Buried under the French-Swiss border, the Large Hadron Collider has gotten its share of ink–and for good reason. Hearing about the sheer magnitude and price of what’s been called the biggest and most expensive scientific experiment in human history is enough to instill fascination and excitement in even the most non-particle-physicists among us.
Once it’s running at full capacity, the project’s researchers say, the $5.3 billion LHC, the biggest particle accelerator ever built, will be able to answer questions physicists never thought they’d get answers to, like why the universe formed the way it did and why matter has mass. Critics of the project say it could have the opposite effect, leading not to knowledge but instead humanity’s demise.
