Leading European physicists will feast on a molecular gastronomy buffet at the inauguration of the multi-billion dollar machine designed to shed light on the "Big Bang," a statement said Thursday.
The buffet will be the work of award-winning chefs Ferran Adria and Ettore Bocchia. The chefs are famed for their molecular gastronomy cuisine which involves using different textures, temperatures and combinations as well as unusual cooking techniques.
The inauguration ceremony on October 21 would also feature exhibitions, an audiovisual concert and the music of Philip Glass, said the statement by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN).
The giant experiment called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) took nearly 20 years to complete and cost six billion Swiss francs (3.76 billion euros, 5.46 billion dollars) to build in a tunnel complex under the Franco-Swiss border.
The LHC was launched to global fanfare on September 10 but almost immediately hit problems due to a faulty electrical connection which caused a massive helium leak.
As a result the experiment itself will be out of action for almost eight months but officials said earlier the inauguration would go ahead as planned.
The LHC aims to resolve some of the greatest questions surrounding fundamental matter, such as how particles acquire mass and how they were forged some 13.7 billion years ago.
© 2008 AFP
Related stories:
Buffets and bigwigs as CERN inaugurated... just not with a bang
Europe's leading physicists swapped their lab coats for their best suits Tuesday for the official inauguration of a multi-billion dollar machine designed to shed light on the "Big Bang."
Astronomers use gamma-ray burst to probe star formation in the early universe
(PhysOrg.com) -- The brilliant afterglow of a powerful gamma-ray burst (GRB) has enabled astronomers to probe the star-forming environment of a distant galaxy, resulting in the first detection of molecular gas in a GRB host galaxy. By analyzing the spectrum of light emitted in the GRB afterglow, the researchers are gleaning insights into an active stellar nursery in a galaxy so far away it appears as it was 10 billion years ago.
Star Light, Star Bright, Its Explanation is Out of Sight
(PhysOrg.com) -- A mysterious flash of light from somewhere near or far in the universe is still keeping astronomers in the dark long after it was first detected by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in 2006. It might represent an entirely new class of stellar phenomena that has previously gone undetected in the universe, say researchers.
ALMA observatory equipped with its first antenna
High in the Atacama region in northern Chile, one of the world's most advanced telescopes has just passed a major milestone. The first of many state-of-the-art antennas has just been handed over to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) project. ALMA is under construction on the plateau of Chajnantor, at an altitude of 5000 m. The telescope is being built by a global partnership, including ESO as the European partner.
Free Electron Lasers and You: An LCLS Primer
(PhysOrg.com) -- In a few short months, the Linac Coherent Light Source will start operation as the world's first hard X-ray free electron laser, pushing SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to the frontier of photon science. Using SLAC's linac to drive a free electron laser, or FEL, the LCLS will generate X-rays an eye-popping 10 billion times brighter than the current cutting-edge technology, while simultaneously providing pulses lasting less than one millionth of one billionth of a second.
Warning system could protect Europe's giant atom-smasher
Europe's giant atom-smasher, which broke down only days after being switched on with great fanfare, may restart in July or August with a new warning system to try to prevent future mishaps, its operators said Friday.
An emergency brake in the brain
Brain researchers at the University of Oslo in Norway have penetrated deeply into the innermost secrets of the brain to find out how brain cells can survive a stroke. Strokes are usually caused by occlusion of one of the blood vessels in the brain. When blood is prevented from supplying vital oxygen and energy to the brain cells, their electrochemical balance is upset, and they cause damage to themselves and to the surrounding brain cells before they collapse and die. Often this affects the memory centre, the hippocampus, where the cells are particularly vulnerable.
Jupiter's rocky core bigger and icier, according to new simulation
(PhysOrg.com) -- Jupiter has a rocky core that is more than twice as large as previously thought, according to computer calculations by a University of California, Berkeley, geophysicist who simulated conditions inside the planet on the scale of individual hydrogen and helium atoms. The results were published Nov. 20 in
Astrophysical Journal Letters.