The Black Hand Of Dr Cern

Not a 50's B movie, but the latest Press Release from the biggest black hole on the planet, sucking up an astronomical $10 billion and ready for more, (gulp) dollars. What an appetite! Even now it's going after spare change. $10 million a month from the U.S. alone. When will it end? Is any sofa safe from the Black Hand of Dr Cern?

Of course it says it doesn't want your money. This monster Collider has some self-respect. It sends out Press Releases, like this one, all nice and cosy from September 5th, "CERN reinterates safety on eve of first beam" like on a snowy winter's eve with a baby first beam, http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2008/PR07.08E.html

"A report published today . . ." it says " . . . provides comprehensive evidence that safety fears about the Large Hadron Collider are unfounded."

Comprehensive, no. Stuff not considered, lots.
Evidence, no. Theories, yes.
And which report?

Well the one the news stories based on this Press Release are trumpeting as though this was a new safety study just released. An assumption made by journalists too busy to read the CERN Press Release under a microscope. Here is what they mistakenly wrote about shortly after seeing the new CERN Press Release:

"A new report . . ." http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080904220342.htm

"A new report . . ." http://www.universetoday.com/2008/09/05/new-report-lhc-switch-on-fears-are-completely-unfounded/

"A new report . . ." http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-09/iop-lsf090408.php

"A new report . . ." http://www.physorg.com/news139810863.html

"A new report . . ." http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/544021/?sc=rssn

"A new report . . ." http://www.newkerala.com/fs/b/ai-1621.htm

"a new report . . ." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/09/05/scilhc105.xml

Burried at the bottom is the old LHC Safety Assesment Group (LSAG) report from June, though still not identified as the subject of this Press Release. CERN's PR Machine is so good it could publish the Geneva phonebook as a safety report and it would still make headlines, No One Dead Yet, Claims CERN in a New Geneva Safety Report.

One safety study flows into another without being named and instead of four CERN physicists and one Russian who wrote the June LSAG report, it's "The report (still un-named) was prepared by a group of scientists at CERN, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences." There is no one from the University of California, Santa Barbara that contributed, no groups except the CERN group and one Russian. Yes there is a scientist from UCSB, but he contributed to a different paper, "Astronomical Implications of Hypothetical Stable TeV-Scale Black Holes" and that report was done by a group of two, the UCSB guy and a CERN scientist.

The other safety reports are not exactly numerous, only one other LSAG report from 2003, CERN's first on the subject, based on the earlier RHIC safety report for a small low power U.S. collider in reply to Dr Walter Wagner's concern that micro black holes might be produced at the Relatavistic Heavy Ion Collider in Long Island, the 2003 LSAG report now the basis of the June 2008 update, the last update, the presumed subject of the CERN Press Release.

A few words later, "The papers comprising the report . . ." What report? What papers? Why not list all these papers and reports and provide hot links? Isn't this relevant in a Press Release? Or is CERN planning to send journalists Ask CERN Virtual Crystal Balls?

The only 2008 safety report was a single 15 page document undated, with one addendum of 11 pages, the total LSAG report. There was another much thicker report by two scientists on mBH, one from CERN, that was used to buttress the mBH section of the 2008 LSAG report. Those are all the papers, all the reports on safety this year from CERN. No doubt the whole kit and caboodle was presented to the CERN Scientific Policy Committee (SPC) of 20 unnamed scientists who CERN says are independent of CERN. If they pay for parking that settles it. Five out of 20 studied in depth "the 2008 report" meaning what report exactly? OK, say it was all they had, "and endorsed the authors' approach of basing their arguments on irrefutable observational evidence . . ." in the 2 documents submitted, the LSAG 2008 report, 15 plus 11 pages, and the GM Black Holes 2008 paper of 97 pages, finally clear from a read of the 5 page "SPC Report On LSAG Documents".

All this Press Release blather about 2 documents, previously published in June, previously reviewed in an undated SPC Report, the arcane subject of an September Press Release.

Go back a bit to the 5 page SPC Report. If the Press Release is a labyrinth, who claims the straight and narrow "irrefutable observational evidence"? What "irrefutable observational evidence to conclude that new particles produced at the LHC will pose no danger." These new particles have never been observed by CERN or anyone else. There is no evidence, only theories. But the SPC Report makes it clear that they weren't observing "new particles", but "irrefutable observational data on cosmic rays and on astronomical bodies". For journalists who aren't physicists what are they supposed to think? Don't worry about "new particles", we have observational evidence? We have observed these "new particles"? We saw them yesterday?

