Scientists Fire Up The World’s Largest Particle Accelerator

February 23rd, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

300 feet below the French village of Crozet lies the world’s most powerful particle accelerator – the Large Hadron Collider. The goal being building such a monstrosity - no less than unraveling what the universe is made of. In a few months this machine will fire two beams of particles at close to the speed of light at one another to essentially see what happens when they collide.

This vast network of electromagnets, sensors and associative machinery has but one purpose – to shatter atomic particles in search of new knowledge and possibly and possibly matter from the edge of time itself.

When physicists slam atomic nuclei into one another with unparalleled force in the Large Hadron, they hope to create new particles and situations only present at the very first instants of the universe. One of the particles they seek is the Higgs boson, commonly know as the “God particle”. This particle contains the missing evidence in the theory that explains some basic characteristics of the universe – exactly how particles gain mass.

Particle accelerator

It all sounds like something out of science fiction movie when you think of it. Physicists are not exactly excited about describing what could go wrong with the experiments and some fear the byproducts of an experiment gone wrong. In theory anything from creating a black hole to making Godzilla come to life is possible, but scientists are probably more afraid of a failure than blowing France off the map.

There is no doubt that we would be far worse off without such “mad scientific” experiments as X-Rays, gamma rays, radioactivity and a host of other useful phenomena were discovered similarly. Physics has been about change all along and there is no telling what mysteries are still left to be solved.

particles.

At the advent of the 20th Century Einstein’s theory of relativity did not even exist and physicists believed that everything worth knowing was known. Taken in this context it is exciting to think that these scientists might actually produce particles that ceased to exist billions of years ago – then again Godzilla was a quite destructive creature too. I guess we will see what happens – hello “Big Bang Particles” or hold on France.

particle accelerator 2.

There Are 18 Responses So Far. »

Comment by bipolar2 on 25 February 2008:

What “mad” experiments led to discovery and later acceptance of radiation as caused by a new form of energy, nuclear? Did Marie Curie (1867-1934) not use chemical methods to extract potent sources of radiation form pitchblend ore? She discovered and named Polonium (for Poland). She also discovered Radium and later in life established a clinic for its use in treating cancer. None of her experiments were “mad”. On the contrary. Nor, of course, did she have recourse to any sort of particle accelerator. If you don’t know what you’re talking about, please refrain from writing it. And, editors, you’re equally culpable for letting nonsense out into the public domain.

bipolar2
Comment by Mihaela Lica on 25 February 2008:

Bipolar, I suggest that you read the article again before hammering it down - you obviously miss out the point. No one said that these experiments are mad in the sense you insinuate. The author wrote clearly:

There is no doubt that we would be far worse off without such “mad scientific” experiments

Comments like yours take place when people “scan” instead of reading. I may also suggest that you refrain from writing comments when you lack the power to grasp the meaning.
Comment by Digital on 25 February 2008:

Does it make me a bad american that the results from this experiment are infinitely more important then the lives of every actor, athlete, and holiday there is?

I know they’ll never read this, but good luck guys… there are still people out there who appreciate what you’re doing.
Comment by Phil Butler on 25 February 2008:

I think mad science has done some marvelous things for us. Marie Curie huh? And what did she die of there bipolar2? Oh yeah, her own mad science that destroyed her blood cells. Perhaps some precautions in handling tons of radioactive material (is that mad) would have saved her.

Oh, BTW Marie was not alone when she made these discoveries - her husband Pierre and Henri Becquerel had an equal stake in the project. Technically Röntgen discovered radiation when he discovered X Rays, but this distinction was never made.

As far as the article is concerned, I think it is spot on with the Mad Science comment. Marie Curie was mad as a hatter to kill herself with unknown materials. Right?

Always,

Phil
Comment by Voice of Reason on 25 February 2008:

It wouldn’t be fair to compare this with the experiments of Marie Curie and the discovery of X-Rays or Radiation. Those primarily deal with the discovery and uses of matter already present, whether accidental or otherwise.

