciByte 25 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> Large Hadron Collider | SciByte 8 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/10433/large-hadron-collider-scibyte-8/ Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:26:01 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=10433 We take a look at Large Hadron Collider, what it is, what it’s doing and how it’s doing it.

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This week on SciByte …
We take a look at Large Hadron Collider, what it is, what it’s doing and how it’s doing it. Plus we take a peek at science behind the curtain of the Universe at some the smallest elements and more basic interactions that makes everything we know and see tick.

All that and more, on SciByte!

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Disclaimer!

Some of today’s episode will talk a little about particle physics, what we will cover is going to be a more broad spectrum quick look. Just giving enough of a glance at it so that looking at the research going on at the LHC will mean a little bit more. Feel free to research these topics more on your own or request that we go into it a bit more on a future SciByte and as always we’ll tell you more about how to do that at the end of the episode.

What IS The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in a nutshell?
  • It is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator.
  • It is expected to address some of the most fundamental questions of physics, advancing the understanding of the deepest laws of nature.
What does that mean and how does it do it?
  • What kind of particles are the experiments at the LHC looking at?
  • How does the LHC accelerate particles to produce the collisions that the experiments look at?
  • What are the components, dangers and basics of the LHC?
  • To get a better idea of what all of this actually means we’ll start by taking a quick look at the basic elements of the universe and what forces cause them and everything in the universe to interact.
We’ll start with The Standard Model Theory

Everything in the Universe is found to be made from basic building blocks called fundamental particles, governed by four fundamental forces.

