Surfing the net you can always find valuable findings that explain very complicated concepts with a visual description to make them accessible. On numerous occasions I have published posts on the operation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN , which is gradually being implemented, following the serious damage he suffered for over a year, when first activated.
At CERN is working hard to push the boundaries of the most incredible machine designed by mankind. A machine that aims at knowledge, the possibility of finding answers in the remotest limits of theoretical physics and cosmology, that explain who we are, where we started and what may be our alternatives, in this corner of the universe that no we glimpse the whole.
This part of the capacity to understand the reactions of a proton (positive charge of an atom) inside the collider. Yes, so at least some matter can infer the essential structure of the universe. That is the intrinsic beauty of this experiment at CERN, which may change our perception of reality forever.
I leave you with a video that explains in an impressive way the journey of a proton (or a "package" of protons) in the CERN accelerator. (The translation is not very good, but it is understood and appreciated the effort by scientists to carry throttle and languages all over the concepts of CERN).
The Journey of a proton in the LHC

It is being prepared the first collision of the large detector at the LHC: ATLAS (A T A pparatu oroidal L HC S).

It has begun to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Have you been to start test for the last 3 days. The control room is in full swing (see picture on the webcam this afternoon), and the whole team is at full speed to make sure they are ready (hopefully in a month) for the first beam and then proton collisions at the LHC.

What we are developing these days is the record of data on muons created in cosmic ray collisions in the atmosphere, as previous studies for which trigger inside the LHC.

ATLAS is one of the six particle detector (with ALICE, CMS, TOTEM and LHCb) of the LHC, weighs about 7,000 tons. and has an approximate size of 25 × 45 meters (I've always found amazing the huge machine to be used to explore the intimate world of matter. Things Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle ).

What is ATLAS?

The ATLAS detector is a multipurpose. When the beams of protons produced by the accelerator interact in the center of the detector will produce a series of particles with a wide range of energies. Rather than focus on a certain type of particles, the ATLAS is designed to measure the broadest possible range of energies. It is intended that, whatever process or particles, ATLAS will be able to detect and measure their properties. It is the result of the merger of several types of detectors that were used until the mid-90s at CERN, giving way to the current detection system that represents ATLAS toroidal.

ATLAS is expected to investigate new types of particles that can be detected in high energy collisions at the LHC. Some of them involve the confirmation or otherwise of the Standard Model , while others may give rise to new theories, and this is one of the biggest bets of the experiment that has a great future in the world of science. (If you want more information on the LHC, you can read my previous posts about this blog).

I leave you with the picture of the CERN Control Room:

According to an official statement from the press office of CERN , dated August 9, the LHC will start next November, on a day to be determined.

The LHC was launched last September 2008 and suffered a malfunction in one of its superconducting cooling prevented the optimal level for entry into service. Much has been said (pejoratively) on this ignorance, as we know it is too daring. But suffice it to say that among the design, development and implementation of the multidisciplinary and international project of its kind, has been almost two decades. Has been started without any inconvenience, despite the multiple testing to which he was subjected, had broken several chances against the given result.

That said, the CERN is clear that the LHC will start with low power. The day they turn on "only" 3.5 TeV will (remember that is designed to operate at energies above 150 TeV) to be "learning" how the collider and to avoid excessive fatigue to the new machinery, with so that both the LHC as engineers and scientists are learning together. This has been revised to 10,000 superconductors by the appliance which are responsible for the LHC at temperatures near absolute 0 (-273 ° K), hence the time and there has been little information about it to avoid creating unnecessary controversial.

I remind you that during its implementation was speculated by a patulea of "scientific salon" on the possibility that the LHC could develop a black hole destroying the planet, all truffled with the premiere of the movie Angels and Demons , which confuses the public with an element such as the dark matter (antimatter in the film), truffled your search by CERN of the so-called Higgs boson , which is internationally known as the God particle. (This is a special particle that would help to understand certain loopholes in the current FísicaTeórica, especially in the field of quantum chromodynamics - I pledge to do a post about this interesting topic.)

As you can imagine pure science and marketing (whether positive or negative) are not what they say a good couple. However, according to Rolf Heuer, Director General of CERN are going to take your time to be developing a progressive and effective work. In 2010, the LHC will not work when power is greater than 7 TeV and includes a check off for anomalies prior to its greatest challenges.

For further information please click here (in English).

At the end of the lifecycle of NASA's Hubble, ESA finally put into orbit telescopes Herschel and Planck (two successful names for space observation.)

There are two scientific missions of the European Space Agency (ESA) , the most important in recent years and will leave together in a rocket Ariane-5 ECA from Europe's space base in Kourou (French Guyana). The launch has been delayed for a few days by a rocket similar problems that engineers wanted to check before giving the green light to the project, is scheduled for 14th.

Herschel and Planck will cost EUR 1,600 million, when including its development and construction, launch and operations, and involve many scientific groups and companies throughout Europe, including Spain, and a significant NASA participation.

Herschel is the largest infrared telescope has been built larger and more advanced than its predecessors, such as ISO (ESA) and Spitzer (NASA), still in operation. Planck will be up to 50 times more sensitive the COBE and WMAP, both of NASA. Dozens of scientists Spanish research centers and universities involved in these two missions, but also a dozen industries that have developed from electronic equipment to antennas and structures.

Both are optimized for observing the universe cold, but while Herschel will focus on the formation and evolution of the first galaxies, as well as areas in which they are forming new stars and planets close (relatively) from Earth, is Planck designed to capture the microwave background radiation that permeates the cosmos, the afterglow of the first light ever emitted about 380,000 years after the Big Bang.

First the LHC at CERN and now this. Anyone doubt that European cooperation is a chimera. The Future of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics of the world is played in Europe. We'll see details you provide these exciting new devices ...

More information about the launch on the ESA Portal.