"The full SPC unanamously agreed with their findings." But why didn't the other 15 of the full SPC 20 study "in detail" the so-called report? Are they that busy, that the safety of CERN itself and their people and Geneva, isn't worth the full particpation of even one CERN hosted committee? But they all unanimously agreed with the select five and each other, perhaps on the very fate of the planet. 20 men decide for us all. The Black Hand Of Dr Cern won't let go of this Collider. It's mine mine mine! hisses Dr Cern, but we never see his face, only the blasted black hand groping for change.

On To September 10th And The Other LHC Machine: The CERN PR Department

The First Beam injection is an important test of LHC engineering. A single low power proton beam is going to circulate through the main 17 mile ring. It's not dangerous like some critics in the media are suggesting, with over-the-top headlines, The BBC calling it "Big Bang Day" for their live radio coverage on BBC FOUR.

Ordinarily CERN would be cringing at misinformed media hype. But it also plays 2 ways. A successful first test cancels fears that the collider is dangerous. Reacting to the media hype some other media outlets are making fun of the dangers, especially in Europe, a nice PR bonus for the machine.

CERN is turning this easy September 10th test into a bigtop LHC media circus, the perfectly safe collider. Hundreds of journalists will be on site for the thrilling 1/15 of normal operating energies single beam, 1/30 of eventual combined energies. The big CERN Dome will be the real hot spot, with all the collider action in up and down and side to side near-collisions of piled high plates from the giant free all day all you can eat buffet, if CERN doesn't forget to call the caterer. Warning, journalists are a grumpy hungry lot. Don't tell them to eat at the cafeteria. They could destroy it! If all goes well at the buffet, a bonanza of headlines the next day, Surprise, It's Not the End of the World. Not even close. Take your cue from Fermilab's own same day LHC Pajama Party, http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64412.html?wlc=1220824563

CERN's direct competion is Fermilab's Tevatron collider, steady since the start of Run II at 0.90 TeV per beam or half the LHC First Beam attempt at 0.45 TeV. Still those small numbers are in Trillion electron Volts, enough to burn down the CERN Dome, easy, its only low-tech wood, but it is the media center for the day, so watch where you point that thing.

Still in the hunt for the Higgs, the Tevatron's in a last ditch attempt to beat the LHC. Due to run through to 2010 before being scrapped thanks to a recent financial bailout, $5 million from an anonymous donor and more cash this year from the U.S. Government's deep pockets or at least some loose change behind cushions in Washington, the venerable Tevatron has an extra year or two of life.

Way back when CERN's LEP collider was looking for the Higgs in its last days of 1999-2000, before 40,000 tonnes of it was hoisted away to make way for the LHC, CERN optimized and then pushed the LEP beyond its design energies. http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=higgs-wont-fly

There was even a call to wait on demolition and press ahead with the LEP due to some tantalizing last minute results. They weren't heeded and for 8 years CERN has been in a vacuum doing no physics since then. Physicists at CERN have been understandably restless for years and now more so with the Tevatron still blazing. Another (unexpected) 'doubly strange' particle discovered a few days ago with energies higher this year and data optimized to the max, http://www.physorg.com/news139673506.html

Taking its cue from the old LEP do-or-die experiment, current Tevatron energy is 0.98022 TeV per beam, http://www-bd.fnal.gov/notifyservlet/www?project=outside the Higgs maybe a few more GeV down the road. Let's hope the old collider can take it. http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=fermilab-says-hey-wait-were-in-the-2008-08-08

With the Higgs in Fermilab's pocket, the LHC, ostensibly built to find the mother of all particles, might be a $10 billion irony, just another lonely financial black hole. CERN would definitely disagree. I'll make it easy for them here, since they don't bother responding to my blog articles or to my letters to the LSAG about potential hazards not analyzed by LSAG reports, like bosenova implosion/explosion from quantum state helium-4, or helium-3 produced by LHC ionization of helium-4, first proposed by me in a ScientificBlogging article, http://www.scientificblogging.com/big_science_gambles/superfluids_becs_and_bosenovas_the_ultimate_experiment
and now a part of the European Court of Human Rights suit on LHC safety; or thermonuclear fusion of this helium-3 also first proposed by me in The Science of Conundrums, http://bigsciencenews.blogspot.com/2008/03/almost-thermonuclear-lhc.html

CERN absolutely disagrees with everybody out there who hasn't got a CERN badge. Of course critical internal CERN Intranet emails are taken seriously before they are bounced into the not fully tested LHC thousand tonne beam dumps, where they've been known to smoke some graphite into methane, but don't tell anyone. It's top secret!

