CERN scientists want India, Russia and China to fund the next particle smasher

[EnterTheVoid]

Go CERN Go

Scientists behind the European atom smasher aimed at uncovering the secrets of the universe don't want to stop there - they want to build an even bigger machine with partners and funds from around the world. Scientists from CERN, a particle physics laboratory outside Geneva, will detail their ambitions at a conference in Paris 9pm (AEST) on Monday. They are reaching out to China, India and Russia to help fund the next 10 billion euro ($A14.4 billion) step of the project, according to Guy Wormser, a leading particle physicist and one of the conference organisers. Instead of whirling atoms in giant rings, as CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the smaller Tevatron at Fermilab near Chicago do, scientists want a new-generation machine that will shoot them straight. The new machine would be a successor to the $US10 billion ($A11.17 billion) LHC, which was launched with great fanfare in September 2008, but days later was sidetracked by overheating that set off a chain of problems. CERN had to undertake a $US40 million ($A44.69 million) program of repairs and improvements before restarting the machine last November. Since then the collider has reported a series of successes. In March it saw the first collisions of two proton beams. Plans for the next step, a 50km tunnel called the International Linear Collider, have long been under discussion, and scientists now need to find funding, Wormser said. They hope the machine could be turned on in 2020 or 2025. With the LHC "we made a machine which allowed us to make a big leap in understanding, a sort of enlightener, and now we study and detail things and that's the linear collider", Wormser told The Associated Press. "It's the future of our discipline." Instead of crashing protons together, the new international collider will accelerate electrons and positrons, their antimatter equivalent, he said. Depending on who wants to host it - and how much they are willing to pay - the ILC could potentially be built anywhere in the world, he said. The experiments of both machines are more about shaping our understanding of how the universe was created than immediate improvements to technology in our daily lives. Scientists are attempting to simulate the moments after the Big Bang nearly 14 billion years ago, which they theorise was the creation of the universe. In March, the LHC produced a tiny bang, the most potent force on the tiny atomic level that humans have ever created. Two beams of protons were sent hurtling in opposite directions toward each other in a 27km tunnel below the Swiss-French border - the coldest place in the universe at slightly above absolute zero. CERN, or the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, used powerful superconducting magnets to force the two beams to cross; two of the protons collided, producing 7 trillion electron volts. The latest results of those experiments will be presented at the International Conference on High Energy Physics, which is bringing 1,000 physicists to Paris from July 22 to 28.

Link: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=7934991

[Clarke]

China funding them ? What the chinese will do is get some details on the current smasher on pretext of studying their investment, have a photochor (the likes of AQ Khan) send them copies of technical details and next up, they'll build a replica in China and claim that it is fully indigenous :haha: Just why would anyone invest in a venture that takes more than a decade to materialize and much more time to give any worthwhile results ? U never know how relations with other nations will work out in that period of time.

[THX_1138]

I think this is a fantastic idea. I worked on CERN related research from January 2008 till this past summer. During this period, i had the good fortune of working along side some of the greatest minds alive at the moment. CERN might seem without much application, but the conglomerate of scientists who work at CERN are reason enough to invest in such a venture. Maybe if we can swing it, build it in India, probably near Simla, though i doubt its possible since that is a seismically active zone. Nevertheless, if we can somehow attract ten thousand odd scientists and engineers from around the world in a single place in india, it would be absolutely revolutionary. I am all for it.

[EnterTheVoid]

I think this is a fantastic idea. I worked on CERN related research from January 2008 till this past summer. During this period' date= i had the good fortune of working along side some of the greatest minds alive at the moment. CERN might seem without much application, but the conglomerate of scientists who work at CERN are reason enough to invest in such a venture. Maybe if we can swing it, build it in India, probably near Simla, though i doubt its possible since that is a seismically active zone. Nevertheless, if we can somehow attract ten thousand odd scientists and engineers from around the world in a single place in india, it would be absolutely revolutionary. I am all for it.

Interesting. Could you please elaborate ?