Collider

Results from the Large Hadron Collider mean that supersymmetry theorists may have to come up with a new theory of sub-atomic physics.

The Large Hadron Collider is the world's largest particle accelerator.

Basically, she's created a fad diet collider. And sometimes the particles that spin off are gluon-free neutrino burgers.

Making protons collide is what the Large Hadron Collider does.

Searching for those differences is one of the tasks for the people at the Compact Muon Solenoid, or CMS, one of four main experiment sites around the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

The first attempt to fire up the Large Hadron Collider failed, so the second, successful attempt was greeted with a palpable sense of relief and even giddiness from the many physicists who have labored for more than two decades to get this 10-billion-dollar experiment underway.

Bystanders gaping at a giant screen watched physicists hunched over computers at the CERN Control Center inject the first beam of protons into the Large Hadron Collider.

Physicists call these doomsday scenarios ridiculous. They say cosmic rays have been bombarding the earth and triggering collisions similar to those planned for the collider, since the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago.

The collider has massive detectors that fill cathedral-sized rooms at intervals along the ring. Some 6,000 super-conducting magnets guide the beams. Evans says 50,000 tons of equipment will have to be cooled down to temperatures that are colder than that of outer space.

Physicists who will conduct experiments at the Large Hadron Collider are generally focused on pure research, not practical applications. But as in the past, there are likely to be important spin-offs. Previous discoveries from fundamental science have led to indispensable tools in medicine, industry and research. And then, of course, the World Wide Web was invented at CERN. It was a spin-off from CERN's large research program in information technology.