LHC online this morning at 0800

This morning I took 30 seconds of silence to reflect in peace and joy over the fact that that LHC was coming online today. And we are still here to talk about it!

I have visited the LHC last year when I gave a talk at CERN. It is awe inspiring endeavor. The fact that 1000s of engineers and scientist coming from all over the world collaborate on this mammoth of a project makes me happy.

I met my 9 year old's teacher last week as she went back to school. Turns out the guy has got a PhD in particle physics for work done at CERN on the LHC. I was truly happy to see a guy like that teaching my baby daughter. Turns out the french govt pays significantly more for the first 2 years to attract this kind of talent in the french education. This guy is here in Madrid for a couple years while his wife wraps up a post-doc. Even if he doesn't stay and goes on to a career on Wall Street the fact that guys like him come on a rolling 2 year basis is a fantastic thing.

I introduced myself, mentioned I had a PhD in theoretical physics. I asked him he he thought the Higgs Boson would be found. He said it might but it would take time. The explosions are messy are the detectors must do serious triage around them. FYI JBoss is used in the infrastructure of that triage.

It is a great day for Science and Physics in particular. The pinnacle of many many years of scientific exploration. It does make me teary eyed. I remain an optimist kid at heart. I don't want to lose this sense of naive optimism. I don't know what it is.

God speed to them and may their harvest be plentiful.

Comments

TF said…
Two links for you:
http://ab-dep-op-elogbook.web.cern.ch/ab-dep-op-elogbook/elogbook/eLogbook.php?lgbk=110

and

http://ab-dep-op.web.cern.ch/ab-dep-op/ajax_main.php

I'd guess they could use RHQ :-P!
September 10, 2008 at 12:51:00 PM PDT
TF said…
Even better:

http://ab-dep-op-elogbook.web.cern.ch/ab-dep-op-elogbook/elogbook/eLogbook.php?lgbk=111&date=20080910&shift=1
September 10, 2008 at 12:54:00 PM PDT
adt43wt342 said…
Oh so cute, 10:30 FIRST BEAM! :)
September 10, 2008 at 1:57:00 PM PDT
adt43wt342 said…
oh wow, the second link is live! cool!
September 10, 2008 at 2:09:00 PM PDT
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