LHC Finally Smashes Protons, at Highest Energies Ever Recorded
It took 16 years and $10 billion dollars, but on the day the Large Hadron Collider was supposed to begin trying to cross its high energy proton beams it didn't take very long at all for researchers to create the highest-energy particle collisions ever witnessed in an experimental setting. At just after 1 p.m. local time beneath the French-Swiss border, CERN scientists smashed two proton beams moving at 99 percent of the speed of light together at total energies of 7 trillion electron volts. The result was a soundless proton explosion that heralded a new period of scientific discovery as physicists from around the world try to recreate and study the conditions immediately after the Big Bang, understand the nature of dark energy and dark matter and determine whether the hypothetical Higgs boson really does exist. Related ArticlesLarge Hadron Collider Probably Won't Destroy EarthSay I'm Inside the Large Hadron Collider and...