CERN has said there is other new physics out there as do collider happy physicists everywhere, maybe extra String theory dimensions and then oops micro black holes that oops might merge into a bigger mBH that might start accreting mass at 17,000 tonnes a year that might radiate some nuclear energy that might destroy Switzerland and might go on destroying the planet until it is destroyed, or so says a physicist, Dr Rainer Plaga, http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0808/0808.1415v1.pdf whom CERN has dismissed with an admirably quick but short 2 page argument printed on 4 pages, http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0808/0808.4087v1.pdf Plaga's paper on metastable quantum black holes is only theoretical, but can we relax when CERN's counter-arguments, all its safety studies are also all based on theories?

In the final analysis, the only practical analysis, CERN's implied LHC safety rests on one point rattling around somewhere behind their theories: So far no major threats have been found in the operation of tiny colliders using low energies.

For now it's theories versus theories, smoke and mirrors, from both sides of the question: Is The LHC Safe? Later this October with a big do-or-die totally unnecessary quantum jump in energy to the first LHC 5 TeV beam, way way more powerful than any collider's on the planet, that might all change.

Professor Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith of CERN says: "In any case, they will only send the hadrons in one direction this week. The collisions start in October. Until then, at least, we're not all doomed." Or last chance to visit Geneva or buy a Rolex. Quote from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-large-hadron-collider-end-of-the-world-or-gods-own-particle-921540.html

No, not the end September 10th, of the end of the world debate, maybe equipment failure, collider damage or something more surprising. Like basic nuclear physics they don't know about or maybe dismissed at the water cooler because everyone had another meeting on parking lot passes, the next big ski-weekend or New Dimensions in String Theory. (For the demonstration, please bring your own string and sharp scissors are recommended.)

If the LHC survives, then the first 10 TeV proton collisions later this year will be something to watch on the BBC's New and Improved Big Bang Day broadcast. Add a Rock Concert from the CERN Dome, for backgound music and intercutting into the boring bits. Hey Dr Brian Cox, Rock your Collider!

Let's have this one live on TV worldwide, or maybe Google Earth can get their just launched satellite cameras callibrated in time. About 500 miles up, Google Eye should be safe. Hope the DVD Live At The Collider makes it outta there. Might be the collector's item.


For News on the current LHC prep steps leading up to September 10th, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article4692222.ece

The Media Circus Program September 10th,
http://lhc-first-beam.web.cern.ch/lhc-first-beam/practical.html#techinfo

Fear And Loathing At The LHC,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/09/05/scilhc105.xml

In Desperation CERN physicists are taking comedy improv classes at CERN. (see above link) Listen in on NPR's "Can Physicists Be Funny?"
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94357426&ft=1&f=1007

Dr Brian Cox, your host on BBC FOUR Radio's Big Bang Day September 10th 08:30BST, time travels from the LHC, we knew it all along, back to the days of D:ream,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/its-sex-and-drugs-and-particle-physics-as-dream-star-recreates-the-big-bang-917196.html

LHC Start-up To Shut-down 2008

After the Olympics, the next big thing is the international Large Hadron Collider. There's a lot of excitement at CERN. The first injections, and without a hitch, of low energy protons shot through an eighth of the 27 km LHC ring. Back to back for this weekend they're doing it again at 0.45 TeV with the anticlockwise beam. It's an important preliminary test, kicking the protons from the pre-accelerator loops, into the unknown. At this point CERN is confident there is nothing to worry about. The energy is only half of the currently most powerful collider, Fermilab's Tevatron, in Batavia, Ill. So, CERN's probably right, this time. Higher energies will be the real test.

Now for the news, major media aren't covering, from the current Strings 2008, a CERN conference, and not only on String theory. It's another window on CERN that is fascinating.

