The World’s biggest scientific experiment recreating the ‘Big Bang’ has begun. First beam to simulate Big Bang on Earth has been fired at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

Scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) started up a huge particle-smashing machine, aiming to re-enact the conditions of the “Big Bang” that created the universe. 

Experiments in the Large Hadron Collider, a 10 billion Swiss franc ($9 billion) accelerator built underneath the Swiss-French border, could unlock the remaining secrets of particle physics and answer questions about the universe and its origins. 

“There are two emotions, the pleasure of completing a great task and the hope of great discoveries ahead of us,” said CERN Director General Robert Aymar. 

The giant accelerator’s first task is to send a particle beam in one direction around its 27-km (17-mile) circumference, and then one in the other direction to test if the path is clear. 

In the coming weeks beams will be sent in both directions simultaneously to create high-speed collisions. 

Scientists around the world are eagerly anticipating data on those minuscule crashes. One possibility is that they will cause the creation of matter — proving correct the theory that there exists a “Higgs Boson” that gives matter its mass. 

Doomsday writers have also fanned fears that the experiment could create anti-matter, or black holes, spurring unprecedented public interest in particle physics ahead of the machine’s start-up. CERN has insisted that such concerns are unfounded and that the Large Hadron Collider is safe. 

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