"One short trip for a proton, but one giant leap for mankind!"

[mckitterick]

The world's largest particle accelerator fired for the first time today successfully - and without destroying the Earth! The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) fired a beam of protons at almost the speed of light through its circular, 17-mile tunnel that passes beneath villages and cow pastures along the French-Swiss border. This is the largest experimental device ever built.

Click the image to see the story.

Researchers intend to use the LHC to recreate post-Big Bang conditions and study the Higgs boson and dark matter. “It’s a fantastic moment,” said LHC project leader Lyn Evans, “we can now look forward to a new era of understanding about the origins and evolution of the universe.”


Click the image to see the story.

And I get to work with one of the CERN researchers, Philip Baringer, for the Spring "Science, Technology, & Society" class.

Cool beans!

Chris

Comments

[will-couvillier.livejournal.com]

...makes me wonder about why there are so many black holes out there.

Perhaps intelligence is the birthing media for a different sort of life.

Humm...wonder if it's not too late to change my workshop story.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Heh; perhaps advanced technological civilizations end not with a boom but rather a whooshing collapse into singularity.