Even at 1% of design energies, as Lyn Evans, Project Director, said August 18th in his talk, on LHC Machine Status, we'll be in new territory. He also confirmed that the first beam right around the main ring is still set for September 10th, as announced last week.

There's one problem Evans said quickly, a turbine needs replacing in Sector 6-7, but it won't delay operations. Once another test is done for the other beam later in September, CERN plans to go ahead with 5 TeV runs before the standard winter shutdown. A Russian scientist, Alexander Vodopyanov of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna), said recently in RIA Novosti World, that he's heard that the LHC will be inaugurated October 21st, which supposes that the collider, will by that time have had one test run at least. Though beam collisions at 10 TeV, probably will start later. CERN is in a hurry though, having cancelled earlier plans for a gradual ramping up of beam energies. Going from a known quantity, suddenly into the unknown is a risk, and totally unnecessary. The big rush is due to three years of delays, construction and equipment problems.

Seems they would even have skipped 5 TeV and gone straight to 7 TeV beams this fall, as Evans said the collider wasn't ready for the design energies, as some magnets had been lying around for two years, and were found to require retraining for higher energies, though they were previously trained, this batch from some other supplier. Those will be retrained during the winter shutdown, so they can all go skiing. Mount Blanc is only a proton away. That's not official though. Ski report widgets and desktop ski weather icons and live webcam links to the best ski resorts are all over CERN desktops and laptops. Ski weekend emails fly like alarm routines.

Magnets have to sit up, bark and rollover, as they say at Fermilab. Twelve hundred 15 meter ones at about a million dollars a pop, thousands of smaller ones. But Evans added they were proceeding with care, with some magnets not fully trained, not pushing them beyond 5 TeV, as there are always some protons lost from the beams, and that can cause magnet quenches. As we know from the Tevatron, quenches can crash down the entire collider. Sometimes beams are lost, potentially a dangerous situation.

So September 10th, 21 days to go, is not the BBC's "Big Bang Day", as they're calling it, on their live Radio Four broadcast, starting at 0:8:30 BST. No need to panic yet. Try again later this October. For all you fans of micro black holes, you'll have to wait for them too. CERN's not convinced they'll show up during proton collisions. If they do, Dr O. Buchmüller, speaking on The Search for New Physics at the LHC, said at Strings 2008, after the Evans presentation, that if they show up they would be within SUSY parameters, and their signature would be clearly obvious. Keep your fingers crossed so they aren't too obvious.

Make a date to watch the September 10th LHC Sparks and Quarks, starting 0:8:30 BST, firing of the First Beam an hour later, like on BBC Radio Four, either on Eurovision, if you have a feed or can buy an Internet pass for this one. Or if you're broke after blowing $10 billion on the LHC, watch it for free on CERN's tiny TV Live Webcast, better in Flash if you have internet lite, but a fast machine.

The just-ended Strings 2008, the best in arcane viewing, even if you're a physics fanatic, was a live webcast on the same CERN url daily this week. Earlier talks from Strings 2008, you might have missed, including the must see Evans and Buchmüller talks, should be available as videos a few days late on this same CERN url, see below.


References

CERN Strings 2008, conference program, http://ph-dep-th.web.cern.ch/ph-dep-th/content2/workshops/strings2008/?site=content/talks.html

CERN Webcasts, live or pre-recorded video, for Strings 2008, First Beam September 10th, or other CERN events, http://webcast.cern.ch/

CERN First Beam, news on LHC start-up, countdown to September 10th, http://lhc-first-beam.web.cern.ch/lhc-first-beam/Welcome.html

CERN Press Release, CERN announces start-up date for LHC, August 7, 2008, http://info.web.cern.ch/Press/PressReleases/Releases2008/PR06.08E.html

RIA Novosti World, "Large Hadron Collider to be launched October 21 -- Russian Scientist", August 5, 2008, http://en.rian.ru/world/20080805/115771418.html

Gillis, Alan, The Science of Conundrums, "Daily Battles At The Tevatron", http://bigsciencenews.blogspot.com/2008/04/daily-battles-at-tevatron.html

Gillis, Alan, The Science of Conundrums, "Major Failures At The Tevatron", http://bigsciencenews.blogspot.com/2008/04/major-failures-at-tevatron.html

Gillis, Alan, The Science of Conundrums, "It's All About Energy At The LHC", http://bigsciencenews.blogspot.com/2008/04/its-all-about-energy-at-lhc.html




From First Test To First Beam To First Collisions

CERN's image (above) of last weekend's first proton bunch injection, raises some questions for those who aren't particle physicists. If you read the CERN descriptions of the particle beam and bunches of protons, they look nothing like this.

