What is LHC ?

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN could be the most ambitious scientific undertaking ever. The results of LHC experiments will probably change our fundamental knowledge of the universe.

Religious leaders – always suspicious of the aims of the scientific world - drew a connection to a verse straight out of Revelations (9:1-2, 11), which makes reference to the name ‘Apollyon.’ The verse states: “To him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit… And they had a kind over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.”

CERN is the world's largest laboratory dedicated to the pursuit of fundamental science.

Astonishingly, astrophysical observations have demonstrated that all visible physical matter accounts for only four percent of the Universe. Now the race is on at CERN to find those elusive particles or phenomena responsible for dark matter (23 percent) and dark energy (73 percent).

Many of the parts for the ATLAS detector of the LHC were manufactured using the expertise of ex-arms scientists and factories, through collaboration with the International Science and Technology Centre.

Essentially what the CERN experiment hopes to achieve is to separate – by way of the atom smasher - the invisible dark matter, which has been described as the very glue that holds together, from the visible. There’s just one problem with this experiment: Nobody has any idea what the consequences will be if that goal is achieved. So once again, this ‘dark versus visible’ paradigm has generated a battle that transcends the scientific world, becoming a question involving philosophy and spirituality.

If the Higgs boson exists the LHC will be able to make this particle detectable. Confirming or contradicting the first evidence of the Higgs particle is an exciting prospect

At times, it's the little things that drive you crazy. By the early 20th century, physicists seemed to have the universe pretty well sewn up, between Newtonian gravity and Maxwell's electromagnetic equations. There was just one nagging problem

I will leave it up to the imagination of the reader to determine if the public relations team at CERN opened up the door to massive conjecture - not to mention a huge amount of 'conspiracy theory' - by opting for the particular logo design that they did.

The Nobel prize in physics has twice been awarded to scientists whose experiments were conducted at CERN. The laboratory also boasts several additional Nobel Laureates among its physicists.

At times, it's the little things that drive you crazy. By the early 20th century, physicists seemed to have the universe pretty well sewn up, between Newtonian gravity and Maxwell's electromagnetic equations. There was just one nagging problem

On 1st October 2003 CERN and the California Institute of Technology set a new Internet Land Speed Record by transferring 1.1 terabytes of data in less than 30 minutes across 7000km of network. The equivalent of transferring a full length DVD movie in 7 seconds.

Although most corporations shun any connection with religion and the spiritual world, CERN has chosen as its mascot a Hindu goddess. But not just any Hindu goddess. Just outside of its headquarters building sits an ancient statue to Shiva, ancient Apollyon, the goddess of destruction. Strange?

Particle physics and quantum mechanics, the sciences of the truly tiny, brought physics two more fundamental forces and a menagerie of strange elementary particles,

In 1984 CERN translator, Francois Siohan, entered the French Guinness Book of Records for cycling up hill. Between 6:15am and 7:15pm on 1st July, he climbed 8848m, the equivalent to Mount Everest, by cycling 13 times from Gex to La Faucille in the Jura mountain range.

CERN is presently ramping up the largest atom collider in the world (it takes months for the magnets to get the particles to reach near light-speed) in preparation for their next atomic collision which is scheduled to take place next month – with barely a mention in the media of the risks involved. Since some critics say this scientific experiment poses greater risks than even the tests prior to the introduction of the atomic bomb, it would stand to reason that there should be much more discussion on this ‘dark matter.’ Sadly, and not a little ironically, CERN – which essentially governs itself as its own fiefdom – is operating just as invisibly as the particles they are attempting to study.

In the 1960's CERN's main data network was the famous bicycle on line. Tapes of data were loaded into a basket on the bike and then rushed over to the computer centre.

However, CERN has been the trailblazer on a number of other highly credible projects, which may tempt people to give them the benefit of the doubt regarding CERN, which certainly ranks as one of the most comprehensive and expensive scientific experiments in history.

The Grid is a service for sharing computer power and data storage capability over the Internet. Its ultimate aim is to turn the global network of computers into one vast computational resource.

In 1989, under the guidance of Tim Berners-Lee, CERN began the World Wide Web project, which led to the first webpage in history. On April 30, 1993, CERN announced that the World Wide Web would be free to anyone.

The revelation has been spotted in the mind-blowing sub-atomic world where particles are mere wisps of existence and only survive for microseconds – but the new science could see 100 years of accepted physics thrown in the bin.

Verification of the theory that explains why the sun shines - the weak force - is one of CERN's biggest achievements.

The discovery is so troubling it threatens to undermine the so-called Standard Model – the bedrock of all modern physics and an attempt to formulate a theory of everything.

The discovery of the neutral current was announced at CERN in 1973. The theory was finally confirmed in 1983 with the direct observation of W and Z particles.

Leading British physicist Tara Shears who carries out research at the famous atom-smasher in Cern, Switzerland, said if the anomaly – which is still being analysed – turns out to be correct it would “break science”.