Sunny, Izzy, Zipp and Pipp discuss the start of the Large Hadron Collider Run 3 · 3:08pm Oct 2nd, 2022
Unlike some fans, I thoroughly enjoyed the new dose of Make Your Mark. Eight episodes of ponies being ponies, with extra glitter, was just what I needed this week as a distraction from the reality of Britain under our new Prime Minister. I’m pleased that the general quality has picked up again. After the brilliant start with the movie, the Chapter 1 special was a little underwhelming, and while fun, Tell Your Tale never really goes beyond a cute side show.
Now I have lots of material to search through for random quirks that I can use as a springboard to talk about irrelevant science. We have botanical chaos, Zipp and her gadgets, Izzy taking crafting to a new level, while Sunny continues trying to make the world better and Pipp livestreams all about it. I have grown very fond of this Maretime Bay community and I want to see more.
We also have a holographic vision of the best G4 princess, with the promise of a steady reveal of the mysterious history that came after her era. Plus a curious new villain, who while clearly no match for Sunny and friends, will certainly keep us on edge as we all hope Misty will be okay (somepony please give her a hug).
Other news: I am sure everyone is excited now that the Large Hadron Collider is colliding again after an unscheduled four-week break. Here’s some random dialogue that I wrote as the news of the technical stop came out.
Sunny: Hello everypony and welcome to this update on the start of Run 3 at the Large Hadron Collider. We are bringing you the latest news from the CERN where proton beams have been circulating around the accelerator ring since April and the detectors have now started collecting data recording all the details of proton collisions at an energy of 13.6 trillion electronvolts. Izzy can you give us the latest about the accelerator?
Izzy: Absolutely, the beams are now running at 6800 GeV. The delivered luminosity is clocking up nicely. There have been frequent beam dumps in the last week or so, mostly due to UFOs – Unidentified Flying Objects – dust particles falling into the beam – but that is to be expected at this point and all under control.
Sunny: Thanks Izzy. Pipp, can you tell us about the ATLAS detector?
Pipp: Sure thing Sunny. Hey Pippsqueaks, it is looking amazing over in the ATLAS control room. The detector systems are running well. Data have been taken with both the New Small Wheels. The extra beam luminosity means we are now seeing more proton collisions than ever, which is creating a lot of pile-up. This is putting a big demand on the readout system and high-level trigger. It’s being pushed to the limit. But this is what we want if we are to find New Physics. Pipp Pipp Hurray!
Sunny: Pipp Pipp Hurray! And Zipp – what new science will all this lead to?
Zipp: Well, there are a lot of measurements to be done. We will be able to probe the Higgs Boson to a new level of precision, measuring how much it interacts with other particles, and searching for signs of new particles it might decay to. This precision measurements of the properties of the particles we know might also give clues to other mysteries, like what happened to the antimatter in the universe, and what is dark matter? We hope to see some more cracks in the Standard Model that could lead us to New Physics Phenomena. Maybe Lepton Flavour Violation.
Sunny: What’s lepton flavour violation? Is this something a smoothie maker should know about?
Zipp: The flavour of a lepton is whether it is an electron, muon, or tau. We have seen neutral lepton flavour changing in oscillating neutrinos. But charged lepton flavour violating processes—such as a muon turning to an electron—are undetectably rare in the Standard Model. Seeing this would be a clear sign of New Physics. The LHCb experiment have seen some hints of this. Is it real?
Izzy: We have some breaking news. Literally breaking.
Sunny: What is it Izzy?
Izzy: There’s been a cooling tower fault at Point 4, which means the cryogenic RF is now being warmed up and they’ll be no beam for at least four weeks.
Sunny: Oh…
Izzy: But don’t worry… It’s just a small thing… We’ll get back to smashing physics in no time.
Same here, except I'm watching goings-on in Britain from across the North Sea. Good luck.
As a nerd who once dreamed of working for NASA in some capacity I am ashamed to say I almost forgot about LHC.
As to MYM I agree that the new episodes are better than the underwhelming "debut episode". That said, I am not entirely convinced that Opaline is anything more than "evil for the sake of evil".
Cooling tower failure means so much different things between nuclear physics and nuclear power...
(My British watching consists of Rumpole on the Baily, which recently has seen several episodes put on YouTube. Quite entertaining.)
5689927
The LHC is still going and will be for some time to come. Whether we discover something exciting and hit the headlines again, or whether we will just spend the next twenty years measuring the properties of the Higgs Boson to greater precision until everyone forgets about us, we have yet to see.
5689938
Well the underlying thermodynamics is the same - you need something to get the heat out of your apparatus, and if it fails, the temperature rises until normal operation isn't possible.
Aww, why does every proclamation of someone legit enjoying the series feel like it's making me feel guilty?
To be clear, I don't hate it, not nearly; I didn't even hate Chapter 1, and of the five episodes of Chapter 2 I've watched thus far, only Ep. 2 is lower. For all that they're easy to fault, and that they do a lot of the faulting themselves, they're no worse than any average kids' pap product one might pick at random, and sometimes a little better. And not just because cute ponies.
And Ep. 3 was a fair bit above the other episodes, if not providing a formula reusable for future episodes, alas.
Point being, I can see why undemanding folks could get some low-key escapism out of it, and if that's all one wants from ponies, it would be prudent to deny this fits the bill. So, glad you had a good time, buddy. Honestly. Now, I'm gonna get back to writing up on the rest, and watching the last three…
My reaction to Make Your Mark so far (I've seen the first four episodes) is maybe between yours and Mike's, in that "thoroughly enjoyed" might be a little over the top for me, but plain "enjoyed" wouldn't be. Except for Sparky.
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I'm not trying to make you feel guilty. Keep writing your blogs.
5690131
I've been feeling this uncertainly with just about every appraisal of it I've read from various folks, including the ones harder on it than myself. It just came out here. Can't really remember why. 
Except perhaps that it can be easy to miss that cute escapism can be enough.
Oh no, nothing to do with you.