11.9.08

Biggest Scientific experiment ever conducted on earth

Mark your calendars:
at 1:30 a.m. CDT; Wednesday, Sept. 10,
when the world's largest scientific instrument
is scheduled to begin operation.

That's when scientists will flip the switch on the world's most powerful particle accelerator in an attempt to begin answering some of the oldest scientific quandaries. Large Hadron Collider, and its purpose is simple but ambitious: to crack the code of the physical world; to figure out what the universe is made of; in other words, to get to the very bottom of things.



If the experiment is successful, the Large Hadron Collider can provide insights into fundamental questions, such as whether the universe has more than three dimensions, what it was originally made of and why most of its mass is hidden. It will uncover the most mysterious particle in Universe "The Higgs-Boson" or popularly known as "The God Particle".



James Pilcher is among six University of Chicago faculty members and more than a dozen research scientists and students, both graduate and undergraduate, who have contributed to the design and construction of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. "This year, more than 11 of us will be in residence full-time at CERN, and the rest will be in Chicago," said Pilcher, Professor in Physics.

Along with Indiana University, the University of Chicago also houses a computing center that will support LHC data analysis for various Midwestern institutions.

Pilcher

Physicists at Chicago and elsewhere built the particle detector for the ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) experiment at LHC, with the search for the Higgs boson and supersymmetry in mind.

Theoretically speaking, the long-sought Higgs boson is the particle that endows all objects in the universe with mass. Evidence of supersymmetric particles, meanwhile, could provide an understanding of the dark matter, which makes up about a quarter of the mass of the universe. GENEVA has been called an Alice in Wonderland investigation into the makeup of the universe — or dangerous tampering with nature that could spell doomsday.




Whatever the case, the most powerful atom smasher ever built is set to be started up for testing Wednesday in Switzerland, an event eagerly anticipated by scientists worldwide. The multibillion-dollar Large Hadron Collider will come ever closer to re-enacting the big bang, the theory that a colossal explosion produced the universe.



The machine at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, promises scientists a closer look at the makeup of matter, filling in gaps in knowledge or possibly reshaping theories. The first beams of protons will be fired around the 17-mile tunnel to test the controlling strength of the world's largest superconducting magnets. It will still be about a month before beams traveling in opposite directions are brought together in collisions that some skeptics fear could create micro "black holes" and endanger the planet.



The project has attracted researchers of 80 nationalities, some 1,200 of them from the United States, which contributed $531 million of the project's price tag of nearly $4 billion. The CERN collider is designed to push a proton beam close to the speed of light, whizzing 11,000 times a second around the tunnel 150 to 500 feet under the bucolic countryside on the French-Swiss border.



Once the beam is successfully fired counterclockwise, a clockwise test will follow. Then the scientists will aim the beams at each other so that protons collide, shattering into fragments and releasing energy under the gaze of detectors filling cathedral-sized caverns at points along the tunnel.



CERN dismisses the risk of micro black holes, subatomic versions of collapsed stars whose gravity is so strong they can suck in planets and other stars.
But the skeptics have filed suit in U.S. District Court in Hawaii and in the European Court of Human Rights to stop the project. They unsuccessfully mounted a similar action in 1999 to block the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York state.



Meanwhile, scientists have found innovative ways to explain the concept in layman's terms. The team working on one of the four major installations in the tunnel — the ALICE, or "A Large Ion Collider Experiment" — produced a comic book featuring Carlo the physicist and a girl called Alice to explain the machine's investigation of matter a split second after the big bang.


Shown above in the picture is a view of the LHC (large hadron collider) in its tunnel at CERN (European particle physics laboratory) near Geneva, Switzerland. One huge scientific experiment being launched Wednesday is described as an Alice in Wonderland investigation into the makeup of the universe, or dangerous tampering with Nature that could spell Doomsday for the Earth.

Read this about 'Stroke' & save your life and others as well

During a party, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine and just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. (they offered to call ambulance). They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food - while she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening. Ingrid's husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00pm , Ingrid passed away.). She had suffered a stroke at the party . Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today. Some don't die. They end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead. It only takes a minute to read this...

Remember The 1st Three Letters- S.T.R.




STROKE IDENTIFICATION:
A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE:
Remember the '3' steps, STR . Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke. Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions :

S * Ask the individual to SMILE ..
T * = TALK. Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (eg 'It is sunny out today').
R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS .

If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call the ambulance and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

NOTE : Another 'sign' of a stroke is
1. Ask the person to 'stick' out their tongue.
2. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other that is also an indication of a stroke.

A prominent cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved and it could be your own..

3.9.08

2007-2008 Brilliant year for Indian sports :)

1) The 2007 ICC World Twenty20 was a Twenty20 cricket tournament which took place in South Africa from September 11 to September 24, 2007. It was the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship.

Logo of the 2007 ICC World Twenty20


The Winners - India's Cricket Team



MSDhoni

Twelve teams took part in the thirteen-day tournament, comprising the ten Test playing nations as well as Kenya and Scotland. India; led by MS Dhoni; won the tournament beating Pakistan in the final.

2) At the 2007 World Twenty20 Yuvraj Singh hit six sixes in an over against England's Stuart Broad - a feat only performed three times previously in any form of senior cricket, and never previously in an international match between two Test cricket nations.

