LHC may run overtime this year. If and when they get it working.

Sometime this fall or early winter, they are going to turn the Large Hadron Collider back on. It may run for several minutes or hours and then break down again. In fact, expect that. This is a huge machine the like of which have never before been seen. Why would we expect it to work without several startups?

Absurdly, the LHC press office and others have been conversing about what is going to happen next without much (or any) mention of the likelihood of a repeat performance of last year's breakdown (though presumably with a different technological problem). When it comes to physics, De Nile is a big ol' river in Europe.

But none of that is the point, actually. The point is that the LHC will run through the winter, instead of shutting down to save money given high energy costs in Europe during the winter, if it gets going. This will be paid for out of their standard budget, as they have not been paying the energy costs for normal operation over the last several months. Details here.

And this just in: A film from the LHC, featuring Chief Engineer Clark Griswold, showing what it will be like when the LHC turns on later this year:

More like this

So, I was thinking, where are the cold alien intelligences who ought to be out there, studying us dispassionately, as if we were microbes...? Well, what if we accidentally killed them all? No, really.
Back in late July, I got email from a writer for Physics World magazine (which is sort of the UK equivalent of Physics Today), asking my opinion on a few questions relating to particle physics funding.
Hector writes in and asks about someone from Sheffield in the UK who says that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will create Dark Matter:
LHC Shows the Way workshop: general colloquium reviewing the LHC and the Higgs discovery. Kyle Cramner from NYU: "We discovered the goddamned particle" More slow live blog. Cute opening video of LHC construction.