If your child does not have health insurance coverage you should check the
website or call the number listed below to see if he/she would qualify for
Cover Kids of Tennessee. This information must be sent in no later than
Monday, November 30th. Students without health insurance cannot be seen by
the Nurse Practitioner in our clinic after Monday, November 30th. Our school
nurse will still be available. For more information about Cover Kids please
visit the website www.covertn.gov or call 1-866-620-8864.
November 24, 2009
Near Geneva, Particles Finally Come Together With a Bang
By DENNIS OVERBYE
Call it First Bang.
The Large Hadron Collider, the world’s biggest and most expensive science
experiment, produced its first collisions on Monday, said scientists at CERN,
the European Organization for Nuclear Research, outside Geneva.
Seemingly making up for lost time after years of disasters and delays, the
collisions came only three days after engineers had begun shooting the
subatomic particles known as protons around their 17-mile underground
racetrack. The physicists announced that they had succeeded in making the
beams collide, producing what they called “candidate collision events” in the
giant particle detectors in the collider.
The collider has been built over 15 years at a cost of $9 billion to
accelerate protons to energies of seven trillion electron volts apiece and
then slam them together in an attempt to recreate forces and particles that
reigned during the first moments of the Big Bang. But for much of that time,
the only things that have gone bang in the collider were magnets and other
components, most notably in September 2008 after the first time protons
circled the collider.
When the beams began circulating again on Friday, CERN officials said they
expected the first collisions to happen in early December.
“It’s a great achievement to have come this far in so short a time,” CERN’s
director general, Rolf Heuer, said in a news release. “But we need to keep a
sense of perspective — there’s still much to do before we can start the
L.H.C. physics program.”
In the control rooms of the collider and of the four giant particle
detectors, built and staffed by thousands of physicists who have the job of
interpreting the data from the beginning of time, there were cheers and
Champagne.
Michael Tuts of Columbia University said he and his colleagues were “ecstatic
at the news.” But the most important scientific results from the collider are
still far in the future, scientists said.
Monday’s collisions were basically a test of the collider systems’ ability to
synchronize the beams, in which bunches of protons travel along at nearly the
speed of light, and make them collide at the right points. The protons were
at their so-called injection energies of 450 billion electron volts, a far
cry from the energies the machine will eventually achieve.
In the next weeks before a holiday break, CERN hopes to increase the proton
energies to 1.2 trillion electron volts apiece, which would make the hadron
collider officially the most powerful in the world, eclipsing the Tevatron
(900 billion electron volts) at Fermilab in Illinois.
Early next year the first runs devoted to physics research will start at 3.5
trillion electron volts — half the original design energy. To get near 7
trillion electron volts, the engineers say, the machine will have to be shut
down a year from now for a lengthy period of repairs and other work.
Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors Worldwide
The World’s Original Wildlife Warrior
Steve Irwin.
Steve was a true original; he brought energy and passion to everything he
did. Whether it was performing groundbreaking crocodile research on board
his vessel Croc One, filming wildlife documentaries or simply celebrating
his children’s birthdays, Steve didn’t do anything by half. A hard-core
Wildlife Warrior and dedicated family man, Steve did for conservation and
education what no one had ever done before. He brought wildlife conservation
right into people’s living rooms and created a whole new generation of
Wildlife Warriors.
The exceptional life Steve led is a testament to his respect for all
creatures great and small, and his passion for wildlife was matched only by
his passion for family life.
We here at Australia Zoo offer our heartfelt thanks on behalf of the Irwin
family for your condolences and kind words. Many people have expressed a
desire to donate to Wildlife Warriors Worldwide in memory of Steve. All
donations will be greatly appreciated and applied directly to saving animals
in the wild. Steve’s legacy will live on in the continuation of his life’s
work
