Guardian wrote:Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider at Cern near Geneva are celebrating a major milestone after the machine broke energy records overnight to become the most powerful particle accelerator in the world.
At 12.44am this morning, the LHC accelerated beams of subatomic particles to higher energies than any achieved before in a collider.
Inside the particle accelerator, two counter-rotating beams of hydrogen nuclei are whipped up to more than 99.99% the speed of light. At four points around the machine the beams are crossed, steering the particles into high-energy smash-ups. The collisions recreate in microcosm the conditions that existed moments after the big bang.
Scientists hope that when they sift through the subatomic debris they will find particles that are new to physics, such as the Higgs boson, which gives mass to elementary particles, and possibly particles of dark matter, an elusive substance that clusters around galaxies and accounts for most of the mass in the universe.
Thought this was pretty interesting. Excited to see what they discover.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/nov/30/large-hadron-collider-particle-accelerator












