LHC suit dismissed. Also: sun rises

As has been discussed ad nauseum, there has been a suit filed in the Hawaii U.S. District court aiming to stop the Large Hadron Collider from starting operation, on the grounds that it might destroy the world. In a development that will shock no one (and I suspect that includes the plaintiffs) that suit has [...]

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Metal-eating bacteria vs. the Tevatron, the next Hollywood blockbuster

I’m currently in San Diego to attend my cousin’s wedding. (It’s going to be held at the Wild Animal Park, so yeah, she’s pretty cool.)
On the plane ride here I was scribbling down some ideas on how to explain Higgs physics (more on that later) when the guy next to me asks, “Are you from [...]

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The Atom Smashers

Recently I attended the opening of The Atom Smashers, a documentary by Clayton Brown and Monica Long Ross from 137 Films. It was held, appropriately, at the Museum of Science and Industry. Unfortunately, this had the effect of providing us with what is probably the smallest screen in the city of Chicago. That can easily [...]

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Physicists, more threatening than bobcats

According to Stephen Colbert physicists are more threatening than bobcats. The most refreshing part is that the threat was that one of the physicists violated the geek-code by confusing Star Wars with Star Trek. Unlike black holes, such a non-nerdy physicist really is a threat to all life on Earth.
I’m also surprised that threat #1 [...]

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Talking of spin-offs

On of the justifications for building a massive project like the Large Hadron Collider is that it has the possibility of producing new technologies as spin-offs. A good example is that the World Wide Web was developed at CERN, or that accelerator technology is routinely used to treat and find new cures for cancer.
Since I’ve [...]

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Newsflash: The LHC won’t find evidence for evolution

It seems that, despite it’s successful test, the Large Hadron Collider won’t find any evidence for evolution. Apparently they haven’t heard about the possibility of producing dragons.
Via Ed Brayton, who points out that that site is the news outlet of the American Family Association, which helps to explain the, shall we say, “intellectual content” in [...]

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Here be dragons

So, there’s a shiny new hadron collider in Geneva, and not only is it large, it works! The next step, of course, is for it to make all kinds of spectacular discoveries about the fundamental structure of matter. All across the blogosphere people are putting forth their predictions for what the Large Hadron Collider will [...]

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Happy birthday to me!

It’s my birthday today, and as a present to me the Large Hadron Collider will be turned on tomorrow. Thanks, International Community!
The History channel is joining in the celebration by broadcasting a special documentary on the LHC. David E. Kaplan, the host of the special, explains why you should watch it.
(While I’m on the subject, [...]

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It’s deja-boom all over again

Wow, I thought the worry that the LHC might destroy the world was amusing, like most predictions of the end of the world. It turns out people have been sending actual death threats to LHC researchers.
The annoying part of this is that just a couple people (who Mark correctly identifies as crackpots) have managed to [...]

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Evidence of absence is not absence of parties

Even if the LHC won’t destroy the world, that’s no reason to not have an end of the world party!
Hat tip to Blake Stacey.

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