Latest CERN Stories

NOW that the euphoria and hype surrounding the search for the Higgs boson - using the Large Hadron Collider at Cern - have eased somewhat, it is perhaps opportune to raise a couple of important questions on the methodology of physical science, which seem to have been largely ignored or forgotten in the meantime. It is a tenet of the scientific method that physical experiment should be performed to test out theories, and in such manner as to be unbiased and amenable to independent...

World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee believes a new system needs to be implemented to help separate Internet fact from fiction.Speaking with BBC News, Sir Tim expressed concern about the way the Internet has fueled the spread of inaccurate information.Sir Tim made his comments shortly before the unveiling of his World Wide Web Foundation, which aims to improve the web's global accessibility. The foundation will also examine ways to help users verify the reliability and trustworthiness...

A spokesman for the world's most powerful physics experiment said part of the computer system of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was hacked into last Wednesday.A group known as the "Greek Security Team" hacked into a computer connected to the system.The hackers put up a message on the facility's website, according to a spokesman for Cern, the lab that houses the LHC.The spokesman said no harm was done but the incident has highlighted the need for security in the LHC's network.The...

Czech Republic: Czech companies participate in projects of the European Centre of Nuclear Research (CERN) having a seat in Geneve, Switzerland. Czech companies' supplies of goods for CERN's projects reached a value of CHF 5.8 mil, CEK 90 mil, in 2007. It was by CHF 1.5 mil more than in 2006. The Czech Republic is the number two behind Switzerland in return of invested money in CERN's projects. Mainly top Czech electrotechnics and electronics were used in CERN. (c) 2008 Access Czech Republic...

Hackers put a damper on celebrations of the Large Hadron Collider's successful start-up in Geneva, Switzerland, leaving a mocking message on its Web site. The computer hackers, calling themselves the Greek Security Team, created an unauthorized Web page on a site associated with the collider calling its security technicians "schoolkids" but indicating they weren't interested in disrupting the experiment, The Times of London reported Saturday. The Web site was open to scientists not...

The potential for the world's largest atom smasher to destroy Earth is one question weighing on the minds of some lay people as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) prepares to go online Wednesday. Don't worry, say the experts, who are more concerned with whether the 17 mile-long particle accelerator underground at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research near Geneva, Switzerland, will work as planned and, perhaps, reveal the existence of the so-called God particle....

LEADING ARTICLE Science has enjoyed an unusually high profile this week. It is rare for a laboratory experiment to get live coverage on the international news networks, but that was the honour bestowed on the switching on of the Large Hadron Collider at the Cern research centre in Switzerland. This is no ordinary experiment of course, but the largest and most ambitious ever attempted. Over the past two decades, Cern has drawn on the expertise of a veritable army of scientists. And it...

By The Associated Press GENEVA (AP) - A small blip on a computer screen sent champagne corks popping among physicists in Switzerland. Near Chicago, researchers at a "pajama party" who watched via satellite let out an early morning cheer.The blip was literally of cosmic proportions, representing a new tool to probe the birth of the universe.The world's largest atom smasher passed its first test Wednesday as scientists said their powerful tool is almost ready to reveal how the tiniest...

By JUDY SIEGEL It probably won't turn out to be quite as exciting as a black hole swallowing up planet earth, but the world's largest ever experiment, which kicks off on Wednesday, is still likely to take human knowledge a thrilling leap forward. Three of the 30 Israeli professors, students and technicians who have taken part in preparations for the historic launch of the gargantuan particle accelerator known as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project, are already at the European...

By James Thalman Deseret News and Alexander G. Higgins Associated Press Moving fast enough to circle a 17-mile-long underground tunnel nearly 11,000 times a second, streams of atomic particles signaled the start of a new era of research that scientists believe could unravel the universe's deepest mysteries. At 2:28 a.m. MDT Wednesday, some 14 years and $10 billion after it was first designed, the Large Hadron Collider laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, was activated, officially becoming...