Largest Particle Collider Conducts Successful Test
GENEVA — The world’s largest particle collider has successfully completed its first major test.
Scientists around the world watched as a beam of protons was fired all the way around a 17-mile underground tunnel near the France-Switzerland border. Champagne corks popped after the test was declared a success.
Eventually two beams will be fired in opposite directions around the huge ring. Scientists hope their experiments will lead to greater understanding of the big bang, which they theorize was the massive explosion that created the universe.
Skeptics worry that if something goes wrong, the Earth could be in danger. But the chief spokesman for the project says doomsday scenarios of black holes swallowing the Earth are “nonsense.”
Stephen Hawking and other top minds say the experiments are absolutely safe.
