What the heck is a Large Hadron Collider?
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
If you've woken up today to read, see or hear the words "Large Hadron Collider" for the first time in your life, you're not alone.
Unless you're a science nut you probably won't have been aware that the words refer to the biggest experiment ever, taking place at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva Switzerland today.
Those three words are plastered all over newspapers, scrolling across websites, beaming out of televisions and echoing out of radios across the world today because scientists have created a "Big Bang" machine.
In possibly the biggest international collaboration outside of the United Nations, scientists want to recreate the conditions in which the Big Bang took place to essentially find out what else "matter" is made of.
Deep stuff or what?! Let's go deeper...
They'll do this by beaming hadrons (types of sub-atomic particle) in opposite directions at practically the speed of light through a 17-mile circumference circular tunnel buried deep below the Swiss countryside.
Confused by LHC? Watch the Big Bang rap video
Today sees the introduction of just one beam but in the coming days, two opposite beams will be put into the machine and scientists expect high energy collisions to take place from 21st October.
The aim is for these hadrons to smash into each other with such force that they'll successfully recreate the very moment 13 billion years ago when the universe was created, allowing scientists to look back to the earliest moments of creation and to be able to explain the present state of the universe.
It is hoped that such research could eventually lead to breakthroughs in fields such as medicine and energy generation.
Hang on a minute - they're recreating the Big Bang... surely that's bad?
Not really. The risks of anything going disastrously wrong are insignificantly small.
In fact, experts have universally ridiculed the "infinitesimally small" risk of the LHC creating a giant black hole that will swallow us all up.
Lily Allen's not that worried about wormholes appearing so neither should you be >
More Science/Nature »
A few fun facts about the LHC Big Bang Machine
Large Hadron Collider is today's buzz phrase, so we've decided to give you a few extra special facts about the supposed "Big Bang Machine"...
Wednesday, 10 September 2008, 12.58pm - in Television
What the heck is a Large Hadron Collider?
If you've woken up today to read, see or hear the words "Large Hadron Collider" for the first time in your life, you're not alone.
Wednesday, 10 September 2008, 12.28pm - in Television
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