World survives as Big Bang machine successfully smashes particles

World survives as Big Bang machine successfully smashes particles – Not to be thwarted by a few annoying speed bumps on the road to discovery, CERN scientists have successfully slammed accelerated protons together inside the giant Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in order to re-create conditions within the universe just moments after the Big Bang.

With two streams of particles travelling at close to the speed of light and moving around the giant ring-shaped accelerator in opposite directions, attending scientists at the CERN facility just outside Geneva created the very first collision at a little after 1100 GMT – causing widespread celebration amongst those who witnessed it.

“This opens the door to a totally new era of discovery,” enthused CERN’s director of research Sergio Bertolucci via a video relay from the LHC facility. “It is a step into the unknown where we will find things we thought were there and perhaps things we didn’t know existed.”

According to CERN officials, each of the colourful computer images that capture the particle collisions is a reflection of fundamental conditions immediately after the universe exploded forth after the Big Bang, spewing matter and energy in every direction.

The scientists hope that, by studying information garnered from the ongoing LHC experiments, they will grasp a better understanding of how that energy subsequently gathered mass and formed galaxies, stars, planets and biological life forms.

They also hope to learn more about mysterious dark matter, which constitutes some 30 percent of the universe. However, locating such knowledge could take several years.

Initial attempts to bring the two accelerated particles streams together failed early on Tuesday, first when a power supply tripped unexpectedly, and then again when a recently installed magnet safety system malfunctioned.

Placing the wonder of scientific advancement to one side for a moment, the most important facet of information to be gleaned from this news is, of course, that the world wasn’t promptly sucked from existence. According to LHC detractors, that’s the grizzly end awaiting mankind due to microscopic black holes that could be created during the experiments.

CERN scientists have dismissed such fear mongering, saying that any black holes created under laboratory conditions will exist so briefly they’re highly unlikely to pose any kind of threat.