| RHCPP 06-03 (TALK) |
| 2006 |
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Promoting the Large Hadron Collider |
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| Mike Green |
| Abstract: |
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Buried deep in granite under the border
between France and Switzerland, the biggest and most expensive scientific
experiment on earth is nearing completion. Working at temperatures colder
than deep space, the 27km-long Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will, when it
is first fired up next year, reshape what is known about the origins of
the universe. The flagship project of Cern, the international particle
physics laboratory whose expertise is so wide-ranging that it invented the
world wide web as a sideline and gave it away free, the LHC is an
uplifting example of international cooperation achieving what no single
country could manage … it brings together 6,400 scientists from around
the globe. The aim is to find and explore dark matter, the unknown
type of matter which dominates the universe. Cern's scientists talk of
finding new dimensions. The specialism is so extraordinary that the
consequences are near impossible for non-experts to comprehend: but what
is found at Cern in the next few years could change the world.
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| Available format: ppt |
| Talk given at a meeting of the European Particle Physics Outreach Group, Imperial College London, 7 April, 2006 and at the PPARC Town Meeting, Warwick, 10 April 2006 |