From the very beginning of the experiment aimed at unlocking the Universe’s mysteries, the Large Hadron Collider has been faced with much opposition.

The LHC, which is the largest particle accelerator, has been deemed by many as the one to bring upon us the end of the world, critics to the project stating that the machine’s attempt to recreate the “Big Bang” would create a black hole that might trigger the implosion of our planet.

Despite these apocalyptic visions revolving around the instrument that could solve the puzzle concerning the Universe’s birth, the Large Hadron Collider’s first test-which was conducted on the morning of September 10-went well, scientists successfully circulating a beam through the machine. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), which built the LHC, fired the protons around the tunnel in two stages: first in a clockwise direction, the particles completing their circuit at 10:28 local time and afterwards, a beam of protons was pushed in the counterclockwise direction. The second half of the test took longer than the first one, delaying the completion of the full circuit until 14:59. This was due to a small issue regarding the Collider’s temperature, which has to be kept at minus 271.3 degrees Celsius. Problems with the LHC’s magnets gave rise to some temperature fluctuations that halted the test for some time.

Presently, scientists have run across another bump in the road that has temporarily thwarted their plans to start the experiment at the end of this month, as it had previously been scheduled. Last Thursday, the transformer that enables the cooling of the instrument broke down and although it was rapidly replaced by the researchers, the LHC will only be able to resume tests in a few weeks.

CERN’s project is expected to confirm the existence of the Higgs boson, a theoretical particle that, once observed and verified, would explain the mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking, the one through which particles gain mass. Moreover, scientists hope the LHC will offer precious insight concerning dark matter, dark energy, violations of the symmetry between matter and antimatter and the „hierarchy problem.” The latter is an issue regarding particle physics, the question that researchers have been striving to answer being why the weak force is 10³² times stronger than gravity. In addition, the „hierarchy problem” deals with the two aforementioned forces’ constants, Fermi's constant for the weak force and Newton's constant for gravity, the former being inexplicably larger than Newton’s constant.

The LHC’s final task, due at a yet to be known date, is to create-at nearly the speed of light-collisions between protons, in order to recreate the „Big Bang.” For the smashing of particles to occur, scientists will project beams in both directions through a colder and emptier than outer space vacuum.