Case Study: Parallel Internet: Inside the Worldwide LHC computing Grid
Face to face with the network that will help scientists discover the origins of the Universe.
By Jon Brodkin , Network World | Techworld | Published: 13:00, 28 April 2008
If you're a fan of particle physics (and really, aren't we all?), by now you know scientists are on the verge of opening the Large Hadron Collider, which will use ultra-powerful magnets to race proton beams around a 17-mile circular underground tunnel and smash them into each other 40 million times a second.
Besides being awesome, these collisions will produce tiny particles not seen since just after the Big Bang and perhaps will enable scientists to find the elusive Higgs boson, which - if theories are correct - endows all objects with mass. The Large Hadron Collider may also help scientists figure out why all the matter in the universe wasn't destroyed by anti-matter, which would have been inconvenient for those of you who enjoy residing in a universe that isn't a great vacuum devoid of life.
Perhaps just as complicated as answering these questions of origin, however, is setting up a worldwide network capable of distributing the mountains of data produced by the seemingly infinite number of particle collisions. The Worldwide LHC Computing Grid was set up to perform this task. Data will be gathered from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), which hosts the collider in France and Switzerland, and distributed to thousands of scientists throughout the world.
One writer described the grid as a "parallel Internet." Ruth Pordes, executive director of the Open Science Grid, which oversees the US infrastructure for the LHC network, describes it as an "evolution of the Internet." New fibre-optic cables with special protocols will be used to move data from CERN to 11 Tier-1 sites around the globe, which in turn use standard Internet technologies to transfer the data to more than 150 Tier-2 centres.
"It's using some advanced features and new technologies within the Internet to distribute the data," Pordes says. "It's advancing the technologies, it's advancing the [data transfer] rates, and it's advancing the usability and reliability of the infrastructure."
The data is first produced in the collisions which occur in caverns 100 metres underground. If all goes according to plan, the first proton beams will be injected into the LHC around mid-June, and will start smashing into each other about two months later.
When proton beams collide and produce new particles, data will be read from 150 million sensors and sent to a counting room where signals are filtered. The interesting data, or "raw data," is what remains, according to CERN. (Read CERN's description of how the grid network operates here.)
Comments
JTankers said: If we delay for a safety study some scientists at CERN may not be the first to discover some new science and some Nobel prizes may be at stakeBut which would more wise conduct a full and independent adversarial peer reviewed safety study first or just turn it on now and discover science as quickly as humanly possibleJTankersLHCConcernscom
JTankers said: why arent CERN scientists allowed to express any personal fears they might have about this ColliderAlleged in the legal action Chief Scientific Officer Mr Engelen passed an internal memorandum to workers at CERN asking them regardless of personal opinion to affirm in all interviews that there were no risks involved in the experiments changing the previous assertion of minimal risk Statisticians generally consider minimal risk as 1-10
JTankers said: Previous safety studies ruled out any possibility of creating microblackholes in a collider But predictions have changed and CERN has estimated the possibility of creating 1 microblackhole per second in the Large Hadron Collider No peer reviewed safety study has ever been produced that I am aware of that speaks to the safety of creating microblackholes on Earth
JTankers said: Professor Dr Otto E Rssler winner University of Lige Chaos Award and Ren Descartes Award Dr Raj Baldev Director of the Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research and others are warning of a very real very possible very present danger to the planet from the Large Hadron Collider Dr Rssler predicts that a single microblackhole could destroy the planet in as little and 50 months His calculations have been released for peer reviewIf this experiment is so safe why arent CERN scie
JTankers said: Einsteins relativity theory predicts that micro black holes will not decay but instead only grow and Hawking Radiation contradicts relativity is unproven and is disputed by at least 3 peer reviewed studies that find no basis in science to support itThe LHC Safety Assessment Group has been trying for months to prove safety without success However science may still be a few years away from being able to provide reasonable assurance of safety or not at least with respect to creation of micr
JTankers said: But are you aware that a few of the worlds most eminent scientists are warning that destruction of the planet is not an unlikely outcomeCERNs web site states that we have not been destroyed by effects of cosmic rays and micro black holes will evaporateHowever cosmic rays strike relatively stationary objects and results travel too fast to be captured by Earths gravity while colliders smash particles head on may focus all energy to a single point and can be captured by Earths gravity