300 feet below Switzerland (and France) lies a 16.8 mile long "particle accelerator that will smash protons together in an attempt to create forces and particles that existed shortly after the Big Bang." I saw the Nova special "Elegant Universe" a number of years ago and they featured this particle accelerator at the Cern laboratory while it was in the early stages of construction. It's looking like it will be ready for tests come this time next year. This New York Times feature article on the project is really well done and worth checking out. Be sure to click on the Multimedia Slideshow, Video, and Interactive Graphic featured in the sidebar. Pretty amazing stuff.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
A Muon??
300 feet below Switzerland (and France) lies a 16.8 mile long "particle accelerator that will smash protons together in an attempt to create forces and particles that existed shortly after the Big Bang." I saw the Nova special "Elegant Universe" a number of years ago and they featured this particle accelerator at the Cern laboratory while it was in the early stages of construction. It's looking like it will be ready for tests come this time next year. This New York Times feature article on the project is really well done and worth checking out. Be sure to click on the Multimedia Slideshow, Video, and Interactive Graphic featured in the sidebar. Pretty amazing stuff.