Image:Yuvraj Singh.jpg
Yuvi

3) Viswanathan Anand won the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000, at a time when the world title was split. His win in the World Chess Championship 2007 has made him the undisputed World Champion since 2007.


Anand with India's President

In a 2008 article for Time Magazine, Anand expressed satisfaction that the World Championship title had come back to India, the country where Chess originated. Anand has been top of the world rating list since April 2007, is one of four players in history to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list, and has been among the top three ranked players in the world continuously since 1997.

4) 2008 U/19 Cricket World Cup was held in Malaysia from February 17, 2008 to March 2, 2008. The opening ceremony took place on February 15, 2008. The final was played between India and South Africa, which India won by 12 runs by D/L Method. Previously also India had won the world cup in 2000.




5) Exactly 25 years back - The 1983 Cricket World Cup (aka Prudential Cup, 1983) was the third edition of the tournament. It was held 1983-06-09 – 1983-06-25 in England and was won by India. Eight countries participated in the event. The preliminary matches were played in two groups of four teams each, and each country played the others in its group twice. The top two teams in each group qualified for the semi-finals.
The matches consisted of 60 overs per team and were played in traditional white clothing and with red balls. They were all played during the day.
* Trivia: In the Group B match between India and Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells, India were struggling at 17/5. Kapil Dev stepped in and hit a majestic 175 not out, which at that time was the highest individual score in an ODI. Unfortunately this innings was not captured on film because the BBC camera crew staff were on strike that day.

the trophy


Kapil Dev led the Indian victorious team in 1983


Celebrating 25 years - 2008

6) The Indian hockey team was the first non-European team to be a part of the International Hockey Federation. In 1928, the team won its first Olympic gold medal. From 1928 to 1956, the Indian men's team remained unbeaten in the Olympics, garnering six gold medals in a row.

In 2007 India won Asia Cup held at Chennai and also won Hockey Champions Challenge held at Belgium.


7)
The year saw Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar surpass Brian Lara to become the worlds most prolific Test run scorer of all times.


Tendulkar


Lara

8)
World saw in 2008 Rahul Sharad "the Wall" Dravid, the former Indian Skipper touch the 10,000 mark in test cricket. Dravid is the third Indian batsman, after Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar, to have scored 10,000 runs in test cricket. On 14 February 2007, he had already become the sixth player in history and the third Indian, after Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, to score 10,000 runs in ODI cricket.


Dravid

9) * Other major events:
Sourav Chandidas Ganguly, (Nicknamed : Dada, Prince of Kolkata, Bengal Tiger, Maharaja) the former Indian Skipper retired after the series against Australia. In a rare moment of glorious send-off for an Indian cricketer, he ensured that he left on a high with some excellent knocks against Australia, including a century, also completing 7000 runs in Test cricket becoming only the fourth Indian after Sachin, Gavaskar and Dravid to do so. As of October 2008, he was India's most successful Test captain to date, winning 21 tests out of 49 tests he captained and leading India into the 2003 World Cup finals. An aggressive captain, Ganguly is credited with having nurtured the careers of many young players who played under him. The left-handed also has over 11,000 ODI runs to his credit.


During the final match of the2002 Natwest Trophy held in Lords
after a stunning performance by team mates
Sourav Ganguly took off his shirt in public
and brandished it in the air
to celebrate India's winning of the match.

His Records:Ganguly is the seventh Indian cricketer to have played 100 Test matches. He is currently the 4th highest overall run scorer for India in Tests. He is the fourth Indian to have played in more than 300 One Day Internationals.In terms of overall runs scored in ODIs, Ganguly is the second among Indians after Sachin Tendulkar (who has the highest ODI runs in the world) and the fourth in the world. Ganguly has scored 16 centuries in Test matches and 22 in ODIs. He is one of only seven batsmen to score more than 10,000 runs in ODIs. Ganguly has 22 centuries in ODIs, in terms of number of centuries in ODIs, he is only behind Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and Ricky Ponting. Sourav, along with Sachin Tendulkar, formed by far the most successful opening pair in One Day Cricket, having amassed the highest number of century partnerships (26) for the first wicket. Together, they have scored more than 7000 runs at an average of 48.98, now with Sachin he is a world record holder for creating most no. of 50 run partnership in the first wicket(44 fifties). Ganguly is the fourth player to cross 11,000 ODI runs and third player to cross 10,000 ODI runs and so far the fastest in ODI history, after Sachin Tendulkar. He also reached 6000, 7000, 8000 and 9000 ODI runs milestones in the fewest number of matches. Sourav can bowl medium-pacers as well, taking 31 wickets in 99 matches, at an average of 52.47. As of 2006, he is the only Indian captain to win a Test series in Pakistan (although two of the three Tests of that series was led by Rahul Dravid). He is also one of the 3 players in the world to achieve amazing treble of 10,000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches in ODI cricket history, the others being Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya.



Sourav

Anil "Jumbo" Kumble, the former Indian Skipper retired after the series against Australia. Kumble was appointed the captain of the Indian Test cricket team on 8 November 2007. He is one of only two bowlers ever (the other being Jim Laker) to have taken all 10 wickets in a Test innings.


Kumble