📌 TOPINDIATOURS Update ai: The Large Hadron Collider Is Being Shut Down Wajib Baca

The Large Hadron Collider is going to be shut down — not permanently, but for a pretty long time — and the famous atom smasher’s eventual final retirement is also something that top scientists are now considering.

A 16-mile ring-shaped tunnel near the Swiss-French border, the underground particle accelerator is designed to replicate the cosmos’s extreme conditions shortly after the big bang by whipping up particles to near light speed, at which point physics begins to become extremely weird and counterintuitive. In 2012, scientists used the LHC to discover the existence of the Higgs boson, an elementary particle that, through incredibly esoteric quantum properties, is essentially responsible for giving all other particles their mass.

Even something responsible for one of the most important scientific discoveries in history needs a facelift, however. Beginning in June, engineers will start upgrading the device so that it can carry out ten times the number of particle collisions it currently can do, something that will allow for far more experiments to be conducted, yielding still more troves of data. The project, dubbed the high-luminosity LHC, will take some five years to complete — and while surely worth it in the long run, that’s an immense amount of down time.

Rest assured, the LHC won’t be going dark without leaving physicists quite a bit of homework to complete before its return, according to Mark Thomson, the new director general of CERN, the intergovernmental organization and physics lab that oversees the particle accelerator.

“The machine is running brilliantly and we’re recording huge amounts of data,” Thomson, a professor of experimental particle physics at the University of Cambridge, told The Guardian. “There’s going to be plenty to analyze over the period. The physics results will keep on coming.”

The LHC will be offline during almost all of Thomson’s term, which started on New Year’s Day. In fact, CERN doesn’t expect the high-luminosity LHC to be operational again until mid-2030. But while it may sound like Thomson is taking the reins at a less exciting period in the device’s history, he says he’s thrilled to be giving it a makeover. 

“It’s an incredibly exciting project,” Thomson told the newspaper. “It’s more interesting than just sitting here with the machine hammering away.”

Thomson is also taking charge as CERN is planning the LHC’s successor. The leading candidate to replace it, per The Guardian, is the gargantuan Future Circular Collider, which at a proposed 56 miles in circumference would make the Hadron look like the kiddie pool. The first stage, designed to smash together electrons and positrons — the latter are the former’s anti-matter counterpart — would be built in the late 2040s, with another stage taking its place in the 2070s to accelerate protons to even higher speeds.

The FCC’s fate, though, is anything but certain. Its slated cost of nearly $19 billion is too much for CERN to pay on its own, according to The Guardian, and there’s also questions swirling over whether huge particle accelerators represent the best way to probe some of the biggest questions in science, such as the nature of dark matter and dark energy.

Thomson, though, is still a believer in the big atom smasher.

“We’ve not got to the point where we have stopped making discoveries and the FCC is the natural progression. Our goal is to understand the universe at its most fundamental level,” he told The Guardian. “And this is absolutely not the time to give up.”

More on physics: Giant Chinese Orb Detects “Ghost Particles” While Buried Under Mountain

The post The Large Hadron Collider Is Being Shut Down appeared first on Futurism.

🔗 Sumber: futurism.com

📌 TOPINDIATOURS Update ai: French missile-maker to build autonomous command centre

A France-based weapon-maker is set to transform mine countermeasures for the British Navy. Thales will develop the next-generation portable autonomous command centres.

The company has received a major contract by Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) for the design, and development of these new AI-powered command centres. The step marks a significant advancement in the transformation of the Royal Navy’s Mine Counter Measures (MCM) capability.

Step to revolutionize maritime autonomous mine hunting

This contract, which will revolutionize maritime autonomous mine hunting, directly supports the UK’s Strategic Defence vision for a “Hybrid Navy”.

Awarded under the Autonomous Remote Command Centre (RCC) contract, this initial £10 million investment marks the first stage of a programme which has scope to grow to up to £100 million to deliver next-generation mine countermeasures capability for the Royal Navy.

Next-generation of autonomous command centres

“Thales is honoured to continue its central role in delivering mine countermeasures capability to the Royal Navy, building on our proven heritage,” said Paul Armstrong, Managing Director for Underwater Systems activities, Thales in the UK.

“This next-generation of autonomous command centres is part of a flexible suite of autonomous C2 from containerised solutions to vessel operations centres or large, shore operations centres. ​ By collaborating across the supply chain, we are committed to supporting the UK with world-class technology and fostering growth and high-value skilled jobs across our UK operations.”

Thales will lead the integration of multiple unmanned assets, both above and below the water, into becoming a true system of systems for safer, more efficient and agile mine hunting missions. It will provide the hardware, software, training and technical advice collaborating with a robust UK supply chain to enable iterative capability improvement and rapid technology adoption, according to a press release.

The company revealed that its M-Cube Mission Management System will be at the heart of the command centres. This combat-proven software suite is already used by multiple navies worldwide for planning, execution and evaluation of both conventional and autonomous MCM missions. It provides unparalleled situational awareness from the task force to individual unit level.

Thales also highlighted that Mi-Map planning and evaluation software lies at the heart of the Royal Navy’s new remote Command Centre. Featuring advanced AI-powered automatic target recognition, it empowers operators by intelligently filtering and refining raw data, streamlining and expediting the mine hunting process. Leveraging machine learning, Mi-Map continually enhances its database and processes vast quantities of information beyond human capability. Not only it accelerates target identification but also delivers superior accuracy and effectiveness compared to traditional systems, according to the company.

This sophisticated AI is developed with the support of cortAIx, Thales AI accelerator with a global workforce of 800 experts in AI within the Group serving the performance of sovereign advanced systems and sensors in critical environments, as per the release.

The company will initially deliver twin-containerised solutions that will seamlessly integrate platforms, systems and sub-systems. This highly flexible capability, will transform how MCM is conducted – allowing Royal Navy personnel to coordinate a fleet of uncrewed and autonomous assets, greatly increasing operational effectiveness while maximising personnel safety.

Its utility, for autonomous command and control, has application across the seabed warfare domain and aligns with the UK Government’s vision for a ‘Hybrid Navy’ and the Royal Navy’s Long Term Capability Plan for MCM mission systems integration, according to the Thales.

“The threat to the UK is growing, driven by global instability, Russian aggression, and a greater willingness of states and hostile actors to target our critical infrastructure,” said UK Minister for Defense Readiness and Industry, Luke Pollard.

“By embracing autonomous maritime technology, the Royal Navy is pioneering innovation to help keep our sailors safe at sea. This is backed by a UK defence industry delivering world-class capabilities that exemplify how defence acts as an engine for growth.”

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com