The nerds be poppin champagne today over the first proton beams being shot through the 17 mile ring known as the Large Hadron Collider. The 3.8 Billion dollar machine is being described as the biggest physics experiment in history. It has been in construction for 24 years, and today it was turned on and given a test drive.
The Collider did what is was supposed to do by shooting beams of protons in opposite directions, but it will be weeks and years before the protons are actually smashed together at 11,000 miles per second. At that time, scientists hope to find the beginning particles that created life, mass, and the Universe. When the proton beams smash together in a chamber, highly sophisticated nerd machines will take digital pictures of the space time debris. The experiments could reveal more about "dark matter," antimatter and possibly hidden dimensions of space and time. It could also find evidence of the hypothetical particle — the Higgs boson — which is sometimes called the "God particle" because it is believed to give mass to all other particles, and thus to matter that makes up the universe. The discovery of this particle is the "Holy Grail" of physics for nerds. (Watch this video if confused)
I guess this tunnel they use is at a temperature more freezing than deep space and more empty than the middle of the universe. This is all well and good, but I want to know when they find the crazy shit. Wake me up when they create dark matter, or find the "god particle." Some scientists thought that this experiment could create a black hole that will destroy earth or strangelets that will turn the earth into goo. If that happens please DON'T wake me up...
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