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Countdown to man's Big Bang begins
Mark Prigg, Science Correspondent9 Sep 2008
Scientists are today preparing to switch on the world's biggest scientific experiment.
The £5billion Large Hadron Collider aims to recreate the conditions moments after the Big Bang that created the universe.
To do this, a massive 27km tunnel has been constructed under countryside in France and Switzerland near Geneva, which will be used to smash protons together at 99.99 per cent of the speed of light.
Tomorrow morning, it will be switched on and the first attempt to send the particle beam around its entire 27km length will be made.
Experts say the LHC is probably the most complex and challenging scientific endeavour since the Apollo programme put astronauts on the moon.
"This is an incredibly exciting time for physics," said Professor Nick Evans of Southampton University.
"The LHC will help scientists to unlock the secrets of our Universe.
"The great thing about this experiment is that we know we must find something new because our current theories don't explain what will happen at LHC. We have some guesses which may or may not be right, but whatever the results, the LHC will herald a new age in our understanding of physics."
The discoveries made by the LHC could also lead to practical applications, it is hoped.
Major spin-offs have already emerged from earlier particle accelerator experiments at CERN, the European nuclear research organisation based in Geneva where the LHC is housed.
It is credited with pioneering radiotherapy machines and even the world wide web. One of the aims of the LHC is to hunt for the Higgs boson, the so-called "God particle".
The Higgs is said to be the so-far undetected key to mass. If scientists can prove its existence, it could pave the way for manipulating the gravity which exists in all mass - rather like Star Trek "tractor" beams.
Professor Brian Cox, from the University of Manchester, is one of the LHC scientists and also played keyboard with pop band D:Ream. He admitted to having received death threats from opponents of the LHC, who claim it could create black holes which could swallow the Earth.
Scientists dismiss such fears as nonsense. "At every stage of understanding the universe better, the benefits to civilisation have been immeasurable," he said.
"None of these big leaps were made with us knowing what was going to happen."
Reader views (34)
Cheers and Congrats!
If something were to go terribly wrong, would it have any direct effect to the planet and or human life?
- Sean, Knoxville,TN U.S.A., 11/09/2008 02:12
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Check this out. Is this amazing?
- Silas Osiohwo, Ceadr rapids, USA, 10/09/2008 14:08
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Simple risk versus reward. Let's plug in the variables shall we? On one side we have the potential to unlock a new understanding of physics and our universe - at the very least expand our current knowledge base. On the other, France gets sucked into a black hole. Hmm...
This is Houston, We're a Go. Godspeed.
- Adam, Houston, TX, 10/09/2008 11:24
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Technical advances in human history have brought equal measures of misery and comfort. This is because what is wrong with mankind is more fundamental than a lack of technical knowledge. Questions of good and evil have been sacrificed, in our day, to a corporate drinking of the Star-Trek Koolaid.
- Jim Strawn, Archbold OH USA, 10/09/2008 11:07
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I've read that the so called "God particle" was named as such in that a scientist in the early sixties had postulated its existence, and many respected others have since collaborated the notion, but the little bugger remains illusive. I have no problem with the theory that such particles exist, but would like to point out that God is anything but illusive or allusive, as the case may be. You don't need any expensive and elaborate machinery to find Him; you only require sufficient Light. With this is mind, may I humbly suggest that the scientific community ammend the moniker to something more fittingly descriptive like "The Moriarty Particle". As an aside: The word "theory" is derived from "theos" which is the Greek word for God.
- Jim, Hartford, CT, 10/09/2008 09:39
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"Once they discover the God Particle, it will prove that evolution is a lie!"
Assuming that wasn't sarcasm, how can you prove that something is a lie when evolution has been observed to happen in recordable time? (Quite aside from the colossal weight of evidence of longer-term evolution, of course!)
- Michael, London, 10/09/2008 09:38
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Andy, your grasp of the big bang and how the particles were formed after the big bang is to say the least minimal. You are the same type of person who would have burnt Copernicus, Galileo, Newton and especially Darwin at the stake. Left to people like you there would be no science and we would still be living in the middle ages. Your god or any other god tells me nothing about the universe that I find myself in and religion certainly never told me anything that was of any use. Stephen of Buena Vista the only way to find out is to do the experiment and my confidence is not based on unknown facts, I suggest you return to school and learn some basic physics.
