CERN News Updates -- September 8, 2008

Proton-smashing will start at the 27-kilometer tunnel beneath Switzerland in a month. (Martial Trezzin/Keystone, via The Associated Press)

CERN Fires Up New Atom Smasher To Near Big Bang
-- Yahoo News/AP

GENEVA - It has been called an Alice in Wonderland investigation into the makeup of the universe — or dangerous tampering with nature that could spell doomsday.

Whatever the case, the most powerful atom-smasher ever built comes online Wednesday, eagerly anticipated by scientists worldwide who have awaited this moment for two decades.

The multibillion-dollar Large Hadron Collider will explore the tiniest particles and come ever closer to re-enacting the big bang, the theory that a colossal explosion created the universe.

The machine at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, promises scientists a closer look at the makeup of matter, filling in gaps in knowledge or possibly reshaping theories.

The first beams of protons will be fired around the 17-mile tunnel to test the controlling strength of the world's largest superconducting magnets. It will still be about a month before beams traveling in opposite directions are brought together in collisions that some skeptics fear could create micro "black holes" and endanger the planet.

Read more ....

More News On CERN

Atom-smasher promises closer look at makeup of matter -- International Herald Tribune
Excitement and Fear Abound Over Super Collider -- Yahoo News/News Factor
CERN fires up new atom smasher to near Big Bang -- San Francisco Chronicle
Next Stop: The Fourth Dimension, With Large Hadron Collider Experiments -- Science Daily
Fingers Crossed, Physicists Are Ready for Collider to Roll -- New York Times Science
Multibillion-dollar experiment to probe nature's mysteries -- New York Sun
60,000 Computers Primed For Big Bang Probe -- CBS News
Global computer network ready for Big Bang probe -- USA Today
'The Grid' will see 80,000 computer network processing data from LHC -- The Telegraph
Super-smasher targets massive mystery -- MSNBC
Discovery or doom? Collider stirs debate -- MSNBC
Fear Looms Over Scientist's Experiment to Uncover Secrets of 'Big Bang' -- FOX News
The Large Hadron Collider: "the most extreme historical reenactment society ever" -- The Guardian
Five Particles; The Making of CERN -- Times Online
World's Biggest Physics Experiment Moves Closer to Completion -- Voice Of America
How the Large Hadron Collider Might Change the Web -- Scientific America
Scientists Get Death Threats Over Big Bang Experiment -- New York Sun
CERN's LHC 'First Beam' to be broadcast live on Wednesday -- Edgadget