LHC is fucking awesome

So on the top of Digg today was an article from Cracked that did some serious LHC bashing. If you don't know what the LHC is, its the Large Hadron Collider the largest and most expensive science experiment ever created. Its a particle accelerator, the largest of which ever created and is already in the early stages of firing up, finally shooting off for realz sometime in October.

Its sad and kinda pathetic to see an article whose main purpose is to fear monger and spread misinformation. I guess thats what plays after 8 years of george bush.

But the LHC isn't going to create a black hole, re-recreate the big bang or otherwise destroy the universe, and some editor at cracked chicken-shitting around about it isn't gonna change a thing.

And its big and cool.



On a technical note, exactly what the LHC is going to pretty fucking cool. Essentially, it fires off particles at incredible speeds, causing them to break apart. By shattering these fundamental particles which compose atoms, scientists can ascertain properties hitherto unknown, like the mechanics of the strong and weak nuclear forces. This all applies to the Standard Model, of course.

Crucial to the LHC's creation is the search for the mysterious Higgs Boson. Its difficult to explain. Just read the wiki.

Here's a neat video showing a time lapse of the construction of ATLAS, pictured above. This is where a lot of the coolest experiments are going down.