Cern: LHC second test a success

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The second and final beam synchronization test for the LHC, or Large Hadron Collider, ended successfully Monday.

Photo, copyright 2008, Cern: Particle tracks seen in the LHCb vertex detector (VELO) and triggered by the experiment's calorimeter during synchronization tests last weekend

Particles have now been sent clockwise and counter-clockwise. "Both the counter-clockwise and clockwise tests are part of the preparations to ready the LHC, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, for the eventual acceleration and collision of two beams at an energy of 5 TeV per beam," Cern announced. The LHC will produce beams seven times more energetic than any previous accelerator. The event is expected to take place by end 2008 but a key date in the process is 10 September, when Cern will make its first attempt to circulate a beam around the LHC. It will be available to the public through a Cern webcast and also distributed via Eurovision.

Background, "Cern closes the circle with final seal on LHC," 7 November 2007, GenevaLunch

Cern's first LHC test a success

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The particles injection test on the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at Cern 8-10 August was a success, the European Nuclear Research Center reports.

They shared details in an e-mail: "The synchronization of the LHC's clockwise beam transfer system and the rest of CERN's accelerator chain was successfully achieved last weekend. Tests began on Friday 8 August when a single bunch of a few particles was taken down the transfer line from the SPS accelerator to the LHC. After a period of optimization, one bunch was kicked up from the transfer line into the LHC beam pipe and steered about 3 kilometres around the LHC itself on the first attempt. On Saturday, the test was repeated several times to optimize the transfer before the operations group handed the machine back for hardware commissioning to resume on Sunday. The anti-clockwise synchronization systems will be tested over the weekend of 22 August."

Cern runs first LHC test 9 August

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Cern's LHC (Large Hadron Collider) will have its first synchronization run this weekend, 9-10 September, a key step in the process to get the world’s most powerful particle accelerator up and running. Cern (European Organization for Nuclear Research) announced late Thursday that the first attempt to circulate a beam in the LHC will be made 10 September. According to Cern, "The LHC  producing beams seven times more energetic than any previous machine, and around 30 times more intense when it reaches design performance, probably by 2010. Housed in a 27-kilometre tunnel, it relies on technologies that would not have been possible 30 years ago. The LHC is, in a sense, its own prototype."

Starting up the machine is a long process that starts that starts with cooling down each of the machine’s eight sectors. This is followed by the electrical testing of the 1600 superconducting magnets and their individual powering to nominal operating current. These steps are followed by the powering together of all the circuits of each sector, and then of the eight independent sectors in unison in order to operate as a single machine.

By the end of July, all eight sectors were at their operating temperature of 1.9 degrees above absolute zero (-271°C). The synchronization phase scheduled for this weekend begins with synchronizing the LHC with the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) accelerator, which forms the last link in the LHC’s injector chain. Timing between the two machines has to be accurate to within a fraction of a nanosecond. This weekend's work involves the clockwise-circulating LHC beam, with the second synchronization to follow in coming weeks. Cern notes that "Tests will continue into September to ensure that the entire machine is ready to accelerate and collide beams at an energy of 5 TeV per beam, the target energy for 2008. Force majeure notwithstanding, the LHC will see its first circulating beam on 10 September at the injection energy of 450 GeV (0.45 TeV)."

Television coverage of the start-up will be made available through Eurovision..

Business buzz: Richemond, online Olympics, Lift goes East

Lake Geneva region (GenevaLunch) - This week's business buzz, in the Lake Geneva area:

Le Richemond has new manager

Patrick Mossu has taken up the post of general manager at the five-star Le Richemond hotel in Geneva. The Rocco Forte hotel, built in 1875 across from the Brunswick Gardens, is one of Geneva's landmark hotels. It was closed for 20 months for a complete renovation before opening again in September 2007.

Mossu has moved from the Kempinski Grand Hotel Geneva, which as general manager he opened in 2007. His move to the Richemond cements his return to the Lake Geneva area, where he grew up, and where he attended the Lausanne Hotel School before working in several leading hotels around the world.

Lift Asia looks at the post-web browser future

Lift Asia is gearing up in Seoul, South Korea and organizer Laurent Haug, who started the very successful Geneva-based Lift conference series, notes that going there from Geneva is surprisingly affordable: CHF2,000-2,500, flight and hotel. The conference raises an important question: what happens after the web browser? At the end of a decade during which the Internet revolutionized our lives and organizations, the network is now moving beyond the computer screen, invading objects, cities, toys, cars or medical devices. Where will the next big changes happen? What are the world's most innovative people working on right now?

Now I phone, now I don't

iPhones, the long wait: according to Le Temps, those who ordered but do not yet have their iPhones, either through Swisscom or Orange, will have to wait at least two weeks longer, with neither company giving a precise delivery date, nor are they saying how many they sold.

Put that in your pipe - but don't smoke it

The Bloomberg Initiative, announced in New York last week by Bill Gates and New York Mayor Bloomberg, is accepting grant applications until 13 August: "proposals must focus on achieving policy change that will lead to substantial reductions in tobacco use. Grants are funded in the amounts of US$10,000 to $500,000." Grants have already been given for a number of projects in Asia and some in Africa.

