The LHC assembly
How Russian navy is helping Euro scientists unlock secrets of creation
Published 08 September, 2008, 09:45
The Russian Navy has helped top European scientists in creating a huge new contraption which could reveal the secrets of creation. It’s hoped that the world’s largest particle accelerator, a landmark of modern physics, will help unravel a number of fundamental scientific questions.
The European nuclear research organisation (CERN) needed brass to manufacture a part of the device’s detectors. But when they searched for it they found it in the unlikeliest of places – in Russia's Baltic navy.
There were a lot of unused brass shells there. So the Russian Navy did its bit to help by providing the shells to be smelted for use in one of the detectors.
But that wasn’t the only Russian contribution. Of the six billion dollar project, known as a Large Hadron Collider, Russia funded some 3%. 70 Russian producers were contracted to manufacture elements of the collider.
But in total, more than 700 scientists from Russia were involved in the creation of the collider. Several dozen had a permanent job at the installation, located on the border of France and Switzerland. They often surprised their colleagues by not taking a break on weekends, Savrin said.
The Large Hadron Collider is due to be launched in September. Opposing beams of protons will collide in its 27 kilometre-long underground tunnel, cooled with liquid helium, with a peak energy of 14 TeV, giving researchers insight into the first moments of creation.
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