What are those Four Fundamental Interactions of Nature ?
  • From the strongest to the weakest … Strong, Electromagnetic, Weak, Gravity
  • Strong Nuclear Force – Strong force carrier are gluons, they acts on quarks and act as the glue to hold them together to create neutrons and protons and the residual force holds nucleus together. About 100x stronger than the electromagnetic force, but the range is limited to about the size of a proton.
  • Electromagnetism – Electromagnetic force carrier is a photon and acts on charged particles and is responsible for propagation of light, and gives a magnet the ability to pick up a paperclip
  • Weak – Exchange particles of weak are the ‘w’ ‘z’ bozon and and explains the energy production of the sun and radioactive beta decay
  • Gravity – Assumed that since the other three forces have force carriers gravity does to, called the graviton. Gravitational force is a natural phenomenon by which physical bodies attract with a force proportional to their mass. [ If the graviton does exists, it must be massless (because the gravitational force has unlimited range) ]
That poses an interesting thought …
  • If electrons had a different mass, then electromagnetic field would be a different size, and therefore all matter would be a different size.
What are those ‘basic components’ of the Universe?
  • Some of these were mentioned talking about the fundamental interactions
  • Start off looking at the elements VIDEO
  • All ~118 elements were made of Electrons, Protons and Neutrons VIDEO
  • Beginning of the 20th century we found many other particles from cosmic rays, energetic charged subatomic particles, originating from outer space VIDEO
  • They started to organize these particles by : spin, charge, mass, and lifetime (how long till they decay into simpler particles) VIDEO
  • To simplify this picture, quarks were predicted VIDEO
  • Six quarks were predicted, then discovered; bringing confidence to the model
  • Boils down to basically Quarks, Bosons and Leptons [Electrons, Muons, Tau]
So what ARE Quarks ?
  • They are elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter that you can’t see directly, they and they have some unusual properties,
  • They make up and are permanently trapped inside other particles like neutrons and protons.
  • Six types / flavors that come in pairs [Up/Down ; Charm/Strange ; Top/Bottom] : only UP/DOWN are stable and make up all ‘normal’ matter
  • You can’t bring them out individually to study them, only be found within hadrons
Hadron … like in Large Hadron Collider? … what are they?
  • Things made up of Quarks (including protons, neutrons) and are composite particle that scientist call Hadrons. There are many theorized types of Hadrons but most exist only very briefly.
  • The best known Hadrons are protons and neutrons and excludes leptons and photons
  • Made of Quarks and held together by the strong nuclear force (while atoms and molecules are held together by the electromagnetic force) and categorized into two families
    • Baryon [ made of 3 quarks ]
    • Mesons [ one quark and anti-quark ]
Do these exotic particles exist anywhere outside of physics experiments?
  • They existed right after the Big Bang, and occur in cosmic-ray events when they strike atomic nuclei in the earth’s atmosphere, these rare particles can be produced.
The problem with the Standard model …
  • It does not explain everything.
  • Gravity is not fully explained in the Standard Model, instead it predicts (but we have not observed) the Higgs-Boson
So what is the Higgs-Boson Theory ?
  • Predicted for ~40 years
  • Permeates all of space acting like sticky bits that put a drag on other particles
  • Interact with all particle except for photon, graviton, and gluons
    • gravitons – undiscovered/theoretical force carriers for gravity
  • To detect a Higgs Boson in a lab; we must create a real one. We do this firing particles and anti-particle together, out of the collision can look for decay products that would indicate Higgs-Boson
Collisions? … that brings us to the Large Hadron Collider
Large Hadron Collider
  • Looking beyond the Standard Model (dark matter, extra dimensions, … ) VIDEO
  • What Hadron’s are used? : mostly lead ions (lead atoms stripped of electrons)
  • Underground, below the border of Switzerland and France
The Large Hadron Collider – Basic Stats
  • Circumference : ~ 17mi / 27 km
  • Diameter : ~ 5mi / 8km
  • Depth : roughly the height of a 42 story office building [ 175 m / 574 feet ]
  • Magnets : 9300 throughout the facility
  • Power : 120 MW [~roughly 5000 avg American homes] [ ~all the homes in Canton, Geneva]
  • Cryogenics : ⅛ of the total system would qualify as the worlds largest refrigerator
  • Operates at temperatures [1.9 K] even lower than outer space! [2.7 K]
  • Temperatures Generated : more than 100,000 times hotter than the heart of the Sun [when two beams of protons collide, concentrated within a minuscule space]
  • Pressure : 10 times less than the pressure on the surface of the Moon [internal pressure of the LHC is 10-13 atm]
Why Underground?
  • Cheaper to excavate a tunnel than to acquire the land to build on the surface, impact on landscape is reduced to a minimum. It also had to be at least 5m below the top ‘molasse’ green sandstone stratum
  • The moons tidal variations have to be taken into account then beams are injected into the collider
  • Between new Moon and full Moon the Earths crust rises by slightly more than the width of notebook paper [9.8in/25cm] in Geneva, causes a variation of diameter of a pinhead [1mm] in the circumference of the LHC
  • The Earth’s crust also provides good shielding for radiation.
LHC is not a perfect circle
  • made of 8 arcs and 8 straight intersections
  • Each arc contain 154 dipole ‘bending’ magnets
  • Each Intersection consists of a long straight section
LHC Vacuum
  • Insulation vacuum for the Cryomagnets
  • Insulation vacuum for the Helium distribution line
  • Beam Vacuum is kept at about 10x lower than on the Moon to avoid collisions with gas molecules
LHC Magnets
  • Total of about 9600 magnets
  • Contains about 10000 t of iron, that’s more iron than in the Eiffel Tower
  • LHC Dipole magnets are superconducting electromagnets, use niobium-titanium cables
  • dipole VIDEO : 1232; quadrupole VIDEO : 392; sextupole; octupoles; decapoles
  • Magnet Coils are wound from cable made up of 36 twisted 0.6in/15mm strands, each strand is made up of 6000-9000 filaments. These filaments can have diameters 10 x thinner than a normal human hair [as small as 7 micrometers]
  • Total strands for the LHC would circle the Earth 6x at the equator [270,000km]
  • Total Filaments, if unravelled, would stretch to the Sun and back 6x, with leftover for about 150 trips to the moon
The Large Hadron Collider() ( L.H.C ) Acceleration Video
  • Hydrogen atoms are fed into a linear accelerator at a precise rate.
  • The Hydrogen electrons are stripped off leaving hydrogen nuclei, protons in a strong magnetic field which accelerates the protons to 1/3 the speed of light
