FRANCE: Large Hadron Collider is successfully running at full speed and ready to start discovering new matter

Record ID: 566446

  • Title: FRANCE: Large Hadron Collider is successfully running at full speed and ready to start discovering new matter
  • Date: 27th July 2010
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (JULY 26, 2010) (REUTERS) SCREEN READING IN ENGLISH "LHC AND HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS" VARIOUS OF NEWS CONFERENCE UNDERWAY (SOUNDBITE) (English) ROLF HEUER, DIRECTOR GENERAL AT CERN, SAYING: "For the past hundred years, or I would say 40, 50 years, we have developed a fantastic model, the so-called standard model. But that explains just barely 5 percent of the energy and meta density of the universe. The other 95 percent are still to be explored. And this is a dark universe and I hope really that the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) will be the machine and the experiments will be the experiments which -- the photographer is standing in front of the TV -- will shed the first light into this dark universe. So this is exciting, this is fantastic." JOURNALISTS AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) MELVYN SHOCHET, RESEARCHER FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, SAYING: "I think this is by far the most exciting time and there are a number of reasons for that. The great success of the picture that we have of nature, the standard model, almost guarantees that there will be exciting new phenomena never before observed, that will first be seen at the LHC, perhaps even at the Tevatron, and then followed up in great detail with the a future lepton collider, either electron or muon." VARIOUS OF NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 11th August 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Science / Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVA7PUFFPQEV89PRTHNKPTNTWI4Q
  • Story Text: Physicists meeting at an International Conference on High Energy Physics in Paris on Monday (July 26) were excited about the possibilities to probe the origins of the cosmos offered by the $9.4 billion Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
    Rolf Heuer is director general of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN). He told a news conference the Hadron Collider could help scientists to explore parts of the universe not yet understood.
    "For the past hundred years, or I would say 40, 50 years, we have developed a fantastic model, the so-called standard model. But that explains just barely 5 percent of the energy and meta density of the universe. The other 95 percent are still to be explored. And this is a dark universe and I hope really that the LHC will be the machine and the experiments will be the experiments which -- the photographer is standing in front of the TV -- will shed the first light into this dark universe. So this is exciting, this is fantastic."
    In March of this year, physicists smashed sub-atomic particles into each other with record energy, creating thousands of mini-Big Bangs like the primeval explosion that gave birth to the universe 13.7 billion years ago.
    Colourful images of the collisions, at the centre of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project which will continue for over a decade, were flashed onto screens across CERN.
    CERN scientists say the images reflect what happened a fraction of a second after the Big Bang as matter and energy was spewed out, leading to the formation of galaxies stars and planets, and eventually the appearance of life.
    Today, scientists are hopeful they will start discovering new matter.
    Melvyn Shochet is a researcher on the project.
    "I think this is by far the most exciting time and there are a number of reasons for that. The great success of the picture that we have of nature, the standard model, almost guarantees that there will be exciting new phenomena never before observed, that will first be seen at the LHC, perhaps even at the Tevatron, and then followed up in great detail with the a future lepton collider, either electron or Muon."
    French President Nicolas Sarkozy made a speech to hundreds of scientists and praised their work.
    "In fact, your work represents man's oldest dream: to try and answer the question that human kind has been trying to ask since its existence, on its origins, the origin of the universe, but also the origin of matter. Deep down, why is there something rather than nothing," he said. "It is true that by resolving problems - and that is the goal of the scientist - you create more. By answering questions, you give way to more questions which are even more difficult to resolve."
    Over the coming months and years, some 10,000 researchers in laboratories around the globe, as well as at CERN, will analyse the huge volumes of data that will be produced from billions of LHC particle collisions.
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