The world’s largest machine is about to open for business. It will, however, only scratch the surface of the universe

If they find out more known unknowns, it can make for nice sci-fi writing ^_^

Dark energy – the “unknown unknown” you speak of in your article on the LHC – is the hypothesis generally used to explain the fact that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. But ballistics – a known known – can also do the trick. When ballistic bodies leave their state of inertia, they accelerate to maximum velocity, and then decelerate. Our universe could still be in the acceleration stage.

if the Economist would kindly remove the flashing publicities on this page, it will be a pleasure to read it

If "gluons, bosons, muons and taus" can be used to create energy and the energy can be used to power our planet or to supercharge our genes or ensure our food supplies in perpetuity then yes we are really riding a very fast horse. Unfortunately, I will not be around to see these developments. A big cheer for science is really in order,and may all people on this "lonely planet" be better off.

#SaneScience

Bravo, my man! Let us go hug some trees!

I think it would be fair to consider the Top quark to be a fundamental particle and it was discovered in the 1990s.

It is exiting times to day with so much about to be discovered by experiment. I looking forward for the next surprising news!!!

maybe the black holes observed so far are tale-tale evidence of other civilizations last experiment - of their LHC?

Relished reading this, gave immense pleasure to pretend that I understood at-least a fleeting quark of it. While sitting here in my expat pad in Abu Dhabi, with the call to prayer to the know it alls blaring outside!!!

@ SaneScience

Perhaps, then, we should only experiment on things for which we will know the outcome is certain.

Man's technology has exceeded his grasp. - 'The World is not Enough' Zealous Nobel Prize hungry Physicists are racing each other and stopping at nothing to try to find the supposed 'Higgs Boson'(aka God) Particle, among others, and are risking nothing less than the annihilation of the Earth and all Life in endless experiments hoping to prove a theory when urgent tangible problems face the planet. The European Organization for Nuclear Research(CERN) new Large Hadron Collider(LHC) is the world's most powerful atom smasher that will soon be firing subatomic particles at each other at nearly the speed of light to create Miniature Big Bangs producing Micro Black Holes, Strangelets and other potentially cataclysmic phenomena.CERN physicist Alvaro De Rújula in the BBC LHC documentary, 'The Six Billion Dollar Experiment', incredibly admits quote, "Will we find the Higgs particle at the LHC? That, of course, is the question. And the answer is, science is what we do when we don't know what we're doing." And CERN spokesmodel Brian Cox follows with this stunning quote, "the LHC is certainly, by far, the biggest jump into the unknown."The CERN-LHC website Mainpage itself states quote: "There are many theories as to what will result from these collisions,..." Again, this is because they truly don't know what's going to happen. They are experimenting with forces they don't understand to obtain results they can't comprehend. If you think like most people do that 'They must know what they're doing' you could not be more wrong. Some people think the same thing about medical Dr.s but consider this by way of comparison and example from JAMA: "A recent Institute of Medicine report quoted rates estimating that medical errors kill between 44,000 and 98,000 people a year in US hospitals." The second part of the quote reads "...but what's for sure is that a brave new world of physics will emerge from the new accelerator,..." A molecularly changed or Black Hole consumed Lifeless World? The end of the quote reads "...as knowledge in particle physics goes on to describe the workings of the Universe." These experiments to date have so far produced infinitely more questions than answers but there isn't a particle physicist alive who wouldn't gladly trade his life to glimpse the "God particle", and sacrifice the rest of us with him.This quote from National Geographic exactly sums this "science" up: "That's the essence of experimental particle physics: You smash stuff together and see what other stuff comes out."Find out more about that "stuff" below;http://www.SaneScience.org/http://www.LHCFacts.orghttp://www.risk-evaluation-forum.org/anon1.htmhttp://www.lhcdefense.org/http://www.lhcconcerns.comPopular Mechanics - "World's Biggest Science Project Aims to Unlock 'God Particle'" - http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/extreme_machines/4216588.html"

I'm no physicist. But I have been following your briefings on this subject. I appreciate the good that science has done for humanity. I brought your previous briefing to the attention of my some of my Christian workmates who do not read The Economist and they were happy to know about the big experiment in Europe. Of course they were not amused by the term 'God particle', otherwise they are looking forward to the experiment, as I am.

#Roger Dickinson-Brown

The Universe is in an accelerated stage, but the question is what is pushing it apart. There must be an agent, just as expanding gas in the barrel of a gun pushes forward the projectile. Once this push has been exhausted, deceleration immediatelly sets in.

Let's review the messed-up logic:

CYCLIC ILLOGIC #1
1A) Because the Big Bang is perfectly proven undisputed fact obtained during a direct telephone call to God The Creator himself, the fact that the Big Bang occurred just like we know for certain that it did logically implies that these little black holes dissipate.
VERSUS
1B) We have spent billions of Euros on this thing to prove whether the Big Bang occurred or not, because we are not sure that the facts support a key criterion on which the Big Bang depends.

CYCLIC ILLOGIC #2
2A) Because input stimuli in the LHC happen in nature all of the time, the LHC is perfectly safe.
VERSUS
2B) We have spent billions of Euros on this thing, because we have never observed the outcomes of the LHC in nature.

1A and 1B cannot both be true. 2A and 2B cannot both be true.

To produce different outcomes than seen in nature, evidently the LHC actually does induce different input stimuli than possible outside of the laboratory, or else we would have already been able to observe the LHC's wonderful outputs already in nature. Even people with very high IQs can be very stupidly illogical. Book smarts are not street smarts!

What about the surfer dude Dr Lisi who came up with the geometrical structure E8 as a model in the paper "an extremely simple theory of everything"? Has that theory been discarded yet?

this machine is the usa‘s loss-also texas-anyone remember the super conducting super collider started in central texas some years ago-99 million spent -then project cancelled due to dems hate of texas rep senators-thanks liberals

As doug pointed out, the top quark was discovered at the Tevatron in 1995. Also the 'God Particle' is a label few in the physics community other than Leon Lederman use.

science is a reflection of the phenomena from the nature in our mind to understand nature more and evolute/benefit from or avoid it. when we really learned something from the nature we can apply/use or avoid, pick what is preferable... power of any theory is not defined by its prediction, it is defined by it use as well. "fine tuning" of the fact that big bang has happened not 5 bn years ago but to 4 bn years does not justify enough 10bn of real money expenditures. using this money scientists should develop solar batteries for the whole Africa and supply electricity for Europe and Africa itself; we have no chance to save the universe, we should save the planet.

Just a small correction to "the last truly fundamental subatomic particles, the W and Z bosons, were found in 1983". The top quark was discovered in 1995, although not at CERN but at Fermilab in the US.

Editor-The possible dangers of just turning on CERN's LHC: Strangelets, Earth as a lump of charcoal, can only be explained by our species relentlessly suicidal behavior or maybe our subconscious longings to disintegrate our corner of the Solar System? It's about Time, I say, or actually the lack of said (Time). Who needs, or wants, corporeality anyway? arrtist