There were kudos all around today, as CERN flipped the switch to turn on the LHC or Large Hadron Collider, and it worked! Some clumps of protons made it all the way through the 16.565 miles of piping in the particle accelerator, and dutifully registered on the detectors.
Basel Online was able to sneak their apparently-high-res cameras into the superpipes of the Large Hadron Collider, and capture a snapshot of the 3-quarked protons on the way to their destruction.
The beams-colliding-together part doesn’t start for another month or so, at which time the serious work of looking for evidence of the Higgs particle and dark matter begins. After that, those concerned about black holes & their personal safety and such, can check at link Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet?.
First beam in the LHC – accelerating science – CERN press release, Geneva, 10 September 2008
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I remember the rumor that the LHC could cause a black hole. Was this ever a realistic concern?
I think that was a theoretical idea that got blown out of proportion because it made for a good story.