The European Organization for Nuclear Research, also known through its French acronym CERN, conducted the most complicated and ambitious experiment ever on the France/Switzerland border. CERN, the same organization that introduced us to the World Wide Web, fired two beams of particles called protons around a 27 kilometer long tunnel that is shaped like a very big doughnut on September 10, 2008. This big circle is called the Large Hadron Collider or LHC. Those involved with this project hope it will shed light on some fundamental scientific principles, Physics in particular. This project wants to recreate the seconds that followed the theorized "Big Bang".
What was remarkable is that two proton beams were steered in opposite directions around the LHC at close to the speed of light, completing about 11,000 laps each second.
How did the scientist steer the beams? MAGNETS! The big ring contains more than 1,000 cylindrical magnets arranged end-to-end.
Here is a great tour of CERN in about three minutes along with great footage of this huge particle accelerator:
CERN and the Large Hadron Collider
And in this YouTube Age, the CERN scientists could not resist. They made a rap song video to celebrate the kick-off of the commencement activities of this historic experiment:
Here is a link to a video from the BBC of the reactions from all those involved with the experiment:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7608639.stm
Stay tuned the first atom smashing will happen next month. Scientists will be using the Large Hadron Collider in an attempt to find the Higgs Bosun particle which gives all matter mass.
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