Tomorrow the Large Hadron Collider is set to be fired up and everybody is wondering will it bring about the end of the world or provide the answers to the beginning of the universe .
Built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research -- known by its French acronym CERN ,the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) buried deep underground along the border of Geneva and France is expected to reveal the secrets of Universe. The collider fires particles into accelerator until they almost acquire the speed of light. They gain enormous amount of energy as 2 beams of light travel in opposite directions, circling the structure 11,000 times per second.
Scientists hope to put under the scanner the existing laws of physics describing the fundamental nature of matter.
Giant detectors are placed inside huge caverns to record data. With 600 million collisions taking place per second, there is huge amount of data generated, which will be recorded in special computing system called the Grid.
Some of the scientists working on the experiment have received threatening emails and been besieged by telephone calls from worried members of the public who fear the machine could cause earthquakes and destroy the world.
The Large Hadron Collider, buried beneath the ground near Geneva, Switzerland, is 27 kilometers in circumfrance. Particles will be accelerated to 99.9999991 percent of the speed of light.
Even if scientists say they are confident that switching on the LHC won't bring the world to a sudden end, some of them are hoping to find evidence of dimensions in excess of the four we are currently aware of. Because the LHC is the most powerful and most precise particle accelerator ever built, many see it as the best opportunity yet to find proof for the veracity of "string theory."
String theory is a mathematical construct that many believe might explain away inconsistencies between Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and quantum mechanics -- a major focus in theoretical physics for much of the last century. The highly complex models used in string theory point to the possible existence of up to 11 dimensions and also make predictions about the existence of some as-yet unobserved sub-atomic particles. Should the LHC be able to find some of those particles, a much touted theory of physics would have its first kernel of proof.
But string theory is just one idea being investigated by the thousands of scientists from more than 80 countries who will be running, analyzing and evaluating the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider. Many also hope to find the elusive "Higgs boson," a theoretical particle named after the Scottish physicist Peter Higgs. He came up with a theory in 1964 to help explain what gives mass to matter, thus making the universe possible. Higgs pointed to a particle that has so far never been observed. By creating conditions similar to those that existed at the birth of our universe, the so-called "Big Bang," scientists hope to be able to find Higgs boson, also known as the "God Particle."
Others will be looking for all manner of sub-atomic particles and anti-particles, the origins of dark energy and the make-up of dark matter.
Almost just as interesting, though, is the massive computer network CERN has set up to evaluate the prodigious quantities of data the LHC will produce. Called the LHC Grid, the network will encompass some 60,000 computers around the world in order to leverage enough computer power to go through the 15 petabytes of information LHC experiments will produce each year.
