More than 30,000 people are expected to visit what’s described as the world’s biggest scientific experiment today when the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) opens its underground doors for just one day before trying to unravel the secrets of the universe.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the most powerful particle accelerator ever constructed, is located in a 27km circular tunnel 100m below ground level just outside Geneva on the Franco-Swiss border.
It has taken almost 15 years and cost US$8 billion to construct. CERN, already famous as the birthplace of the Internet, is now poised to try to unravel the secrets of the universe and recreate what happened a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang, the point at which scientists say the universe was created.
“We are extremely excited about our experiment. It is the biggest experiment in the world and we hope we are going to understand all sorts of things like the origin of mass and what is the dark matter in the universe,” theoretical physicist Malcolm Fairbairn at CERN said.
The project will recreate what happens in nature all the time by sending protons crashing into each other.
The main difference is that this time there are powerful detectors set up to monitor exactly what happens.
“It will be highest energy that man has ever created, but the key word is man, because in nature protons are smashing against each other all the time at much higher energies than those of the LHC,” Fairbairn said.
The LHC is inside a tunnel forming a 27km circle and is the world’s largest piece of laboratory equipment.
Inside, protons, the smaller particles found in an atom, will be sent smashing into each other traveling at the speed of light, reaching an unprecedented energy level.
The experiment has provoked opposition.
Two scientists from Hawaii have lodged a challenge at a Honolulu court, claiming the accelerator could create a black hole that could destroy the Earth and even the universe.
Walter Wagner, who runs a botanical garden on Hawaii’s Big Island, and Luis Sancho, a Spaniard, have asked for an injunction to prevent CERN from starting up the LHC until further safety assessments have been carried out.
Fairbairn said the experiment only replicated what was happening in nature all the time.
“If there was any weird stuff happening, it would already be happening all the time when cosmic rays hit the Earth. So that’s why we are not scared and we can quantify all these experiments mathematically,” Fairbairn said.
Today is the only chance for the public to get a glimpse of LHC before it is activated.
The number of visitors is limited to 15,000, but organizers said there are many activities on the surface at access points to the ring to keep visitors occupied.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including