The Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

On September 10, 2008, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN came online for the first time, after around 20 years of planning and development!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7604293.stm

http://www.astroengine.com/?p=1277

So, what's all the excitement about?

First, let's learn a little about CERN itself, and what it's working on: http://www.youtube.com/user/CERNTV

Next, just for fun, let's view the now famous 'Large Hadron Rap': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM (It's been all over the Internet!)

Finally, let's learn something about the Large Hadron Collider itself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDoIzvKumGI&feature=PlayList&p=C193B03B29D263DE&index=4

Unfortunately, the LHC encountered a serious problem on September 19, 2008 (http://www.astroengine.com/?p=1626), and CERN has been working on restarting it ever since. It was a complicated and time-consuming process, but they are getting there: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8309875.stm

We'll be talking a lot about the science that is driving the creation of such a large accelerator, especially about the Higgs boson.