Olympics fun online

The Olympics have just become a lot more fun. The staid old site of Lausanne-based IOC has had a makeover, unveiled Monday evening for the Beijing Summer Games. It's far easier to navigate than the old site, but it also offers a wealth of sporty things to do, from playing an official Olympics mini-game against other online players from around the world to getting tips from personal trainers on a variety of subjects. Even the old standbys, such as looking up world records and getting explanations about sports, have been brightened up.

Cornavin to get the latest in drugs, explosives detection

Geneva, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve, Fre) - Geneva's Cornavin train station will soon have the latest in ion mobility spectrometers, the drug and explosives technology frequently used at airports to detect even very small traces of chemicals. At a cost of CHF70,000, according to the Tribune, customs officials should be able to use the technology to detect substances in an area, then use sniffer dogs to pick out the culprit(s).

Photo: by the train tracks on arrival at Geneva Cornavin station

EPFL names Kudelski manager as VP for innovation

Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Adrienne Corboud Fumagalli, 50, has been named vice-president for Innovation and technology transfer at EPFL, the federal polytechnic school in Lausanne. She is currently executive vice president of business development for the Kudelski Group, a world leader in encryption technologies and digital systems. Corboud Fumagalli will pursue the projects initiated by Jan-Anders Månson, says the EPH board press release, focusing particularly on developing EPFL's Innovation District, the Science Park and partnerships with industry." She is an economist, specialized in media, and has helped Kudelski develop its mobile phone business. From 1996 to 2000 she worked for Swisscom, where she oversaw the development of its online activities.

Her contract runs from 1 September 2008 to 2012.

Photo, Alain Herzog, courtesy EPFL

Vaud police test break-ins pilot e-mail alert programme

Vallée du Joux, Vaud (GenevaLunch) - Vaud police this week have put to work their new Infoprév programme of e-mail message alerts about break-ins, to local households. The programme is designed to encourage people to be on the alert and tighten security when the risk appears to be higher than usual. Police are using the system for a series of home robberies that began 10 July near Brassus, Sentier, Lieu. A first e-mail alerted people 10 July, within hours of six break-ins, and provided security recommendations.

A second was sent 14 July after a second series, with these  details: the crimes appear to have been committed by groups of 2-6 men, coming into Switzerland from France, generally of Eastern European origin, driving cars with plates that are French, German, Austrian and Romanian. The robberies are carried out in the evening, for the most part. The public has been invited to look out for cars parked near the French border, particularly on little used roads, and to send police the license plate details: telephone 117.

Police say the pilot project will be evaluated in coming weeks and if it is seen to be effective it will be implemented throughout the canton, but not for some months.

Encrypted email an option for ultra secret communication

Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss technology is now providing customers with an electronic alternative to registered mail. Emails with sensitive information can be encrypted and sent to someone who will need a code to view it, thus avoiding third parties from reading it.

Picture @ Die Schweizerische Post

The Swiss Post uses a web-based alternative linked to your mobile phone number called IncaMail 2.0. The postal agency says the service uses web-based Swiss cryptotechnology that does not require additional software. If required, the Post provides the sender with dispatch time confirmation, downloading of the electronic letter with a digitally-signed postal receipt and postal certificate (digital ID and electronic signature of Swiss Post).

Additional information: World Radio Switzerland carries an interview with the CEO of IncaMail on the new technology.

iPhone mania cools as phones run out

Photos: no phones, but plenty of croissants left at 08:00 in Sierre, Valais.

Valais and Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Six hundred people at midnight in Zurich, 400 in Geneva and smaller numbers across the country at 06:30 Friday as Swisscom shops opened early: buyers turned out in force to deplete stocks. By 08:00 in Sierre, 20 people were still waiting and sales staff were saying most would have to put their names on a list to wait for the phone. Croissants offered to customers cheered up only a few of those waiting for word on whether they would get a phone. There were still iPhones available in some shops that opened later, such as Interdiscount.

Orange, the other company selling Swiss iPhones, denounced the early openings, reports RSR. Switzerland is the rare country to have more than one carrier, contrary to early reports that Swisscom would likely have exclusive rights. Since employees are not allowed by law to work at night, the Zurich Swisscom shop was able to remain open only because Swisscom top management sold the phones.

The phenomenon was international, with New Zealanders waiting in line for days to be the first in the world to have the new phone.

Those buying the phone are 73% male and 62% are under age 35, according to CNN, although it remains to be seen if these statistics hold up outside the US, with figures not yet available.

iPhone madness catches on in Switzerland

Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swisscom will sell the first new generation Apple iPhones at 12:01 Friday 11 July at its shop on 28 Fuesslistrasse in Zurich, with customers served by members of Swisscom's executive board, and starting at 22:00 it will offer refreshments to customers who line up to wait for the store to open. Christian Neuhaus, spokesperson, says he can't recall the company ever having a product that has generated this level of excitement. Another 100 shops throughout Switzerland will open specially at 06:30 Friday morning to sell the iPhone.

Contrary to earlier reports, the iPhone will not be sold through Swisscom's online shop, only in its own or partner's stores, Neuhaus confirmed to GenevaLunch.

Background:
"Apple's iPhone to go on sale 11 July," 1 July 2008, GenevaLunch
"Swisscom and Apple sign iPhone agreement," 14 May 2008, GenevaLunch