So the big news: the first proton beam got all the way around the LHC ring this morning without mishap. Cue much celebration in the CERN control room and around the particle physics community.
There is a live webcast available on the CERN website, although some people are having problems viewing it due to the huge interest. There are also some great updates by physicists at the scene describing the day’s events on blogs such such as US LHC Blog, RESONAANCES, Charm&C, Higgs
The redoubtable Lubos Motl has a great discussion on his blog The Reference Frame explaining why he expects supersymmetry to be seen at the LHC, it’s a very nice piece
For more live postings describing the day’s events, see the list on the international particle physics website interactions.org , it’s almost as good as being there.
P.S. No earth-eating black hole so far…surprise surprise.
Update: the Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin are celebrating with an open day on the topic, with live feeds, talks and commentary by physicists all day…well worth popping in
Update: a second success… a proton beam successfully completed the loop in the opposite direction in the afternoon, this is way ahead of schedule.
You guys have lost it.
I think playing with nature is going to cost us dearly.
Well good luck in destroying the universe
Where did this idea come from? I suspect the use of the phrase “energies not seen since the Big Bang” by physicists is the root of the problem…when what we really mean is “energy slightly bigger than the last accelerator”…which is a long, long way away from the Big Bang scale