[Reblog]: Is the moon full? Just ask the LHC operators

Last weekend, I had the pleasure to be shift leader for ATLAS. It was a real pleasure for many reasons: being right in the middle of the action, surrounded by an international team of enthusiastic and dedicated people, and taking part in great teamwork. The shift crew (about ten people plus dozens of experts on call) must keep the detector running smoothly, tackling every problem, big or small, as fast as possible.

Data was coming in at a high rate and all sub-detectors were humming nicely. Not a glitch in hours so we were getting slightly sleepy nearing the end of the shift around 22:00. So when a colleague from the trigger system (the system that decides which events are worth keeping) called to inquire about recurrent splashes of data, I was rather puzzled.

I quickly went around, asking a few shifters to check their system. Nobody had a clue. Then I took a closer look at this plot that I had not scrutinized before since everything was so seamless… (continua a leggere su Quantum Diaries)