Large hadron collider

"I thought of throwing an end of the world party but I was worried some people might not realise it was a joke!"

Stephen Hawking's comment when the large hadron collider went into action.

The LHC has been nicknamed the "Big Bang Machine" because scientists will use it to recreate the cosmic conditions just after the Big Bang, in the hope of finding insights into the origins of matter. It consists of a 27 kilometer tunnel and huge underground caverns. The accelerator magnets that guide the beams on their circular orbit are supercooled to a temperature slightly above absolute zero, which is colder than outer space.

For more information, visit: http://events.internet2.edu/2008/fall-mm/