Date set for Large Hadron Collider switch on

Scientists at Cern have set the date for the switch-on of the world’s largest scientific instrument, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The first beams will be fired from the device on September 10 and its massive data grid will begin collecting data and analysing particles formed as the beams smash together.

Over the last few months, most of time has been spent cooling the 27km ring that makes up the LHC down to 1.9 degrees above absolute zero (-271°C). Now a quick series of tests will be made on beam synchronisation before firing commences.

"We’re finishing a marathon with a sprint," said LHC project leader Lyn Evans. "It’s been a long haul and we’re all eager to get the LHC research programme underway."

However, some are nervous about the use of the device. In Hawaii a lawsuit was filed by a former nuclear safety officer who believed that the LHC would create a mini-black hole, which would then sink to the centre of the planet and consume the world.

The suit was dismissed after Cern put together a panel of independent experts to examine the claims and ruled that there was no conceivable danger.

Meanwhile two Russian scientists have claimed that there may be another threat from the LHC. In a paper they pointed out that theoretically the LHC could enable time travel by opening wormholes into the future, although they would only be atom-sized.

Cern plans mega data store

Eight petabytes of data annually by 2008  17 Oct 2007

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