53
causea“vacuum metastability disaster”,
which would eliminate the universe.
Mercifully, none of this happened.
Magnets are the muscles of the collider.
They bend the particle beams round the
tunnel by exploitingaphenomenon
known as superconductivity: in certain
conditions, certain materials conduct
electricity without any resistance at all.
Kirby remarks that if we all had
superconductors running into and around
our homes, we could power our planet
with asingle power station. Electrical
resistance soaks up most of the power we
produce. Really? “A small exaggeration,”
he concedes, “but not far from the truth.”
The first problem with superconductivity is that it happens at very
low temperatures,afew degrees above absolute zero: -273°C.
They have to use superfluid helium to keep 36,000 tons of
equipment at this temperature. The second problem is that it can
go wrong. Any little nudge of current or magnetic field can cause
resistance in the electrical flow, at which point things heat up very
quickly. The entire magnetic system can burn up in minutes. To
prevent this, the energy from the magnets is diverted into big
metal boxes called dump resistors. From there, it is dispersed into
the ground. Why not just sell the power back to the electrical grid,
Iask Collier. He looks at me as though he has only just realised I
am an idiot. Because, of course, it would fry the grid. As if his
physics credentials weren’t enough, Collier also worked on “the
non-linear mechanical behaviour of cellular plastics”. This led to
the development of air soles in running shoes. So cool.
They’re all like that–somehow saintly in their strange asceticism.
Another Cern physicist, Pippa Wells, rapidly and lucidly explains,
justifies and celebrates the whole
operation. She does not know
physics, she lives in it. “You’re
very enthusiastic,”Isay, then
immediately regret it as she
blushes furiously. Glyn Kirby,
with his breezy film-star
appearance, loves his magnets so much he can’t stop stroking
them. Dave Barney, who is working on an upgrade to some
of the sensors, crouches likeaSwiss watchmaker over his new
hexagonal design, explaining every detail. This upgrade–which
should significantly increase the energy levels and the number of
particle collisions–ist he reason the machine is turned off.
“We are already running at twice the original design intensity,”
says Wells. After the next big shutdown–scheduled for
completion by 2026–they will move to “high luminosity” mode,
in which the LHC will produce up to seven times more particle
collisions and provide ten times more data over the following
decade. But will it be enough to yank the new physics out of the
swirls and splats? Quite probably not. But the Cernies have a
plan for that. They’ve gota70-year road map for an even bigger
machine–the Future Circular Collider (FCC). This will be a
60-mile ring running under Lake Geneva that will cost somewhere
in the region of £20bn, four times as much as the LHC.
They’realittle hazy about how they will raise this huge sum. Cern
is funded by its 23 member states–the UK contributes £140m,
second only to Germany. Britain accounts for 221 of the 2,600
permanent staff and 897 of the 12,500 scientists who use the
LHC. The US is notamember, but hundreds of its scientists trawl
the data. There are dark mutterings aboutacash squeeze, but
somehow,Iamassured, they will get funding for the FCC.
In fact, if they eased up on the saintliness, they could probably
pay for halfadozen FCCs. In the past, Cern has avoided patents,
preferring to share its innovations to further scientific discovery.
Since one of the things it invented was the worldwide web–the
usable internet–this might be seen as
amissed opportunity. In 1989, Tim
Berners-Lee conceived the web while
working in an office off one of those
beige corridors. There’saplaque in the
corridor wall, but it doesn’t identify the
exact office because anybody working
in it would be swamped by visitors.
Cern, then, gave away trillions by not
havingaWWW patent. Nevertheless,
an ethos of collaboration is baked into
the place. “I think it’s fundamental
we’re open to all,” Kirby says. “This
way of working accelerates the world’s
understanding and its ability to solve
problems such as global warming.” To sustain the funding, Cern
must resort to politics.Iamsent alist of British politicians who
have visited in the past two years. There are 15 names including
Norman Lamb, Alun Cairns, Jo Johnson and Boris Johnson. Even
if you’re trying to answer the ultimate question of existence, you
have to mix withafew Westminster droids.
When you ask what the LHC is for, Cernies all default to one of
two answers. Either they say that seeking answers and voyaging
into the unknown is just what humans do and should do; or they
say that many useful applications will flow from their work.
They’re right about the latter–ify ou like the internet, then you
should love Cern. Moreover, they’re about to be even more right.
In the canteenItalk to Manjit Dosanjh, the sole medical scientist
on the Cern staff–“I’m as rare asaHiggs boson!” she cries. She
shows meabrilliantly coloured 3D X-ray ofahuman wrist, made
using technology developed by Cern and various collaborators. It
works, it’s affordable and it deliversaradiation dose no greater
than that of our present
monochrome, 2D imagers.
Cernies know more about beams
than anybody else on the planet,
and beams are what drive much
medical research–ini maging
and in the treatment of cancer. If you were to suggest that the
LHC might one day cure cancer, then the arguments surrounding
funding and politics would look quite different. But, of course,
Cernies are really explorers, not fixers. They might be discovering
new technologies, but what they’re really trying to do is scratch
an itch they cannot yet reach, the itch to know how it all came to
be. Where is dark matter and dark energy? Why don’t our present
theories work? What lies beyond them that we cannot see? These
are, inagood way, childish questions; questions we grow out of
because we realise we can never answer them. But, again in a
good way, Cernies don’t grow up like the rest of us.
Idescend again into the tunnel to see the Compact Muon
Solenoid (CMS),amighty particle detector that encirclesasection
of the collider. The CMS is big:amonstrous 14,000-ton tube,
69ft long and 50ft across. Inside its vast cathedral-like vault, this
machine has been split apart to reveal an interior of
indecipherable complexity. The scale is disorientating, causing a
wave of vertigo. You just shouldn’t be inaroom with something
that big. As an architectural experience, it is unique.
In the end, the answer to the “What is all this for?” question
is poetry. Unlike poetry, it is madly expensive and involves
thousands of people; but, like poetry, it is an attempt to say
something that has never been said before, and to describe a
reality previously hidden from us. Perhaps the Cernies will
never get there, perhaps the new physics isamyth. But I
don’t care;Ilike poets.
Alonger version of this article appeared in The Sunday Times.
©The Sunday Times Magazine/News Licensing.
The last word
10 August 2019 THE WEEK
“In the past, Cern has avoided patents. Since
one of its inventions was the worldwide web,
this might be seen asamissed opportunity”
©B
RYAN APPLEYARD
Paul Collier: one of many Britons on Cern’s staff
