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NOVA scienceNOW: CERN
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Program Overview
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The world's largest particle accelerator, slated to go online in
2008, will attempt to create particles that have never been seen
before by colliding protons together at near the speed of light.
Such a discovery would help physicists better understand the basic
building blocks of matter and answer key questions in the field of
particle physics.
This NOVA scienceNOW segment:
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introduces the European Council for Nuclear Research's particle
accelerator, the world's largest and most powerful. The name
CERN is an acronym derived from the French name for the
council—Conseil Européen pour la Recherche
Nucléaire.
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explains that CERN's particle accelerator uses powerful magnets
to accelerate protons around a 16-mile-long track. Each time
round, the protons get a little push from the magnetic field,
which accelerates them, until eventually they are traveling at
nearly the speed of light.
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describes how new particles can be made by causing two beams of
protons to collide. The collision's energy is forceful enough to
break protons into more fundamental particles.
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shows how an array of detectors measures the tracks of particles
resulting from such collisions. By analyzing these tracks,
scientists can tell if a collision created a new particle.
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states that scientists have already discovered a number of
subatomic particles, which are the basis of the Standard
Model—a theoretical model that gives us the best picture
of what matter is made of.
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affirms that the Standard Model is incomplete and that
scientists hope the CERN experiments will reveal new particles
and yield new insights into subatomic structure.
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details the challenge of processing the data generated by the
400 million proton collisions that will occur each second. After
operating for a year, these data will total 10 times the amount
of data that is currently stored on the World Wide Web.
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discusses a key question scientists hope to solve: why so many
particles have mass, since, according to physicists, mass is not
something that is predicted by theory.
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presents the leading idea for explaining mass—the Higgs
field—a field pervading all of space that fundamental
particles interact with to gain their mass.
Taping Rights: Can be used up to one year after the program
is taped off the air.
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