- Stephend, London, England, 10/09/2008 09:12
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We are eventually going to destroy ourselves. Whether it is the search for the Higgs Boson, Cloning, or the quest for artificial intelligence, we will one day invent our own doom. Thousands of generations have lived perfectly content lives without knowing all of the God’s secrets. Maybe it is time that we start spending more time, effort and treasure in the pursuit of prosperity within the world that we already know.
Imagine a world without cell phones, cable TV, computers, internet, satellite radio, genetically engineered cows, smart bombs, dirty bombs, dirty movies, dumb movies, Brittany, Paris, Brad and all of the rest of the garbage that our society seems to think is sooooo important.
- J.S.P., Monterey, CA, USA, 10/09/2008 09:09
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I must say, when i think of "ways to go",this is a lot more interesting than the world ending because of the Y2K virus. Remember how that was going to send us back to the caves? I always said I wanted to go with a "bang"! What does anger me some is that I just got my credit score up enough to purchase my first house. But I bet that your credit score follows you in the afterlife.
- Luis, Florida, USA, 10/09/2008 09:04
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Thank you, dear friends, for hastening the day.I've been looking for it.
2 Peter 3:10-13
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. NKJV
Glory.
- Sobercosmos, Tampa, FL, USA, 10/09/2008 09:02
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Stephen, a theory is just a theory until it can be proven in a repeatable way. THAT is why they need to carry out the experiment. Scientific progress, except for the Luddites that still abound out there, isn't linear - each advance opens up a vast array of possibilities once theory has been proven correct.
Enough very smart people have been convinced that this is the right way to go - sufficient to attract the hefty finances required for it all. No small feat. They must have been pretty convincing, I'd have said. Big bucks aren't given to such projects out of altruism. They expect a return.
Kinda shoots down the alarmist's and those who fear the unknown's 'what if' scenarios, doesn't it?
- Rogan, DFW TX, 10/09/2008 08:54
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God created the Earth and man spends every waking moment trying to figure how he can replicate it so he feel godly. All I want to know is if the Big Bang really happened, how did all those protons get there in the first place? And what made them just happen to accelerate in such a fashion? I'm sure there wasn't a fancy tube like they built just built in Europe. If you want to find out how the universe was created, go read the Word of God. End of story.
- Andy, Allentown, PA - USA, 09/09/2008 16:14
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It most certainly is "capable" of producing mini black holes. But we aren't talking about anything even visible. These would be microns across, and the Hawking radiation output would indeed cause them to evaporate long before they could absorb anything.
But, at that size, they wouldn't absorb anything anyways.
Their event horizon is just too small.
This won't be creating a tear in our space-time, or some massive black hole that will swallow us. It will simply smash apart protons into their baser particles and hopefully expose a glimpse into why matter has mass.
The end of the world rhetoric is unfounded.
Rest easy.
And, as devil's advocate, if something bad were to happen, none of us would ever know it 
- Tim, USA, 09/09/2008 16:13
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The audacity of Stephend would be amusing were it not so frightening. Please at least give us arguments that contain faint strands of logic.
Now let's see... we're going to smash particles to discover other particles and energies that we're not even sure exist. Yet Stephend is absolutely sure of what will happen.
Ahem...
- Stephen, Buena Vista, United States, 09/09/2008 16:12
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If the scientists ALREADY knew the outcome of this experiment, they wouldn't be doing it.
Hence, they implicitly acknowledge that they have NO IDEA what will result.
Perhaps all the black holes around the universe are the result of distant cultures discovering the "God particle" to their own demise. We really don't know why they form, right? Scientists believe other beings exist out there, right? Who knows. It's a risky experiment.
- J.D., Washingtonn, D.C., 09/09/2008 16:09
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Ben Edwards - being a fire scientist, yes, I could tell you the extent of what would happen if you play with fire, if you can give me the initial conditions and experimental parameters.
- Marc, USA, 09/09/2008 16:09
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"Do you by any chance know what will happen if you play with fire?"
Ben, yes I do know what happens. You cook your dinner and heat your house; useful tools we get from playing with fire.
Wramblin' Wreck
- Wramblin' Wreck, Sedalia, CO USA, 09/09/2008 16:08
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What a huge waste of time & effort. I hope the succeed in blowing THEMSELVES to bits.
- Roger C., ST. Louis USA, 09/09/2008 16:08
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At least if anything does go wrong, Les Francais will get it first.
- Bob, Cheam, 09/09/2008 16:06
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While we children explore the rules of the game, it is worthy to note that "reality" is made of mere vibration with 99.999% space between, and all we do is look into the space within space and wonder where it all went. The closer we look, the more we wonder and the less we see.
