The Fantastic Machine That Found the Higgs Boson

On July 4, scientists working with data from ongoing experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) announced the discovery of a new particle "consistent with" the Higgs boson -- a subatomic particle also colloquially referred to as the "God particle." After years of design and construction, the LHC first sent protons around its 27 kilometer (17 mile) underground tunnel in 2008. Four years later, the LHC's role in the discovery of the Higgs boson provides a final missing piece for the Standard Model of Particle Physics -- a piece that may explain how otherwise massless subatomic particles can acquire mass. Gathered here are images from the construction of the massive $4-billion-dollar machine that allowed us peer so closely into the subatomic world.

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View of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) Tracker Outer Barrel in the cleaning room on January 19, 2007. The CMS is a general-purpose detector, part of the Large hadron Collider (LHC), and is capable of studying many aspects of proton collisions at 14 trillion electronvolts. (Maximilien Brice/© 2012 CERN)


Work on the first half tracker inner barrel/inner disk in the Compact Muon Solenoid clean room, on October 19, 2006. (Maximilien Brice/© 2012 CERN


The huge ATLAS Toroid Magnet End-Cap A is transported between building 180 to ATLAS point 1 on May 29, 2007. (Claudia Marcelloni/© 2012 CERN)


One of the end-cap calorimeters for the ATLAS experiment is moved using a set of rails. This calorimeter will measure the energy of particles that are produced close to the axis of the beam when two protons collide. It is kept cool inside a cryostat to allow the detector to work at maximum efficiency. February 16, 2007. (Claudia Marcelloni/© 2012 CERN)

See the 30 other photos and explanations here (In Focus)

The immensity of the machine is just astonishing. The co-operation between nations is something we can as a people be proud of for once. Next step is to where??!!

Just to give a better (funkier) overview of LHC, check this video, and try not to jive!

I saw that map with the LHC superimposed so many times but still I find it extremly hard to imagine the actual size of it all.... Truly an epic beast created by humanity!

$4 Billion? Try $9 Billion (that we're being told about). Worth it at this point? Debatable. At some point maybe. I would think that right now we have much, much bigger fish to fry.

reply to post by dainoyfb


$9 billion is chump change. The Iraq war cost that on one month alone.

Its a beautiful thing. Humanity at its very best.

Its also a bargain. People who think its a lot have no comprehension of how much wealth there is sloshing around.

Mostly because its concentrated in the hands of very few.

There are 4 separate members of the Wal Mart owning family that could have funded this themselves, personally.

Think about that.