CERN

im a bit confused - is CERN not the LHC, one and the same?

CERN is an organisation.
LHC is a machine.

im a bit confused - is CERN not the LHC, one and the same?

Is NASA the Space Shuttle?

Same thing. CERN is a large organisation that does world-leading nuclear and particle physics research. At the moment their big flag-ship experiment is the LHC.

Bart.

i know CERN is an organisation and LHC is the large hydrogen collider, but what albertw wrote above:

Didn't see anything about that in the news. If they are shutting down more then its good news. Means the LHC might actually start operating in May.

I dont follow this - is there a second collider/accelerator?

i know CERN is an organisation and LHC is the large hydrogen collider, but what albertw wrote above:

Didn't see anything about that in the news. If they are shutting down more then its good news. Means the LHC might actually start operating in May.

I dont follow this - is there a second collider/accelerator?

They have three tunnels, a linear one, a small loop and a big loop. Over the years the same tunnels get re-used for different experiments. The LHC is in the big loop but it may also be in the other ones, not sure. Basically, the actual tunnels are around for decades but the coliders within them change far more regularly.

Bart.

thanks for clearing that up Bart. i thought it was just the one, though id heard they were working on another one.