Large Hadron Collider - Huge Research Tool

CERN's big underground research tool, the Large Hadron Collider, will go online in August of this year. There's a lot to look forward to:

• The Real
  "The Large Hadron Collider "
  CERN
  • "The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a gigantic scientific instrument near Geneva, where it spans the border between Switzerland and France about 100 m underground. It is a particle accelerator used by physicists to study the smallest known particles – the fundamental building blocks of all things. It will revolutionise our understanding, from the miniscule world deep within atoms to the vastness of the Universe...."
• The Imagined
  "Scientists: Nothing to fear from atom-smasher"
  Houston Chronicle (June 28, 2008)
  • " MEYRIN, Switzerland — The most powerful atom-smasher ever built could make some bizarre discoveries, such as invisible matter or extra dimensions in space, after it is switched on in August.
  • "But some critics fear the Large Hadron Collider could exceed physicists' wildest conjectures: Will it spawn a black hole that could swallow Earth? Or spit out particles that could turn the planet into a hot dead clump?
  • "Ridiculous, say scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known by its French initials CERN — some of whom have been working for a generation on the $5.8 billion collider, or LHC.

I've posted about the LHC before:

• "CERN Large Hadron Collider: Photos"
  (March 20, 2008)
• "Photos of Five Cool Research Facilities"
  (January 5, 2008)

I'd say that today's LHC article has more complete and accurate content. The others do have cool photos, though.

More:

• "CERN's Large Hadron Collider: A List of Posts "