Fermilab falls to No. 2

Discussion in 'Science and Technology' started by Jeri, Dec 2, 2009.

  1. Jeri

    Jeri Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 20, 2001
    Location:
    Chicago, Illinois, USA
    This appeared in our local paper today, because it's just up the road from us. We've been knowing this was coming for a long time, of course; but I'm wondering what it really means. Is CERN going to be the top facility for the next 30 years or are we going to get something going again here?

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    Fermilab falls to No. 2

    December 1, 2009
    By PAUL DAILING pdailing@scn1.com

    (Batavia, IL) After nearly 30 years at the top of the particle physics dogpile, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory lab has been passed.

    Freak explosions, failing magnets, baguette-dropping pigeons and the other bizarre, real-life problems that hit Europe's Large Hadron Collider delayed, but could not prevent Monday, the day Fermilab's accelerator dropped to second place.

    Early Monday morning in Switzerland (or around 5 p.m. Sunday locally), the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN lab on the French-Swiss border pushed past Fermilab's Tevatron, becoming the world's most powerful collider.

    "It's a mixed feeling of course for us," Fermilab spokesman Kurt Riesselmann said. "On one hand, we don't hold the world record any more. But on the other hand many, many of our scientists were involved in this."

    Fermilab's accelerator topped out at 0.98 TeV, or just under one trillion electron-volts.

    One TeV is roughly the energy of motion of a flying mosquito, which might not sound like much. But taking that energy, concentrating it into a hairline beam of subatomic particles and accelerating that beam to near the speed of light is an amazing scientific feat.

    And until last week, 0.98 TeV was the world record.

    "Last night, CERN pushed the energy of the CERN accelerator for the first time past that," Riesselmann said Monday.
    CERN hit 1.18 TeV and has been inching up since... (cont.)

     
  2. Marc

    Marc Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    Location:
    Shinning Waters
    Hmm were they really freak accidents are the LHC or was it Fermilabs trying to keep the number 1 spot - conspiracy theorists want to know :D
     
  3. Jeri

    Jeri Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 20, 2001
    Location:
    Chicago, Illinois, USA
    We have some tremendously sneaky pigeons here. ;)
     
  4. Hofner

    Hofner Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    May 8, 2003
    Location:
    Charlotte, NC
    Eh, Fermilab had a nice long reign, I'm happy to see the LHC take over. I used to live in St. Charles and worked at the Naperville Amoco Research Center so I used to drive by Fermilab a lot on the way to and from work. I applied for a job at Fermilab but ended up with the Amoco Research Center.

    Robert