EoW November 2009

Where there’s a will... It’s a feature of working on a bi-monthly magazine that, like Janus, I’m always looking a little behind and a little ahead. As I write, the wire SEAsia show is yet to happen; I’malready looking to Düsseldorf, while much of the editorial in this issue reflects events from the summer. So when, in the leader column of the November 2008 issue, I celebrated the physics behind Cern’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in September ‘08 I had no idea that the LHC would operate for just nine days before the most expensive badly soldered joint in history caused huge damage and a complete shutdown. As I write the LHC is still out of action, and when it starts up again sometime in November 2009 it will run at only half-power. It means that particles will be sauntering through the tunnel, in two directions, at a mere 3.5TeV (tera- electron volts) and producing collisions of 7TeV (originally anticipated at 14TeV). That said, its power exceeds that of any other operating collider, and will still be powerful enough to produce results. Beset by problems though it may have been, we shouldn’t allow the setbacks to obscure what could be the LHC’s first and arguably most valuable lesson. The LHC is a compelling demonstration of the power of global co-operation – at least between scientists and engineers. Apart from the 7,000 physicists from 80 countries who have worked on this project, thousands of engineers (and engineering businesses) have been employed to develop the new techniques and technologies needed to bring this project to completion. And given its potential, its cost of $6 billion (provided by Cern’s 20-nation partnership) seems very little, compared to even the original £46 billion paid out to UK banks last year. Cern and its LHC have confirmed what countries working together can achieve. In 2009, as we mark the 70 th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World

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