Light at end of tunnel for scientists
Source: Agencies |
March 9, 2010, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE world's largest atom smasher could generate its first scientific breakthrough later this year when operators hope to make discoveries into the elusive nature of dark matter.
The news came from the director of the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva yesterday.
Rolf-Dieter Heuer said the Large Hadron Collider would be ramped up to world record power later this month.
At 7 trillion electron volts, that will be three times more energy than the record set in November by Heuer's organization - known by its French acronym CERN.
By crashing high energy beams of protons into each other in a 27-kilometer tunnel under the Swiss-French border in Geneva, CERN scientists hope to gain insights into the makeup of matter and the creation of the universe billions of years ago just moments after the Big Bang.
There had been no discoveries so far with the LHC, Heuer said, but he predicted breakthroughs soon into the mysterious dark matter that scientists believe comprises a quarter of the universe.
"We will open a door for new physics at the end of this year," Heuer told reporters.
CERN's experiments represent a massive effort among 7,000 scientists from more than 80 countries into better understanding nature and how it works.
Like most discoveries in particle physics, the true significance of breakthroughs in dark matter, antimatter or dark energy, will only become clear after revelations are made.
Heuer likened the situation to the 1932 discovery of the positron, which has since become a key tool in diagnosing and tracking human cancer.
The news came from the director of the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva yesterday.
Rolf-Dieter Heuer said the Large Hadron Collider would be ramped up to world record power later this month.
At 7 trillion electron volts, that will be three times more energy than the record set in November by Heuer's organization - known by its French acronym CERN.
By crashing high energy beams of protons into each other in a 27-kilometer tunnel under the Swiss-French border in Geneva, CERN scientists hope to gain insights into the makeup of matter and the creation of the universe billions of years ago just moments after the Big Bang.
There had been no discoveries so far with the LHC, Heuer said, but he predicted breakthroughs soon into the mysterious dark matter that scientists believe comprises a quarter of the universe.
"We will open a door for new physics at the end of this year," Heuer told reporters.
CERN's experiments represent a massive effort among 7,000 scientists from more than 80 countries into better understanding nature and how it works.
Like most discoveries in particle physics, the true significance of breakthroughs in dark matter, antimatter or dark energy, will only become clear after revelations are made.
Heuer likened the situation to the 1932 discovery of the positron, which has since become a key tool in diagnosing and tracking human cancer.
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