The Large Hadron Collider, a 17-miles long underground ring, was switched on near the Franco-Swiss border earlier today. By doing the experiment, scientists hope to learn more about the creation of the universe and how it works exactly.

LHC is one of the most complicated scientific machines built in the history of mankind. Today,  it was switched on and started using high-energy to smash atoms and analyze the remains. These remains, it is believed, will reveal more secrets about the universe than humans have been able to uncover for decades, centuries even.

The experiment could tell us more about how the universe was first created ‘and whether extra dimensions exist in space.’

“We’re overwhelmingly confident we’re going to see tremendous breakthroughs in physics,” UA physics Professor John Rutherfoord said.

Scientists worked on the project for 15 years.

Although quite some individuals believe the experiment to be dangerous – it could theoretically create a minor black hole – scientists believe it to be safe.

“We wouldn’t be turning this thing on if we really thought it would destroy the world,” said Elliott Cheu, a science-team member and associate dean of UA’s College of Science.

Cheu and Rutherfoord are both working for UA, they are two of more than a dozen UA scientists working on the project in Europe.

The scope of the LHC is truly impressive: ‘In a tunnel buried 100 metres below ground, on the shores of Lake Geneva, scientists are attempting to thread a stream of sub-atomic particles around a 27km (17 mile) ring without touching the sides. When the protons snake all the way around the circle, and begin to orbit it more than 11,000 times a second, a new eye will have been cast on the nature of everything.’

‘Within a few months, the particle accelerator will start to condense its protons into beams a quarter of the diameter of a human hair, and to fling them together at 99.9999991 per cent of the speed of light. The resulting collisions will generate energy so intense that such conditions have not existed since a trillionth of a second after the big bang, throwing sub-atomic debris into vast detectors.’

These detectors, then, will ‘track and see new particles, and perhaps even new dimensions — structural components of the cosmos about which we have been able to guess, but not to know. It is fitting that they are housed in caverns so large they could hold the naves of great churches like Westminster Abbey. These are cathedrals of a different kind, which celebrate the glory of knowledge and discovery.’

The LHC experiment – and it seems to have worked out rather well, the world still exists – is a gigantic step forwards for science, and mankind. It allows us to do something considered impossible for hundreds of generations and, by so doing, it will teach more about the universe we live in. Understanding the universe, then, will help us improve our daily lives.

It is an audacious project, one of unimaginable scope. The heartbeat of all those who love science and even those who do not but who are of course pro-human advancement cannot help but go up.

The Engineer Online published an article written by someone who visited CERN, the scientific center, last year for a tour around the LHC. It is a good, impressive, read.

There were certainly questions asked following my feature. We received several letters asking what possible use clashing particles together could serve, and whether the vast sums of money and the stores of scientific expertise could be better used elsewhere. Certainly, the former chief scientific advisor to the UK government, Sir David King, thinks so: he said this week that there should be less blue skies research, but rather more concentration on ameliorating climate change and improving food production.

Which is a remarkably unimaginative attitude, to my way of thinking. What possible use could quantum mechanics and particle physics be? What have they given us so far? Nothing much. Quantum mechanics gave us electronics and microprocessors and lasers, not to mention nuclear power, for better or worse. High-energy physics has given us every single medical imaging technique. Think it’s useless? Try telling someone whose life has been saved by magnetic resonance imaging or positron emission tomography.

And that’s completely leaving aside what might be CERN’s greatest contribution to society, the World Wide Web, developed there and given away free, and without which none of you would be reading this.