    • low pressure hydrogen in a sealed container with a couple of electrodes in it, then apply a high enough voltage difference betweeen the electrodes the hydrogen becomes ionised. This means the electrons are stripped away from the hydrogen atoms leaving bare protons. This is what happens in fluorescent lights.
  • Protons now enter a booster section, where it’s divided into 4 rings 0.6% of the LHC [515feet/157m] in circumference and accelerated with a pulsating electric field and kept bent with a magnetic field. The booster accelerates the protons to 91.6% the speed of light and squeezes them together
  • The 4 packets are re-combined and passed into the Proton Synchrotron, which is [4x larger than the booster/2% of the LHC] in circumference [2060feet/628m] which they travel in 1.2 seconds [99.9% speed of light] Now additional energy can’t add velocity, it instead manifests as increased mass, which translates to 25 times the resting mass of the protons
  • Now channeled into the Super Proton Synchrotron which is about [11x larger than the Proton Synchrotron/25% of the LHC] in circumference [7km/22965ft] and adds additional energy to the protons. Readying them to enter the Large Hadron Collider
  • LHC ( 27km / 88582 feet in circumference). It houses two vacuum pipes for protons traveling in opposite directions The opposing beans cross in four detector caverns where they can collide
  • The LHC adds extra energy from pulsed electric fields to the protons which now travel around the 27km/88582feet 11,000 times per second. The protons are now 7000 times heavier than they were at rest. Steering magnets bring them to collide
LHC Data
  • 150 million sensors deliver data 40 mill times per second, filtered to about 100 collisions of interest per second
  • Sampling Rate Capacity: sample / record the results of up to 600 million proton collisions per second
  • Data from all four experiments : 700 MB/s, ~= 15,000,000 GB / year (15 PB)
  • Data Recorded by each of the big experiments at the LHC will fill around 100 000 dual layer DVDs every year
  • Data from all 4 experiments would will a stack of CD’s 12.4mi/20km tall
Before we get to the LHC Energies involved, what units are involved and what to they mean?
  • TeV – teraelectronvolt : The amount of kinetic energy gained by a single unbound electron when it accelerates through an electric potential difference of one volt
  • 1 TeV = 1.602×10^-7 J = 0.0000001602 J
  • Watt is a J/sec [W = J/s] & conversely a Joule is a Watt*sec [ J = Ws ]
A TeV EXAMPLE : How long would a TeV light a a 60Watt bulb ?
  • 1TeV = [ 1.602×10^-7 J ] = [ 60W ] * [sec]
  • [ 1.602×10^-7 J ] / [ 60W ] = [sec]
  • 2.67 nano seconds = 0.00000000268 seconds`
LHC Energies
  • Each proton flying around the LHC has 7 TeV, which has the energy to light a 60W bulb for 18.69 nano seconds [0.00000001869 seconds]
  • When you clap your hands, you probably do a ‘collision’ at an energy higher than that, but much less concentrated.
  • 1 TeV is about the energy of a flying mosquito, the LHC is extraordinary for the ability to squeeze that energy into a space a million million times smaller
  • Total energy in each beam at max speed [350 MJ] is about the same as a 400 ton train travelling at 93 mi/h [150 km/h]
Is the LHC Dangerous?
  • Has the Large Hadron Collider Destroyed the World Yet.com
  • Cosmic Rays have been bombarding the Earth, moon, Jupiter, Sun, … since our formation with no known affect, and in much larger numbers than the LHC will produce
  • Mini Big-Bangs? : at the very small scale, the energy concentration does represent the energy density just moments after the Big Bang; the TOTAL energy is produced by these collisions is still very low
  • LHC Black Hole? : Black holes are created by collapsing massive stars which contain enormous amounts of gravitational energy. Any microscopic black holes created by the LHC would be so microscopic that they could not interact with surrounding matter. In addition theories suggest that microscopic black holes would only exist for a few fleeting moments before they would evaporate and disappear.
  • Radiation : Studies have shown that radioactivity released in the air contributes to an dose to the public such that 10 years of ‘exposure’ gives about the same as 1 round trip from Europe to Los Angeles produces and is 240 times less per year than an average year in Switzerland.
It’s a particle accelerator … but what does that mean?
  • A particle accelerator is a device that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to high speeds and to contain them in well-defined beams.
LHC Beams
  • Might circulate for 10 hours, travelling the distance to get to Neptune and back again
  • Protons at full energy travel at 0.999999991 times the speed of light, and circles the 16.8mi / 27km ring 11,245 every second
  • Only 2 nanograms of Hydrogen are accelerated / day … at that rate it would take ~ 1 million years to accelerate 1 gram of Hydrogen
Is it like smashing an apple and an orange together and getting bananas?
  • Not really, it’s more like getting a whole bunch of apple and orange pieces, and also chips of banana and antibanana, grapes…
How does the LHC see particles?
  • For each collision, scientists count, track particles
  • If the detector is in magnetic field, the charge of a particle will be which way it bends, and the momentum ( mass x velocity ) can be determined based on the path of travel [high momentum particles travel in almost straight lines while low momentum particles make tight spirals]
– Main LHC Detectors –
ALICE – A Large Ion Collider Experiment
  • Produces ~100Mb/s during proton-proton run; 1/25 GM/s during heavy-ion run of data
  • Specializes in analysing lead-ion collisions
  • Studies properties of quark-gluon plasma [when quarks and gluons are no longer confined in hadrons/Lead-ions] Quark-gluon plasma probably existed just after the Big Bang
ATLAS – AToroidal LHC ApparatuS
  • Produces about 320 MB/s of data
  • General-purpose detector designed to cover the widest range of physics possible
  • The largest-volume collider-detector ever constructed
  • Searches for everything from the Higgs boson to supersymmetry and extra dimensions
    Consists of 8 25-m long superconducting magnet coils
CMS – Compact Muon Solenoid
  • Produces about 300 MB/s of data
  • General-purpose detector like ATLAS, but with different tech and design
  • Built around a huge superconducting solenoid
  • Can generate a magnetic field about 100,000 times that of the Earth
LHCb – Large Hadron Collider beauty
  • Produces about 50 MB/s of data
  • Studies asymmetry between matter and anti-matter
  • Uses a series of sub-detectors to detect mainly forward particles
– Additional LHC Detectors –
LHCf – Large Hadron Collider forward
  • Small experiment to measure particles produced close to the direction of the beams in proton-proton collisions
  • Testing models used to estimate energy of ultra high energy cosmic rays
TOTEM – TOTal Elastic and diffractive cross section Measurement
  • Measure effective size / cross section of proton
  • Detects particles produced close to the LHC beams
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