Are you still scratching your head over what a particle accelerator like the Large Hadron Collider actually does? Don't feel bad, the LHC is the most complicated piece of scientific equipment mankind has ever built. And unless you're a physicist, you'll probably never understand its intricacies. But if you're curious, take a few minutes to watch this animated Particle Accelerator 101 by Don Lincoln. You won't be applying for a job at CERN afterwards, but you should at least get the gist of what's going on at the LHC. [YouTube via Geekosystem] Read More >>
Featured comment by JulianT:
"Does anyone really believe they're just doing maintenance? This is when they're opening up the inter-dimensional portal and letting the Earth be inva..." More »
The Large Hadron Collider has been busily zapping very small things into other things for quite some time, in the hope of finding the prophesied Higgs boson particle. And now it looks like it actually has, with CERN announcing the discovery of the "heaviest boson ever found." Read More >>
Featured comment by snapper.fishes:
"Hmph. That's a little disappointing.
Btw, just read that article about Hawking's secret Time Traveller Party. Good idea in theory, but that's assum..." More »
You'd think that with a price tag of billions of pounds the LHC would have more storage capacity than it could ever use. But with the machine producing a petabyte of data every second, the researchers simply can't store it all. Read More >>
So why exactly did CERN spend billions and billions of pounds building the Large Hadron Collider when Ikea sells a perfectly good alternative, the Hädrönn Cjölidder, for considerably less cash? Sure, its Compact Muon Solenoid is made from ugly particle board, but think of the money you'll save by building it yourself. Read More >>
I prefer to call it The Force — a particle that "surrounds us and penetrates us" binding the galaxy together — but Czech physicist Luboš Motl makes a good case as to why the Higgs boson should be called the God Particle. Read More >>
As if I couldn't hate my ISP any more, boffins at the SuperComputing 2011 conference set a new internet speed record transferring data with a combined rate of 186 Gbps, 67 Gbps faster than the previous record set in 2009. Read More >>
After much excitement, the Force has not been found. But don't be sad, my fellow nerds. Scientists may not have found evidence of the Higgs boson yet, but they have discovered "tantalising hints" that may indicate its presence. Read More >>
If confirmed next week, this will be the biggest news in the history of physics since the birth of the Theory of Relativity: CERN scientists may have already found evidence of the existence of the elusive Higgs boson. THE FORCE, dudes: Read More >>
Featured comment by Casper:
"Why hasn´t this been on the news? Biggest scientific experiment yet that could change physics and prove the standard model is the only model" More »
Featured comment by Darrell Jones:
"Each of the different parts of the LHC are pretty separate. This app was put together with the help of people working on the ATLAS experiments but I g..." More »
The Tevatron shut down yesterday. Before its duties were taken up by the the Large Hadron Collider, it accelerated highly charged particles through 4 miles of electromagnetic coil and vacuum tubes to discover the secrets of the universe. How do you turn a beast like that off? Read More >>