Large Hadron Collider

So the LHC is going to start its operations this summer, and there has been quite a bit of talks about the 8 billion dollar particle accelerator lately. So for those who don't know about the LHC, its a massive underground accelerator that is about 27km long in a circular shape. Along the collider are large magnets placed to accelerate the particles that will be fired into the tunnel. With particles being fired at each other at extremely high speeds, scientists hope to discover new particles, such as the Higgs boson particle. The Higgs boson particle is a theoretical particle that is suppose to be responsible for the mass difference in matter. The LHC will also hope to uncover some more information about black holes. And it is with the black holes (RIP John Archibald Wheeler) that the controversy arises. Many skeptics are scared that within the LHC, the crashing particles will create a mini black hole which will suck up everything. Perhaps this is true, but it is very unlikely this will occur, as the black hole will only form for a nano-second, and then disintegrate. By performing these collisions, scientists wish to gain more information about the creation of the universe, and the moments in time after the Big Bang.



So that is the Large Hadron Collider. Why am I talking about it? Well it seems like today we live in a world where knowledge is so easily accessible, yet there is still so much to know. What if everything we learned was false, and that the truth is the most absurd thing you can imagine? But then again, somebody out there in the world has to be right. My love for knowledge stems from the fact that there is always something to be found. As years pass, there will always remain something that humans do not know. And within all humans, there is the innate longing to know.