Proof of extra dimensions possible next year: CERN | Reuters
CERN scientists say they have already taken research with ions further than those with gold at the long-established Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at the U.S. Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island.
These experiments have shown the power of the link-up of 140 computing centers around the world known as the Grid which processes the vast amounts of information that ion collisions produce.
On December 6, the LHC will be shut down for servicing and to avoid draining electricity in the depths of winter from the energy networks of France and Switzerland along whose border CERN lies.
It will start up again in February, then run at full blast, with protons, until the end of the year, when it will close down again until 2013 while engineers prepare it for running at double the energy to the end of the decade and beyond.
I know, it’s hip to bitch about that fact that here we are in 2010 and, wha? no flying cars or hoverboards? I get it. I’m with it. But seriously, CERN is great evidence of what nations can do to uncover vast scientific mysteries through diligence and appropriate funding. How do we make this kind of science cool in the US again?