FROM BIG BANG TO LHC: DISCOVERING THE UNIVERSE’S EVOLUTION

UNEDITED SCIENCE AND HEALTH ARTICLE
By Vladimir Paat Villegas
IV – Sir Isaac Newton


The universe was born by the time the Big Bang took place. As theorized, it was first a large mass of gases which exploded then. But still, many still want to find out what really happened a few moments after the large explosion (“About the LHC”, 2008).

To find out everything, the Project Large Hadron Collider (LHC) came out to be. This international research project is located at Counseil Europeén pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research in English) in Geneva, Switzerland. It weighs 38 000 tonnes, stretches 27 km (16.5 mi) and is placed in a tunnel 100 meters beneath the Swiss-French border upon Geneva. The project consists of three essential parts: the collider itself; the detectors, which sit in 4 chambers around the tunnel; and the Global Resource Information Database (GRID), which is a global network of computers and software essential to process the data recorded by the detectors (“What is the LHC?”, 2008).

The project, if successful, will allow everyone to probe deeper into the heart of matter and further back in time than what has been possible using previous collider. Because of the cooling down of the universe and the lessening of its energy, it collides particles at very high speeds and produces energy for the further look into the evolution of the universe. Another theory it aims to prove is that of Professor Peter Higgs and other British physicists, which states all particles making up matter have different masses and particles making up light (photons) are weightless. The only thing they attempt to produce is the Higgs boson, which is a hypothetical particle whose observation would help confirm some of the predictions in the Standard Model of physics (“What will the LHC do?”, 2008; AP, 2008; Meyers, 2008).

Its gadget, which is known today as the biggest gadget ever made, then operates by accelerating two beams of particles in opposite directions around the collider and colliding particles upon reaching the maximum speed at 4 points. Upon collision, thousands of new particles are produced. Detectors then allow the scientists to identify the particles through behavior tracking and researchers peer deeper into the fundamental structure of the universe through the particles’ increasing energy (“How Does the LHC work?”, 2008).

Scientists, engineers, and engineers from 111 countries, led by the United Kingdom, teamed up to make this project by combining state-of-the-art science and engineering. It took them 13 years (1994-2007) to construct the project. The team collected 511 million pounds by including the United Kingdom’s annual CERN subscription. In totality, the cost of the project is 3.5 billion pounds (infrastructure and computing included) and is mainly paid by the 20 members of CERN as contributed significantly by the 6 observer nations (“Who is involved?”, 2008).

For the British scientists, they benefit from the project through: 1) a new understanding of the physical world; 2) training of world class scientists and engineers; 3) maintenance of their research; and 4) a leading role in an international project. However, the knowledge, the expertise, and the technology which they get from the project and could be used to develop other technologies are more easily appreciated (“Who benefits”, 2008).

Although the LHC is located at the Swiss-French border at Geneva, it crosses international borders as an international project. British scientists and engineers at 20 research sites are involved in designing and building equipment and analyzing data. Researchers are involved with all four of the main detectors and the GRID. Staffs based at CERN have leading roles in managing and running the collider and detectors (“Where is the LHC?”, 2008).

The LHC was formally launched on September 10 this year; however, the collider has been closed down for two months after suffering a technical fault as ordered by CERN. The LHC encountered a failure known as “quench” caused about 100 of the super-cooled magnets to heat up by as much as 100 degrees Celsius. The fire brigade was then called out after a tonne of liquid helium leaked into the tunnel. According to CERN, these were caused by a faulty electrical connection between the magnets, which probably melted at high current”. Although, the tunnel section will have to be “warmed up” for LHC even if a full investigation is still under way (AP, 2008; Meyers, 2008; Savvas, 2008).

The LHC is a machine made to open up new areas of physics and prove or disprove the existence of predicted new laws or particles. But it is still new and its successor, the International Linear Collider (ILC), is already being discussed. It is said to be a precision instrument that will allow scientists to explore in detail the discoveries made by the LHC. However, no one knows what may happen to both machines for one has just malfunction and for the other is still planned, has no agreed location, and still has to undergo many procedures. Some have even theorized that the experiments could go wrong even if the CERN has denied such threat (AP, 2008; “What next, 2008; Meyers, 2008).

NB This article was written using the American Psychological Association documentation format. List of resources is available upon request.



REFERENCES

(2008). About the LHC. Retrieved from http://www.lhc.ac.uk/about-the-lhc.html

(2008). What is the LHC? Retrieved from http://www.lhc.ac.uk/what-is-the-lhc.html

(2008). What will the LHC do? Retrieved from http://www.lhc.ac.uk/about -the-lhc/what-will-the-lhc-do.html

(2008). How does the LHC work? Retrieved from http://www.lhc.ac.uk/about-the-lhc/how-does-the-lhc-work.html

(2008). Who is involved? Retrieved from http://www.lhc.ac.uk/about-the-lhc/who-is-involved.html

(2008). Who benefits? Retrieved from http://www.lhc.ac.uk/about-the-lhc/who-benefits.html

(2008). Where is the LHC? Retrieved from http://www.lhc.ac.uk/about-the-lhc/where-is-the-lhc.html

(2008). What next? Retrieved from http://www.lhc.ac.uk/about-the-lhc/what-next.html

Savvas, A (2008). Particle decelerator: technical fault hits CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. Retrieved from http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/09/22/232389/particle-decelerator-technical-fault-hits-cerns-large-hadron.htm

Meyers, M (2008). Large Hadron Collider faces two-month shutdown. Retrieved from http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/communications/0,39044192,62046414,00.htm?scid=rss_z_nw

Associated Press (2008). Large Hadron Collider down for 2 months. Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/09/20/hadron.collider.damage.ap/index.html