Ordinarily at design energies, CERN states there will be 3,000 bunches of protons in the beam, and numbering overall anywhere from 100 billion to the trillions of protons, depending on how much luminosity the physicists at the LHC would like for each experiment. The pictured bunch according to SciAM is 5 million protons, a far smaller number than would be usual, which would be at least 100 million protons per bunch. And CERN always describes their beams as less than the thickness of a human hair, and each bunch about 5 cm long. What we're seeing with this first bunch is a hot ball of protons, with a big halo and tail, at about 7.5 mm on the Y-axis, and with the halo included, about 11 mm overall, more like the width of your baby finger.

There's nothing wrong here, as this is typically what you get from the low energy 0.45 TeV SPS pre-accelerator that feeds the LHC. Further focusing of the beam will occur later, to produce needle-like bunches, through collimators throughout the main ring. But the halo is worth looking at. It's well understood this is mostly an electron cloud, generated through interactions of these accelerated protons and extremely high magnetic fields from the superconducting di-pole magnets.

But in the LHC the initial halos, that are cleansed later and focused, show some foreign matter in the beam cryostats which is burning, and this in the best vacuum that CERN can produce for the beam lines, a greater vacuum than is found on the Moon.

Recently, Katherine McAlpine, a science writer working for CERN, put it this way. ". . . with that first beam, they're going to be getting so much more data coming out from those protons running into things that are in the beam pipe than they're getting from cosmic rays coming in from outer space right now that the detector people will have a lot more information to work with calibrating."

Of late she's become well known as AlpineKat through her rap video, "Large Hadron Rap", with CERN back-up.

Besides some collider debris, electron cloud production at the Proton Synchrotron and the Super Proton Synchrotron has been an unresolved problem, especially the proton scattering which comes with an unfocused beam. Other pre-accelerators have the same problem.

Looking back to what Lyn Evans said at Strings 2008, there's an interesting effect that might be seen on September 10th, during the First Beam right around the collider ring.

As some magnets are not properly trained, they won't be ideal superconductors like the other magnets, that will be at 8.33 Teslas. Their magnetic fields will be somewhat weaker and so the First Beam of protons will pass through various field strengths around the collider. This also affects the Superfluid Heliums that circulate through the magnets and cool them and the cryostats. As Superfluid Helium is considered to be a Bose-Einstein Condensate, it has been demonstrated in another BEC that an abrupt change in magnetic fields starts the Bosenova implosion/explosion.

No CERN experimental studies or theoretical analysis has ever been produced on this safety issue by CERN. The recent LSAG safety report by CERN ignores this possible risk that might destroy the collider.

There should be some news this weekend on another test. The counter-rotating beam, like last weekend's test will be injected this weekend, probably with similar success. The next thing to watch is the September 10th First Beam, where there is more risk of failures in engineering and equipment. Look for a follow-up article here on what CERN might discover, when it's too late.

Katherine McAlpine also said, in line with earlier reports from CERN, " . . . on September 10th they're really only going to have one beam going around, so they're not going to have collisions until they project about two months later after startup."

So around November 10th for the first particle collisions at 10 TeV.

CERN Confirms Big Bash

If there's no big crash, CERN says the Collider Inauguration will be October 21st, as Vodopyanov said. 10 TeV Collisions are scheduled before winter shutdown, CERN says again, confirming what McAlpine said. And I was right about the second kicker magnet test. No problems. There was a bit more action from one of the smaller forward detectors, the VELO, part of the giant LHCb detector. The protons knocked through part of the VELO array, and CERN captured the first particle tracks in a series of images, showing at least that this bit works. A relief, these card modules are supercomplex. See the preliminary data and beam schedule on this CERN summary page.

