LHC

Physicists hope to make one of the biggest breakthroughs in science since the invention of the word “Eureka.”

The project based in Geneva, Switzerland, is headed by The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

It consists of an international collaboration of scientists, universities, and institutions that aim to emulate the big bang.

Raymond L. Orbach, undersecretary for science of the U.S. Department of Energy, has stated that the creation marks a major milestone for science.

“As the largest and most powerful particle accelerator on Earth, the LHC represents a monumental technical achievement,” Orbach said.

“We now eagerly await the results that will emerge from operation of this extraordinary machine.”

The machine, which has been 15 years in the making, is known as the Large Hadron Collider or LHC for short. An estimated 10,000 people from 60 countries have contributed to the design and building of the LHC.

The most recent progress in the project was the successful testing of the LHC, in which a proton beam circulated in the 27 km underground tunnel where the LHC is housed.

Arden L. Bement Jr., director of the National Science Foundation, said that eagerness for the results in the scientific community runs high.

“With the operation of the LHC, anticipation of transformative scientific discoveries soars to new heights,” Bement said.

The goal of the project is to successfully collide high energy proton beams at nearly the speed of light.

With the collision of these strings of protons, it could create conditions akin to the big bang, and shed light on an elusive particle known as the Higgs boson.

By studying the results of this collision, scientists such as CERN director General Robert Aymar say secrets about dark matter, black holes, and other dimensions may finally be answered.

“The LHC is a discovery machine,” Aymar said. “Its research programme has the potential to change our view of the universe profoundly.”