The world's largest particle accelerator complex, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), will be switched on for the first time tonight! Funded and built in collaboration with over eight thousand physicists from over eighty-five countries and hundreds of universities and laboratories, the LHC provides the possibility of a significant step toward providing answers to some of the most fundamental questions about our universe.
The experiments conducted are expected re-create the circumstances surrounding the Big Bang, in an effort to reveal new data that will help to unify three of the four known fundamental forces: electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force (gravity being the fourth). Additionally, other new supporting evidence may be uncovered for supporting existing theories of physics including: supersymmetric particles, compositeness (technicolor), extra dimensions, strangelets, micro black holes and magnetic monopoles. When in operation, about seven thousand scientists from eighty countries will have access to the LHC. Physicists hope to use the collider to test various grand unified theories and enhance their ability to answer their questions.
This is such an exciting time for humans-- I can hardly wait to hear about these scientists' findings! Visit the Large Hadron Collider homepage for more info.
1 comment:
It will hardly be so easy and fast to gather the relevant data in order to support or disprove the various theories right now. But yes, I would agree, with the LHC it should hopefully be a step forward.
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