the-BA : BA Press Release - 7 Sep 2006 (Cox)

Accelerate into the future image (Copyright: iStockPhoto.com)

Due for completion in 2007, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN (the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, or European Organisation for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, is the largest scientific experiment ever attempted.

The circular device, which is 27km in circumference and sits 100m below the French-Swiss border, is the latest and most powerful in a long line of machines aimed at uncovering the fundamental building blocks of the Universe. Having taken 7 years to complete and costing many billions of Euros, when it is finally switched on the LHC will collide beams of protons that would fit comfortably inside the zero on a twenty pence piece and yet carry as much energy as an aircraft carrier travelling at 30mph. The aim is to recreate the conditions present in the Universe less than a billionth of a second after the Big Bang.

“The LHC is humanity’s most ambitious attempt yet to understand the most profound questions about our origins,” says Dr Brian Cox, a research fellow at the University of Manchester who is working on the ATLAS experiment, one of the five particle detector experiments being constructed at the LHC.

“In a sense, the LHC is a time machine, allowing us to take giant detectors back to the first instants after the Big Bang and watch the Universe evolve,” he says. “Understanding the origin of mass is a certainty and signposts to a (possibly THE) fundamental theory of the Universe may be uncovered. We are truly journeying into unknown territory.”

Dr Cox will make his comments as part of the BA Lord Kelvin Award Lecture – ‘The story of a 27km long machine and the fundamental building blocks of the Universe’, an event at the BA Festival of Science. The Festival is taking place in Norwich from 2-9 September and will bring together over 300 of the UK’s top scientists and engineers to discuss the latest scientific developments with the public.

The opportunity to present a popular and prestigious BA award lecture at the Festival of Science is offered to five outstanding communicators each year. The award lectures aim to promote open and informed discussion on issues involving science and actively encourage young scientists to explore the social aspects of their research, providing them with reward and recognition for doing so.

In addition to lectures and debates at the University of East Anglia, the Festival will also feature a host of events throughout Norwich as part of the Science in the City programme.

This year’s Festival is supported by the University of East Anglia, the East of England Development Agency and Microsoft Research. The Press Centre is sponsored by AstraZeneca.

For further information on the BA Festival of Science, visit www.the-ba.net/festivalofscience.

ENDS

A few of the most recent studies, describing potential upgrades to the ATLAS detector at the LHC, are listed on the following webpage:
http://www-spires.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+AUTHOR+COX,%20Brian+AND+EPRINT+hep-ph

For further information please contact:

Lisa Hendry, Press Assistant, the BA
Tel: +44 (0)20 7019 4946
Email: lisa.hendry@the-ba.net

Note for editors

1. The BA (British Association for the Advancement of Science) is the UK's nationwide, open membership organisation that exists to advance the public understanding, accessibility and accountability of the sciences and engineering. Established in 1831, the BA organises major initiatives across the UK, including the annual BA Festival of Science, National Science Week, programmes of regional and local events, and an extensive programme for young people in schools and colleges. For more information about the BA, please visit www.the-ba.net.

2. Speakers have been asked to submit press papers for their talks, which include a summary of the talk and what is newsworthy about their research. Press papers will be available from mid-August at www.the-ba.net/presspapers.

3. To register for access to the press papers or to the Press Centre at the BA Festival of Science, visit www.the-ba.net/pressregister.

4. The BA Festival of Science 2006 is being hosted in Norwich by the University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park and Norwich City Council.

5. The University of East Anglia (UEA) is an internationally renowned, research-led University. Over 13,000 students from more than 100 countries and around 2500 staff enjoy its architecturally distinguished campus on the edge of the city of Norwich. UEA is known for its pioneering and collaborative approach to research, bringing together academics from different disciplines to create innovative research groups. The latest Research Assessment Exercise (2001) confirmed the breadth and depth of UEA's research excellence through the achievement of the top 5* or 5 ratings in eleven subject areas, with staff inclusion rates in the top 10% across the board.

6. The East of England Development Agency (EEDA) is the driving force behind sustainable economic regeneration in the East of England: Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Its vision is to create a leading economy, founded on a world class knowledge base, creativity and enterprise to improve the quality of life for all who live and work here. EEDA aims to do this by: (1) Setting and shaping the direction of economic development in the region, (2) Persuading and influencing others to bring resources together, (3) Investing in imaginative projects that challenge the norm. For further information visit http://www.eeda.org.uk/.

7. Founded in 1991, Microsoft Research is dedicated to conducting both basic and applied research in computer science and software engineering. Its goals are to enhance the user experience on computing devices, reduce the cost of writing and maintaining software, and invent novel computing technologies. Researchers focus on more than 55 areas of computing and collaborate with leading academic, government and industry researchers to advance the state of the art in such areas as graphics, speech recognition, user-interface research, natural language processing, programming tools and methodologies, operating systems and networking, and the mathematical sciences. Microsoft Research employs more than 700 people in five labs located in Redmond, Wash.; Silicon Valley, Calif.; Cambridge, England; Beijing, China; and Bangalore, India. Microsoft Research collaborates openly with colleges and universities worldwide to enhance the teaching and learning experience, inspire technological innovation, and broadly advance the field of computer science. More information can be found at http://www.research.microsoft.com/

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