Large Hardon Collider: The End

The vastness and complexity of the universe is inconceivable to the human race but in an effort to better understand the ever-expanding phenomenon physicists from around the globe have created a device that allows man to play God. In 2008, science saw the introduction of the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and highest-energy synchrotron. Synchrotrons are particle accelerators in which the magnetic field (to turn the particles so they circulate) and the electric field (to accelerate the particles) are carefully synchronized with the travelling particle beam. It is designed to collide particle beams of either protons or neutrons.

The LHC, located near Geneva, Switzerland, was a collaboration of over 10,000 scientists from over 100 countries and hopes to test various predictions of high-energy physics. Physicists hope the LHC will help to discover a new particle called the Higgs boson and to further understand “the theory of everything,” a single theory which can explain

all fundamental forces of the universe. Albert Einstein tried to shed light on this theory for the last 30 years of his life but never quite figured it out. He hoped it would help us “read the mind of God”.

As you can imagine the creation of this machine came with a lot of criticism. A major concern from a lot of critics is it could create multiple black holes that would eventually devour the earth. While this has not yet happened, in March it created quark-gluon plasma; the densest form of matter ever observed.

According to David Evans, a physicist from the University of Birmingham in the U.K., a cubic centimeter of this stuff would weigh 40 billion tons and the only thing denser is a black hole. He said the material is 100 thousand times hotter than the inside of the sun.

This form of matter may have been what the entire universe was in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang but only for a few millionths of a second. It instantly vanished and condensed into protons and neutrons and other particles that makeup the current state of the universe.

So does this mean we could create our own universe like some sort of ant farm? Are we a universe in a machine that someone else created? Possibly we are a universe in a locket around a dog’s neck (via Men in Black).

I’m not sure how this will affect us but the idea of playing with matter that was possibly part of the universe’s beginning is exhilarating. I would like to know more about what the benefits are for us to foster this type of matter. What are the long term goals? I understand that a bunch of scientist want to delve further into understanding our existence but unless this is some way for us to cure AIDS/cancer, power the world with a clean burning fuel, or help me grow a thicker mustache then I would prefer to see the 7.5 billion Euros used to create the LHC invested in some other scientific endeavor.