http://cache.io9.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png http://io9.com/tag/cern http://io9.com/tag/cern

The news out of Geneva gives a tantalizing first taste of really discovering the Higgs Boson. Is this for real? In this week's "Ask a Physicist," we do a round-up of all things Higgs-related. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5867850&view=rss&microfeed=true

This morning, physicists representing the Large Hadron Collider's two largest experiments — ATLAS and CMS — announced that both teams have independently uncovered signals that point to the appearance of the Higgs boson. That's the long-sought sub-atomic particle thought to endow all other particles with mass. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5867512&view=rss&microfeed=true

When physicists announced in September that they had observed neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light, the scientific community was justifiably skeptical. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5860744&view=rss&microfeed=true

Results from independent cross-checks of last month's FTL neutrino findings wont start rolling in for at least a few more months. In the meantime, however, physicists at the OPERA lab who made the initial observations will be running their experiment yet again — only this time they'll be measuring things a little differently. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5854325&view=rss&microfeed=true

When Fermilab's Tevatron came online in 1983, it was the most powerful particle accelerator in the world. Since then, the collider has made countless contributions to the field of particle physics — the most notable being its role in the 1995 discovery of the top quark, the last of the six quarks in the Standard Model of particle physics. Now, it's about to shoot its last particle beams. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5845134&view=rss&microfeed=true

The recent announcement that neutrinos had been observed seemingly going faster than the speed of light sent shockwaves through the physics community. But there's one possible explanation that could keep Einstein's relativity intact and open up a whole new cosmos. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5844795&view=rss&microfeed=true

Yesterday, CERN physicists shocked the world with news of a scientific finding that could revolutionize the field of physics. The researchers claim to have observed what many had believed to be impossible: subatomic particles called neutrinos moving faster than the speed of light. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5843395&view=rss&microfeed=true

So did the folks at CERN really record neutrinos moving faster than light? Was Einstein wrong about light speed being a universal speed limit? It's too early to tell, and regular io9 contributor Dr. Dave Goldberg has some doubts. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5843112&view=rss&microfeed=true

Looks like Einstein may have been wrong — An international team of scientists at CERN has recorded neutrino particles traveling faster than the speed of light. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5842947&view=rss&microfeed=true

This seems like a straightforward enough question, but we actually have no idea whether gravity repels or attracts antimatter, all because we've never actually managed to trap enough antimatter at once to test it. That may be about to change. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5798007&view=rss&microfeed=true

Rumors are again swirling that the Higgs boson, the missing subatomic particle of the Standard Model, has been found at last. But where did these reports come from, and should we believe them? Let's take a look at the evidence. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5795179&view=rss&microfeed=true

CERN may not have discovered the "God particle," but these photos of the facility by engineer Ricardo Hurtubia are almost enough to inspire religious levels of awe. Glowy energy balls, weird shapes, trippy lights... it's all like the mind-bending science fiction film we've been waiting for. Appropriately, almost every photo is labeled "science fiction" on Hurtubia's Flickr stream. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5750677&view=rss&microfeed=true

String theory is one of the more popular candidates to combine quantum mechanics and relativity into a grand unified theory. But it had remained completely untestable until recent experiments at the Large Hadron Collider. The early results don't look good. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5714210&view=rss&microfeed=true

It may have taken longer than anyone expected to get the Large Hadron Collider cranked up and pummeling the secrets of creation (no doubt due to sabotage from the future) but the LHC has ruled science fiction books for years. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5506094&view=rss&microfeed=true

Sounds like repairs are going swimmingly on the world's most gigantic physics experiment, the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. Last year, a pipe broke in the newly-built facility, spilling tons of liquid helium everywhere and setting back the experiment by over a year. But now it looks as if we'll be seeing data starting to roll in from the facility in the next 10 months. Can't wait for those beams to create a black hole! Erm, I mean to help us understand quantum particles. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5148480&view=rss&microfeed=true