We are but thought and as such it is not what we see that matters, but what we think of what we see. Vibration is action. We are made of action, not of substance in the classical sense. We are verbs, not nouns. Not what is, but what is thought and how our thought effects what is done, is what matters. The stuff of reality is vibration .... like thought itself, a virtual creation.
As such it is not our creation to control, only to play in and learn in and grow in. How we play is far more important than what we play. If we imagine ourself capable of understanding the rules, we fool ourselves. For every answer we find, there are far more questions that reveal themselves that we never before imagined to ask. We cannot understand the mind of creation. We are not little gods. We are not designed with fractal minds. We are merely linear thought tapped in time. We cannot make the sky fall. We cannot rule the planet, we can barely understand the moment around us
and if we are lucky and live to a ripe old age, we may even get a glimpse of who we are.
- Erik Brinkman, Canada (on the road), 09/09/2008 16:04
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The theory of the big bang is that a couple of these random particles slammed together and created the infinite universe.
So let me get this straight... they plan to randomly slam the same two particles together only THIS time, constrain the result to an underground bunker?
These are the same guys that taught us that if you hold a fire cracker in your palm, it will just burn you... but close your hand and it will blow your hand clean off.
PLEASE tell me there is more to this than the forthcoming gigantic crater or perhaps the birth of a new Universe.
Scott
- Scott Kovalik, Vancouver, 09/09/2008 16:02
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Why do we need to understand the origin of the "God" gene. Well, science in its ultimate arrogance would rather risk catastrophic consequences than take a back seat to the creator of life and the universe. Lets pray that a higher power does exist and can save us from ourselves.
- Richard Austin, Houston, USA, 09/09/2008 16:01
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A a precautionary messure, I have spent the last of my dole money and given my property away to the more needy in solciety, I have said all my farewells to my friends and family, and if I ma still here on Thursday, then a big law suite will follow!
- Raminder Bhalla, Northolt, 09/09/2008 15:59
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If man never played with fire we would still be eating raw meat, go & play i say....
- Jaco, JHB, SA, 09/09/2008 15:59
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Stupid scientists, they're going to prove themselves wrong! Once they discover the God Particle, it will prove that evolution is a lie!
- Fred Nanders, Des Moines, Iowa, 09/09/2008 15:57
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this is really cool. BUT if it does cause a black hole I suppose being swallowed by it and being ripped apart quickly will be much better than drowing from an asteroids title wave or radiation or heat or any other way this world can end
- Chris, Toledo USA, 09/09/2008 15:56
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The same scientists that made the atom bomb later regretted it. But at least they were lucky enough to not destroy us all in the process of learning that mistake. This time mankind might not be so lucky. Funny how the Mayan calender ends about the same time they plan on spinning this monster up...
- Jason, Dallas, Tx, US, 09/09/2008 15:56
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"And God said..." there's your answer.
- David, Providence, RI, 09/09/2008 15:53
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Who cares? Maybe they should spend that money on feeding the hungry? Or an engine that runs on garbage? Or you could burn it and get more and a safer outcome. Does anyone else think we are in a bad movie right now?
- Ben Brumley, USA, 09/09/2008 15:49
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When the Higgs boson is found they will find that it is made of still smaller particles. Inner space is infinite.
- Dave Miller, Hayward WI, USA, 09/09/2008 15:49
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They better not destroy the planet! I will be very angry if they do.
- Harry Hunt, Mooselips Saskatchewan, 09/09/2008 15:49
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Stephend, how do you know the world isn't going to end tomorrow? How do you? Are you a scientist or something I don't think the Hawkwind radiation would quickly evaporate the mini black holes, in fact, the very opposite will probably happen.
Don't be so sure of yourself, ok?
- Tom, London, 09/09/2008 15:01
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The energy created by the LHC is not enough to create a mini black hole and even if it could, the black hole would evaporate very quickly by Hawking radiation. The earth will not be swallowed by a black hole and we will still be here on Thursday. Hopefully the Higgs Boson will be found and help to fit another piece into how the universe formed and verify the standard model. Whenever scientists begin a set of experiments of this nature, I am surprised how many newspapers come out with the same load of drivel about the end of the world and how many screwballs come out of the woodwork.
- Stephend, London, England, 09/09/2008 13:34
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"None of these big leaps were made with us knowing what was going to happen." Phew. That's me convinced nothing will go wrong. Do you by any chance know what will happen if you play with fire?
- Ben Edwards, London, 09/09/2008 12:49
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