Can World's Largest Atom Smasher Solve the Universe's Deepest Mysteries?

The Large Hadron Collider could help to solve some of the universe's deepest mysteries,

such as how it came into existence. Credit: Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock Don Lincoln is a senior scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermilab, America's largest Large Hadron Collider research institution. He also writes about science for the public, including "The Large Hadron Collider: The Extraordinary Story of the Higgs Boson and Other Things That Will Blow Your Mind" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014). You can follow him onFacebook. Lincoln contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Deep beneath the Swiss and French countrysides, a giant is awakening. No, this isn't the beginnings of this summer's latest blockbuster movie. The awakening is very real, if perhaps a bit metaphorical. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located at the CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) laboratory just outside Geneva, is an enormous particle accelerator. It is the largest scientific facility ever constructed by humanity, with a circumference of more than 16 miles (27 kilometers). And after being shut down for about half a year, it resumed operations in May with significantly improved capabilities. [Photos: The World's Largest Atom Smasher (LHC)]   https://www.livescience.com/59433-particle-collider-may-solve-universe-mysteries.html