God is sabotaging the Large Hadron Collider

Helium leakages, power outages and year-long magnet repairs must make Large Hadron Collider (LHC) the world’s most costly and ill-fated experiment.

Now, University of Copenhagen physicist Holger Bech Nielsen claims that the machine’s run of bad luck may be down to a ‘back-to-the-future’ effect, whereby the machine is doomed to failure by its own future.

This is according to the British news website Timesonline.co.uk.

Rife with doomsday theories

God shuffles the cards for CERN

»Go in to the reception at Niels Bohr, and wait for them to tell you that I am always late.«

This was the e-mail instruction from Holger Bech Nielsen, Professor of Physics at the Niels Bohr Institute, a Danish household name and the man behind the so-called 'God's will’ formula. A formula that introduces predetermination into the world of high energy physics and blames the Almighty for the misfortunes of the costly and ill-fated Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of CERN in Switzerland.

As we go to press, the LHC has yet to find the elusive Higgs Boson particle.

Art and physics collide at Niels Bohr

Hundreds of LED bulbs on the outside of Nils Bohr Institute (NBI) in Blegdamsvej will transmit live signals from particle collisions at the Large Hadron Collider physics experiment in CERN, Switzerland.

See pictures from the Colliderscope opening event here.

The new art installation, called NBI Colliderscope, is the work of artists Christian Skeel and Morten Skriver, in collaboration with Niels Bohr researchers Clive Ellegaard and Troels C. Petersen.

World breakthrough for LEGO Atlas detector

The model of a key part of the laws-of-physics-busting Large Hadron Collider is now to go on a world tour.

This is after it, a 1:50 scale LEGO model of the particle accelerator's Atlas detector, has become a cult phenomenon on the internet. The model, made by post doc Sascha Mehlhase of the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, was viewed by more than 23,000 people (unique visitors) from throughout the world on UniversityPost.dk after being linked on international physics and technology blogs over Christmas break.

Eating mom and dad

This is not what most professors would say during a lecture when speaking of homes.

But then University of Copenhagen assistant professor Mark Vacher is not like most. Vacher explains to the University Post that the kitchen is where children consume their parent’s love, in the form of tasty meals lovingly prepared for them by mom and dad, which is one of the ways a house is transformed into a home for the residing family.

Excitement after faster-than-light CERN result

Einstein's relativity might be wrong. Last week, a team of more than 150 physicists working at the so-called Opera experiment pre-published a paper showing that neutrinos may travel faster than the speed of light. University of Copenhagen physicists from the Niels Bohr Institute are involved in the research.

A peek into the astronomical observatory

A beautiful old observatory provides a unique facility for the Department for Science Education. A department that has no parallel anywhere else in Denmark: Join us for a glimpse into the unique structures here courtesy of Universitetsavisen.

The old observatory lies partially hidden behind the vegetation of the Botanical Garden, but from the windows and balconies there is a commanding view over the roofs of Copenhagen and the greenhouses of the garden.

Sumo fun at university sports day

Record numbers of students from the Faculties of Science and the Pharmaceutical Sciences participated and competed in various activities and fitness tests at the Science Sport and Testing Day Friday.

See our photo story from the Science Sport and Testing Day here.

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Muslim PhD student works harder during Ramadan

University of Copenhagen oceanography researcher Muchammad Al Azhar from Jakarta, Indonesia, is a practising Muslim. Like millions of others he started the Ramadan month of fasting on 11 August.

During the period of fasting he will not eat or drink anything at all from dawn to dusk.

This lack of food and drink affects Muchammad’s working day, although the effects are not too dramatic, he says.

Read an article about practising Muslim students in Copenhagen here.

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