The news services can't seem to agree with one another on just what's caused the delay. I guess it's safe to assume a magnet (or more) was damaged.

Frustratin'! I can only imagine the frustration of the folks working the LHC, though.

USA and India collaboration for the magnets and cryos.

Awww... I was sooo ready to form some kind of conspiracy theory about American wacko tin foil hatters infiltrating and sabotaging the parts to keep a black hole from swallowing the earth.   (It worked in "Contact.&quot

ROFL!

Is there even an English equivalent of a nanometer?

Hell, forget nanometers. We use that measure in cell biology. This is subatomic physics. Is there an English equivalent of a femtometer?

Nuuuu! Now it's off 'till spring.

That's a very good question. My 'gut' says no because there have been other plans for ones even bigger than the LHC.

I think there is a lot more time, money, and personnel that can be directed toward it. There's plenty of room. Did you see the size of the control area?

Perhaps if we can get Fermilab out of their collective patchwork pajamas, CERN can do more.

Actually, it is about 100 meters underground. But I get your point.

It took a long time to get the RHIC working : http://www.bnl.gov/rhic/

It took a while to get the tevatron functional : http://www-bdnew.fnal.gov/tevatron/

Granted, neither of those have near zero kelvins operating 'temps', but they are pretty complex in their own right.

The upgrades to the Tevatron are on a massive scale, but since it is currently a Republican America the money is slow. Read one issue of their newsletter and you will become even more pessimistic about the future of America's HEP program.

The points of importance of High Energy Physics with regard to space travel are many including fueling, energy efficiency, limits of matter, even to the point of possibly constructing any necessary missing elements from the destination 'planet' (I am not talking fully functioning replicators Trek-tards). Without a nearly complete knowledge (not hypothesis) of matter, we'd be doomed before getting out of the solar system.

As far as carrying humans en masse away from here, I would ask: "Why en masse?" Can't we leave a few at a time heading in different directions? OK more than a few, but not too many.

For a sperm metaphor, we don't just grow them until they're so big that they will eat the egg. We make lots so a few have a chance to find it.

Nothing at all.

Compared to the LHC, most spacecraft are child's play. You don't need to have a spacecraft at near absolute zero for it to operate.

Would you stop going on about your little brother?  I KNOW it was just a dream!  I KNOW I didn't have an anal probe!  And I KNOW that I'm not under alien control!!!

The interstellar travel thing aggravates me on two levels.  First, it's make believe science.  It's essentially the same argument theists use:  Well, even if there's no evidence for god that you know about right now in the universe, it doesn't mean he doesn't exist!

Compare that with:  Yeah, but in the future, despite the 1001 empirical, physical limitations, and the virtually insurmountable energy requirements, technical hurdles, and geopolitical implications, you can't prove that humanity won't completely defy its nature and achieve miraculous technical wonders that defy the laws of physics, and we'll all get to go on a trip to the stars!

I love sci fi as the next guy, but if we're talking about being rational, it's not rational to suppose that any of that will ever happen.

The second way it irks me is that so many people use uninvented future technology as a safety net to allow us to do whatever we want now.  "Don't worry about global warming.  Technology will save us.  If it doesn't, technology will save us by letting us go to other planets!  Don't worry about overpopulation.  We'll figure out how to shield a whole planet from solar radiation and build a colony on mars.  After that, we'll figure out how to overcome the force of gravity and build one on all the moons of Jupiter!  Then, we'll colonize the whole galaxy!!"

I don't give a rat's ass if it's technically possible for biological beings to travel through interstellar space.  The fact is, if the temperature of the ocean rises three degrees in the next hundred years, it's not going to matter one bit.  And if even one person thinks that everything will be ok because technology will save us, then this is an irrational belief that is causing people to live irrationally.

I'm actually not done with this.

To call thinking about future possibilities make-believe science doesn't seem fair.

Granted, there are some real 'woo-woo' ideas, but damn I never thought inter-stellar travel would be put into that category. I'm not talking about 'warp drives', 'wormholes', or 'folding time' or any of that crap.

There are some real challenges to the idea, but to just outright say, "It will never happen, no matter what you do." bespeaks more of THEISTIC arguments than placing a little bit of hope in technological advancement.

AND to denigrate the human race as a whole with the comment "... humanity won't completely defy its nature..." What exactly do you perceive human nature to be? Do you see us all as cavemen with clubs beating on a monolith while poorly composed music plays in the background?

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry that dealing with 'umpteen zillion' theists has jaded you to the point of thinking that the smarter pieces of the race won't be around to keep humanity on track as best it can.

I'm sorry that you have been led to believe that real scientists have been replaced by star trek or stargate fans.

I'm sorry that we haven't discovered enough yet to assuage your worry over future technology, which by its very definition is 'uninvented'.

I'm sorry that some people have been led to believe scientists will be able to work on social problems like overpopulation or global warming.

I'm sorry that all of the possible scenarios for inter-stellar travel presented to you have violated the laws of physics. There are many plans which require our knowledge of physics to even be possible at all (such as orbital slingshot/gravity assisted acceleration)

In my oh-so-humble opinion, the things you have used in analogous comparison to the idea of inter-stellar travel are unfair at best.

I'm not very optimistic when it comes to seeing a manned craft leave our solar system in my lifetime, but EVER? really? EVER? That's just hopeless pessimism and even worse... it's the fundamental basis of dogma.

Now, as advocates of freethought it seems apparent to me that we must keep open (albeit not loose) minds when confronting an idea with our skepticism rather than flat out asserting something in the FUTURE cannot happen.

Oh, and in retrospect, I'm sorry I had to give this more effort to try to convince people that all hope for the human race to go to other stars is not lost on the basis of one electrical connection failure on presently the largest, most complex machine in the world.

1 mil = 25.4 μm. Does that help?