Quantum Diaries

Zoe Louise Matthews | ASY-EOS | UK

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First Collisions – keep your eyes peeled!

First collisions in the LHC are looking very very imminent. If you want constant updates keep your eye on the comments of this blog!

12 responses to “First Collisions – keep your eyes peeled!”

1. Zoe Louise Matthews says:

   November 23, 2009 at 3:24 am

   I have been in the ALICE control room since midnight and I am not a bit tired. 🙂 I am here with my colleague who is the CTP shifter for the day, and we are excitedly following instructions for various tests.

   I am trying to listen in on a meeting based at CERN at the same time. I love the hectic lifestyle! The atmosphere is one of slight panic and slight giddy thrill 🙂

2. Zoe Louise Matthews says:

   November 23, 2009 at 4:08 am

   A CRISIS AT ALICE! … the coffee machine is out of cups. “We can’t have our physicists deprived of caffeine at such a crucial time!”, a very tired scientist cries down the earpiece of his mobile phone, in french. Someone is on their way “immediately”. 😉

3. Zoe Louise Matthews says:

   November 23, 2009 at 4:21 am

   The ALICE control room is filled with an interesting atmosphere – whispers and quiet anticipation, drowned out by the constant “beep” of the CTP’s beam monitor. It has been turned to full volume so the whole room can feel that something is happening 🙂 It’s still anticlockwise only at the moment. The room is getting fuller by the second. Someone keeps coming up and taking photos – I will try to steal them for later but they will probably go to our website, http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/Public/Welcome.html

   Someone just came up and asked me, “Goodness, why won’t you answer the phone?” 😉 I must admit, when the beam was less frequent, I would hear the monitor beep and pick up the reciever, saying “hello?” to no-one!

4. natasha says:

   November 23, 2009 at 5:05 am

   when is the collisons?

5. Zoe Louise Matthews says:

   November 23, 2009 at 6:45 am

   There have finally been both beams circling at the same time! 😀 I’ts just a matter of time before they are collided! It’s so exciting seeing this all unfold so quickly – many people have been waiting 20 years for this. And it’s finally happening! 🙂

6. Kat says:

   November 23, 2009 at 6:46 am

   Yes, yes, yes. Collisions are all well and good Zoe, but have you got your cups yet?!?!?!?!

7. Zoe Louise Matthews says:

   November 23, 2009 at 6:59 am

   Don’t forget to keep an eye on the twitter feed http://www.twitter.com/cern and check our public page (above) for some cool pics of events!

8. Zoe Louise Matthews says:

   November 23, 2009 at 7:07 am

   No cups and no collisions…yet!

   The room at the moment is incredibly full and people are holding a frantic balance of hard work and manic photo-taking. No-one wants to forget this!

9. Zoe Louise Matthews says:

   November 23, 2009 at 7:18 am

   http://webcast.cern.ch/ live broadcast now! Press conference!

10. Zoe Louise Matthews says:

    November 23, 2009 at 8:22 am

    I am still here…been in the control room for 15 and a half hours, awake for nearly 21, and I am on shift again at midnight…but I am not leaving now! It’s too good to miss! 🙂

11. Zoe Louise Matthews says:

    November 23, 2009 at 10:51 am

    Right – 25 and a half hours awake is my limit, so I will return to tell you what I can when I awake in a few hours. I strongly advise you all keep your eyes on that twiki page. Catch you all later tonight!

12. Marcos Santander says:

    November 23, 2009 at 3:22 pm

    Hi Zoe, my congratulations to you and to the rest of the quantum diaries LHC bunch on this historic moment!