This could be akin to scientists creating a big red button with the words ’self-destruct’ written on it.
Comment by bwago on 25 February 2008:

Doom-rays, here we come!
Comment by Pwned on 26 February 2008:

Digital….I thought I was alone.
Comment by darth vader on 26 February 2008:

We are all going to F***ing Die!!!!
Comment by A.Alaalas on 26 February 2008:

Yes, Digital, we’d all be so much better off without those insensitive, illiterate actors, athletes and holidays. But then, you were pulling our leg, no? Surely, after shackling the G-particle we must move even further, on to branes and event horizons!
Comment by Kelly on 26 February 2008:

Yes, Marie Curie died from exposure to radioactive materials, we know. Radiation therapy, however, helps reduce the symptoms of cancer and sometimes even helps cure it. So I say good on Madame Curie.
Comment by Dave on 26 February 2008:

This is going to be an interesting experiment. I hope everything goes as planned and they don’t suck us all into a vacuum.
Comment by Cherokawa on 26 February 2008:

Blowing France off the map? Godzilla? Creating a black hole? What are you smoking? No, smashing protons and neutrons (which is what the collider is all about) will not produce any of these.

The collider has several huge superconducting magnets, which facilitate acceleration of these particles, but no, its not a nuclear bomb, nor does it have nearly enough energy to create a black hole. And there’s no “mad science” involved in this - scientists have been craving for this for over 20 years to continue research in basic particle physics. And there are some who think this accelerator is not big enough to show evidence of Higgs boson.

Editors - articles like this do nothing to ease the irrational fear of science that some people have - especially in middle america.
Comment by Mihaela Lica on 26 February 2008:

Cherokawa, the author used metaphors in this article. It’s all about meanings and semantics - it is written with a touch of humor, because this is the TerraHermes style, and I am not going to ask the writers to change that just because some readers don’t have the language versatility to understand a joke. Maybe the article that inspired this entry will puzzle you even more.
Comment by Phil Butler on 26 February 2008:

Wow, now some of us are sure that we are capable of producing particle quantities of a specific range of parameters even though we are unsure what will be produced.

The God particle insinuates that anything from stardust cheeseburgers to the actual essence of God might be derived from mashing atoms. Now we have outlawed Godzilla and narrowed the possibilities to only mundane and inert, harmless matter. HMMM…Marie is up there thinkin: “Hey guys, wear protective gear at least…it would have helped me.” Good lord, where is the sense of humor?

Always,

Phil

PS Is middle America still running from the BLOB?
Comment by BillyWarhol on 28 February 2008:

“Pleasingly, at the British Association meeting of 1903, it fell to Sir George Darwin, Charles second son, to vindicate his un-knighted father by invoking the Curies’ discovery of radium, and confound the earlier estimate of the still living Lord Kelvin.”

from Richard Dawkins Brilliant Book The GOD Delusion.

America is running Phil from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster!

;))
Comment by Karmaniac on 16 July 2008:

Fantastic… Scientists doing what they do best… Trying to be God.

I’m not saying science hasn’t blessed us with some awesome things, but some are better left unknown. They should be focusing on “real” problems like the oil crisis instead of inventing new ones (like how the UN is going to explain France no longer existing) and fiddling around with theories that are going to be argued no matter what.
“But even an endeavor of this scale isn’t going to answer all the important questions of matter and energy. Not a chance.” (From the article linked by Mihaela Lica)

We all want to know how the Earth originally came to be, but can we think about that later when it’s not about to end?

When the Earth was created (GASP! She said “created!”) there were atoms and molecules and all that good stuff, but none of it had a name. It was all nameless and worked just the same. The inhabitants of the world continued to live on without knowing these words and they did just fine… And we’re STILL doing just fine without knowing what pretty colors this experiment is going to produce.

I’m not saying I necessarily want them to fail (I’m not even quite sure where I stand morally with the whole thing), and I certainly don’t want to be hyper-beamed out of existence, but come on people! We have alternative things to worry about right now than satisfying the curiosity of a bunch of college students wearing lab coats and rubber gloves.

Worse case scenario? The world becomes a black hole… oh… is that all? I’d better buy a good pair of sun glasses.

NOTE* I read the whole thing, not only “scanned through it”
Comment by Emma on 8 September 2008:

omg are you nuttsif you ask me this is suicide nay man slaughter
if you are going to fire it why not wate untill we have developed the tech to contain black holes its mad i tell you
Comment by Jose John Perayil on 12 September 2008:

God’s particle is simple…. But “simplicity of God is the problem for man in Complicity…”
I have better theory than Steephan Hawkins…The Unified Theory..and Universal Digrame ,the real Flow Chart of the Universe…
When everybody talks abuot ‘Big bangs’..I have the theory of “small bangs” which is coming under theory of accurasy…
If anyone is really interested can contact me..
email: josejohn.perayil@gmail.com
Ph.No.09341117778(India 091)