After fixing some glitches the biggest particle accelerator in the world is online

The LHC is not only the biggest particle accelerator in the world, but also the largest, most expensive and complex experiment ever built by mankind. The two incidents that have so far prevented the operation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) were attributed to a malfunctioning magnet and the afforementioned bird. Still, some wild theories to justify this have been spreading like wildfire. One of them stated that the LHC was being sabotaged by the future itself to prevent a cataclysmic event triggered by the activation of the collider, due to the fact that the Higgs Boson is “not allowed” to exist (wacky, yeah).

Why would someone think this? Because one of the goals of the LHC is to try to prove the existence of the Higgs Boson, a sub-atomic particle only theorized to exist but never observed or proven.

Also, due to the high energies involved in the particle collisions, some feared it would generate a black hole that would engulf the earth and who knows what else.

These speculations have been debunked by the scientific community. Follow this link to the Bad Astronomy blog for an understandable explanation.

Days ago scientists at CERN started circulating and colliding particles as part of the ckeck-out process which will, after completion, mark the commissioning of the accelerator.

Hopefully, if the universe is not destroyed, the LHC will help explain some fundamental questions in physics and cosmology, like what happened right after the Big Bang, unveil the deep structure of space and time, the existence of parallel universes and who knows, maybe even find a way to unify Quantum Mechanics and Relativity (which could place us right in the front porch of the Star Trek Age. Hyper Space travel baby!!!!).

Update 12/2/09: the HLC has suffered a major power failure in a power line, causing it to shut down. Still, the collider should be back online in 24hs. Looks like we have dodged the end of the world once again. But don’t feel safe yet. Scientists at CERN will keep trying to extinguish us all (and hopefully the rest of the Universe) after this little inconvenient is solved.