Let's Smash Some Stuff!

How about this? I'm totally posting breaking news...

A few hours ago, the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) began circulating protons in both directions through the magnetically controlled 17-mile ring, according to an article in the Times. Some may remember that the machine failed last year during power testing due to a faulty electrical connection. As of Friday, however, the collider was once again powered on and began circulating protons through its big, circular tube. This morning, another milestone was reached as the collider began circulating a second beam of protons. In fact, as I am writing this, low-energy proton collisions are taking place underneath the ground along the border of France and Switzerland, where the LHC is located, in the largest 'atom smasher' ever constructed. How freakin' cool is that?

As safety tests are conducted while the proton beams are ciculating, engineers will be ensuring that the system is ready for sustained high-power function. Once safety tests are complete, the power will be increased incrementally along with the number of circulating protons, and although safety tests will continue, true physics experiments will begin as high-energy collisions begin taking place. When the energy is increased to 1.2 tetraelectronvolts, which is expected to be fairly soon if things go well, the proton collisions will be at a speed and energy never before observed in a collider before. The massive magnets that control the motion of the beams essentially aim the beams at one another so that circulating protons smash into protons circulating in the opposite direction in locations where detectors are able to monitor the conditions that occur. The results of these studies, theoretically, will shed light on the makeup of the universe and how the universe was formed. It is also believed that never-bofore-seen elementary particles, such as the elusive Higgs boson, will be observed.

Most of the information gathered from these experiments is supposed to be pretty in-depth as far as quantum physics is concerned, so the standard layperson walking down the street will be unaffected by any of the things going on at the LHC. However, for those of us interested in physics and, you know, the universe, there's about to be some pretty wild stuff going down. It may take a lot of time for the data gathered during the experiments to be analyzed thoroughly enough for true conclusions to be drawn, but in the meantime, we can sleep easy at night knowing that in a strange land (the Franco-Swiss border), pale little men in lab coats (physicists and engineers) are tirelessly toiling at unlocking the secrets of the cosmos.