(This article originally appeared in the Alan Gillis Column, Big Science Gambles, ScientificBlogging, in two parts, August 19 and 22, 2008, Big Bash update August 26, 2008, http://www.scientificblogging.com/big_science_gambles/lhc_start_up)


References

Gillis, Alan. ScientificBlogging, "Superfluids, BECs and Bosenovas: The Ultimate Experiment", July 2, 2008, http://www.scientificblogging.com/big_science_gambles/superfluids_becs_and_bosenovas_the_ultimate_experiment

McAlpine, Katherine (AlpineKat). Youtube, "Large Hadron Rap", July 28, 2008, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM

Turner, James. O'Reilly News, "Rapping the Higgs Boson: Katherine McAlpine . . .", August 19, 2008, http://news.oreilly.com/2008/08/rapping-the-higgs-boson-kather.html

LHC News Update

Well Fuk, over to you.

Right Brian. Over on Earth, 'Red Button Day' is fast approaching. That's when they push the big red button at the Large Hadron Collider.

It's finally a go, right Fuk?

We make it a preliminary feed. We're getting some Russian satellite interference. We're filtering now. Gillies at CERN is on top of it.

Wasn't he on top of it for June? Fuk?

That was full cooldown, Brian.

So we got full cooldown, Fuk?

No Fuking way. They're almost there.

Fuking glitch factory, Fuk? Weren't they gonna hit that Fuking button 3 years ago?

That's affirmative, Brian. But when they do, they're gonna hit a Fuking Home Run.

Hope you're right, Fuk.


The real down to earth story is the Russians have scooped CERN on start-up of the LHC. RIA Novosti World says the collider "will be officially unveiled October 21". The source is a Russian scientist, Alexander Vodopyanov of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna). CERN has been awash with start-up rumors lately, including one in The New York Times, and hasn't commented.

James Gillies, CERN's PR Director, reported in CosmicLog MSNBC, did announce that the timing of the first beam injection will be sometime during the first 2 weeks of September. "The machine is basically cold now." See for yourself. Click on LHC Cooldown Status Live, on this page, from a column of KEY CERN SITES on your right, only 5 of 8 sectors are cold enough, at 1.9 K . But this first injection is for only one beam into one sector of 8, basically a test of one of the Injection Kicker magnets that kicks a proton beam into the main ring from the PS and SPS pre-accelerators. This will be the clockwise beam, the counterclockwise beam test should be a month later. The beam energy isn't specified, but it will probably be 0.45 TeV, which is what the pre-accelerators deliver to the main 17 mile ring, where beams will be further accelerated to 5 TeV, maybe in October as Vodopyanov says, just before the official inaugeration.

CosmicLog also has some useful updates on a rival Fermilab search for the Higgs Boson, some ZZs turning up, yawn. And the Wagner/Sancho suit, to be heard in court on September 2nd. It could be dismissed then or an injunction could be granted to delay LHC start-up. Or proceedings could drag on. Probably the Hawaiian Court will say they don't have jurisdiction.

And all the fuss on the latest LHC Rap Video, not enough juice to power a hearing aid, at 0.0000000000003 GeV. The Cernettes Channel on Youtube can't be beat.

Lately too, you might want to see a dazzling gallery of 28 hi-res images of the LHC by CERN photographers on The Boston Globe on-line edition's Big Picture.

STOP PRESS August 7, 2008

It's official. CERN announced the first attempt to circulate a beam of protons through the LHC ring will be September 10, 2008. The beam energy is what the pre-accelerators can deliver, that is 0.45 TeV. The target is still 5 TeV per beam later this year, with collisions possible before the planned Winter shutdown.

The big event will be on Eurovision, but elsewhere you'll need a paid on-line account with them. There's a big media circus being carefully planned for hundreds of journalists descending from the skies or driving in. The good news is the rest of us will be able to watch it live on up to 4 CERN Webcast Channels for free. Thanks to all at CERN. Don't forget to stock up on your Collider Donuts and don't miss this. If you're worried, it's still too early to be really worried, only a low energy single beam run. Still the LHC has never been tested like this. Expect some sparks and quarks.

The initial test of an Injection Kicker magnet into one sector is way ahead of schedule, set for this weekend. This must be an LHC first. Ahead of schedules and rumors? Amazing!

Make a date to watch the Collider Show here, Wednesday September 10, 2008. It's five hours later in France if you're in New York. There's a CERN LHC LIVE WEBCAMS spot on your right. Click on CERN Live Webcasts. Next one is August 18, 08:00 or 3 AM in NY, lectures on String theory, "Strings 2008".