LHC will start operations in 2008… June 22, 2007
Posted by apetrov in Particle Physics, Physics, Science.trackback
It was long rumored that CERN will cancel its engineering run in 2007 in favor of the full-blown high energy run in 2008 (one of the reasons was believed to be that little mishap with magnets). So it was just announced that it is indeed true, the accelerator will turn on in May 2008 — here is CERN press-release. To quote them:
“A low-energy run originally scheduled for this year has been dropped as the result of a number of minor delays accumulated over the final months of LHC installation and commissioning, coupled with the failure in March of a pressure test in one of the machine’s components.”
So technically they are still on-schedule for the high-energy run… I guess, it will just add to frustration of some of the fellow bloggers from Condensed Matter physics. 
I had high hopes that when CERN switched on the LHC in November of this year, they would inadvertently create a black hole, thus increasing the sales of my book, ‘The Ancient Order of Moridura’ (with a related theme of a nascent singularity created by a meteorite impact in Extremadura).
But then I realised that the extinction of the planet - and probably the solar system - would prevent me from collecting my royalties. Life can be unfair sometimes!
However, doomsday has been postponed until April/May of 2008 because of problems with magnets.
The Higgs boson must be chuckling quietly in interstellar space, its anonymity preserved for a little longer.
http://moridura.blogspot.com
regards
Peter Curran
Edinburgh, Scotland