Straight from CERN’s press station, comes a report that the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) has become the most powerful particle accelerator man has ever built. Just ten days after turning on the LHC, and seven after the first collisions, the juice was cranked up to 1.18 TeV per beam, just over 1/7th the total power available. Next on the agenda is increasing the beam density, then lots of troubleshooting and planning, as the hope is to start going at 3.5 TeV per beam early next year.
On Usenet, the crazies are going full steam, predicting that the LHC will kill us all with their super powerful beams, CERN is powered by atoms that go around in circles without radii, and other such nonsense. As bad as it is now, I have a feeling that it will get far worse when the beams are cranked up, and real physics begins in earnest.
You can find the full CERN press release here.
Other physicists talk about the LHC powerup.
