The Hindu : Front Page : Kerala student joins Geneva experiment

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Tuesday, Mar 23, 2010
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Kerala student joins Geneva experiment

Abdul Latheef Naha

He had disputed the black hole theory of Stephen Hawking

— Photo: Special Arrangement

C.V. Midhun with the memento awarded by the Malappuram District Panchayat.

MALAPPURAM: A Kerala college student, who had disputed the famous black hole theory of noted scientist Stephen Hawking, has become part of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment. The LHC, a gigantic instrument placed near Geneva, is studying the impact of particle collision.

C.V. Midhun, a second semester B.Sc. Physics student of the Majlis Arts and Science College at Puramannur in Valanchery, is taking part in the LHC experiment online from his home at Naduvattom.

Midhun was given online access to the experiment by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), the world's largest particle physics laboratory, following the “relativity theories” put forth by him. He had claimed that there would be no black hole when protons collide. He made his point by measuring the energy generated by the cosmic rays coming out of particle collision and comparing it with that of the cosmic rays from the sun.

“The energy of the sun's cosmic rays has been found much more than that of the cosmic rays from particle collision,” he says. “As there is no black hole in the sun, it is unlikely that there will be a black hole when subatomic particle beams collide at very high energy inside the circular accelerator.”

Midhun, son of Vallabhan Namboothiri, a temple priest, and Sreedevi, a teacher, first sent his theory to the Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc) in Bangalore. The IISc scientists, realising the significance of his theories, directed him to the CERN.

Impressed by his theories, the CERN authorities inducted him into the LHC experiment. They made him part of the ATLAS collaboration, one of the six particle detector experiments of the LHC.

On Saturday, the Malappuram District Panchayat felicitated Midhun at a function. Union Minister of State for Railways E. Ahamed presented him with a memento and he was congratulated by a host of political leaders and people's representatives.

Corrections and Clarifications

( In a report “Kerala student joins Geneva experiment” (March 23, 2010), the contraction of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research was given as CERN, leading to a query. The detail is right and CERN is the European Organisation for Nuclear Research. The name is derived from the acronym for the French Conseil Europé pour la Recherche Nuclére, or European Council for Nuclear Research, a provisional body founded in 1952 with the mandate of establishing a world-class fundamental physics research organisation in Europe. At that time, pure physics research concentrated on understanding the inside of the atom, hence the word ‘nuclear'. When the organisation officially came into being in 1954, the Council was dissolved, and the new organisation was given the title European Organisation for Nuclear Research, although the name CERN was retained.)

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