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the mega-physics experiment in Switzerland where atomic particles will be smashed into each other, has been shut down. The BBC reports that a fault opened up in one of the underground tunnels this morning, releasing one ton of liquid helium into the tunnels. This in turn caused 100 supercooled magnets crucial to LHC experiments to heat up and fail (the liquid helium is what keeps the magnets cool). After the successful first startup of the LHC last week, does this mean it could be months or years before another beam gets shot through the vast underground structure? More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5052619&view=rss&microfeed=true

Today the mad physicists over at Swiss lab CERN will turn on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and begin the physics experiments that might end the world. While some fringe scientists worry that the LHC will destroy the fabric of spacetime, the rest of us armchair physicists are on the edge of our seats waiting to see what the giant underground magnet will tell us about, well, the universe. Lucky for us, science fiction has already come up with an answer. We've come up with ten crazy scifi tales where physics experiments destroy the world. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5047040&view=rss&microfeed=true

You may have noticed that io9 is pretty into the Large Hadron Collider. Not only does it look awesome, it does amazing science at the cutting edge of physics that could fundamentally change our understanding of the universe itself. Plus, it gives us all these sexy sci-fi things to think about, like other dimensions, exotic particles and even the apocalypse (even if scientists say there's nothing to worry about). So if you plan on hanging out with other science-loving geeks like us to celebrate the LHC's activation this week, you'll definitely want to check out our LHC drinking game. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5047688&view=rss&microfeed=true

Particle physics professor Brian Cox of the University of Manchester has pretty much the final word on Large Hadron Collider fear-mongering with the above quote. What prompted such an outburst? Death threats against scientists working on the LHC. Perhaps an even better question - what does "t***" stand for? More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5045922&view=rss&microfeed=true

Science can be pretty weird, especially theoretical physics, but weirder still is watching someone rapping about the Large Hadron Collider. (That's the giant device in Switzerland that will recreate the Big Bang, among other things.) Time to recalibrate your strangeness meters - science writer Kate McAlpine and some friends filmed themselves busting various moves deep in the caverns of the LHC while Kate dropped mad verse about the collider. Check out the video, below, and find out why other colliders are just suckas. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5044071&view=rss&microfeed=true

We love a good science fiction story, but sometimes reality is just as strange. While we may have seen 2001 come and go without an actual space odyssey, the last eight years have been full of events that - had they not actually happened - could easily pass for science fiction. Here are five real life events that still seem like they've come straight from the set-up of a big budget summer blockbuster. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5027077&view=rss&microfeed=true

Science fiction is rife with tales of experiments that run out of control and blow up the planet or exterminate all life or something. Maybe that's why two U.S. researchers sued the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), trying to get an injunction that would prevent them from building their Large Hadron Collider. Their reason? Concern that it would create an apocalyptic mini-black hole here on Earth. Many debated whether their fears were pure cranksterism or held a grain of truth. Now a physics professor has researched the issue and discovered the truth about the LHC's inherent risks to all humanity. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5021325&view=rss&microfeed=true

The Large Hadron Collider at the CERN research facility near Geneva, Switzerland won't be going on a luau in Hawaii anytime soon, since the state is suing to stop the activation of the enormous research project. Yes, it's not just individual wackos who believe the LHC will unleash a cosmic ass-whooping on the planet. An actual state is suing the builders to keep them from activating it. They fear it'll let loose runaway miniature black holes, strangelets, or magnetic monopoles that will destroy the planet. The researchers at CERN have spent their precious time trying to assure people that won't happen, although it would be kind of cool if it did. We've got the strange and winding history of this project in today's Triviagasm. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=379494&view=rss&microfeed=true

Last year, before the gigantic hadron supercollider at CERN research facility was installed underground, a photographer captured this picture of a 1,950 metric ton tunnel containing giant magnets that will be placed in a tunnel and kept at near-zero temperatures. These mega-magnets are the biggest in the world, and will force subatomic particles to smash into each other. Want to see another one of the mega-magnets? More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=349486&view=rss&microfeed=true The final piece of CERN's new ultra-giant hadron collider was lowered into its place deep underground today. Within weeks, protons will be smashing the shit out of each other underneath Swizerland. Nano-awesome! [Science Daily] More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=348860&view=rss&microfeed=true