Super-Collider re-enacts the conditions of the Big Bang

Big Bang

First test a success as scientist fire up CERN super-collider

Reuters Life!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008

GENEVA - Scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) started up a huge particle-smashing machine on Wednesday, aiming to re-enact the conditions of the “Big Bang” that created the universe.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the largest and most complex machine ever made and the platform for what experts say is the largest scientific experiment in human history.

Tests conducted inside the tightly-sealed chamber, buried under the Swiss-French border, could unlock the remaining secrets of modern physics and answer questions about the universe and its origins.

The 10 billion Swiss franc ($9 billion) machine’s debut came as a blip on a screen in CERN’s control room, with a particle beam the size of a human hair appearing in the tightly-sealed 27-kilometre circular tunnel.

“We’ve got a beam on the LHC,” project leader Lyn Evans told his colleagues, who burst into applause at the news.

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http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=12f39579-e3a9-45e9-a066-7...

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Large Hadron Collider: Best- and Worst-Case Scenarios

By Alexis Madrigal
Wired
September 09, 2008 | 7:34:09 PM

OMG! Have you heard that huge atom smasher in Europe powers up for the first time tomorrow?

Of course you have. You’ve also heard it repeated over and over that the Large Hadron Collider is the biggest, most expensive scientific instrument in history and that it’s going to change our fundamental understanding of the universe.

Well, great, but what does that mean?

We break down how five major physics theories — and the theorists who’ve spent their lives developing them — may be impacted by the discoveries that could emanate from the LHC. We also provide answers to all your LHC FAQ in 140 characters or less, so you can send them to your friends on Twitter.

Basically, the collider is a series of tubes intended to guide protons as superconducting magnets propel them close to the speed of light. You can think of the LHC as the Disneyland of physics experiments. A host of different detectors have been designed to test which theoretical physicists’ math fits the real world.

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http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/the-bosons-that.html

plus another 2 videos on some background at the above link