By Robert Evans
GENEVA (Reuters) - International scientists celebrated thesuccessful start of a huge particle-smashing machine onWednesday which aims to simulate the conditions of the "BigBang" that created the universe.
Experiments using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), thebiggest and most complex machine ever made, could revamp modernphysics and unlock secrets about the universe and its origins.
The project has had to work hard to deny suggestions bysome critics that the experiment could create tiny black holesof intense gravity that could suck in the whole planet.
Such fears spurred huge public interest in advanced physicsahead of the start up of the 10 billion Swiss franc (5 billionpounds) machine, which proceeded smoothly on Wednesday morning.
Scientists in the control room at CERN, the EuropeanOrganisation for Nuclear Research, broke into applause as theysent particle beams in both directions around the LHC's 27-km(17-mile) underground chamber, drawing global praise.
"The worries that scientists had were nothing to do withbeing swallowed up by black holes and everything to do withtechnical hitches or electronic failure," said professor Jimal-Khalili, a physicist at the University of Surrey in England.
"Now, after a collective sigh of relief, the real funstarts," al-Khalili said. "No matter what we find, we will beunlocking the secrets of the universe."
Eventually, the scientists want to trigger tiny collisionsat nearly the speed of light, an attempt to recreate on aminiature scale the heat and energy of the Big Bang, a conceptof the origin of the universe that dominates scientificthinking.
The Big Bang is thought to have occurred 15 billion yearsago when an unimaginably dense and hot object the size of asmall coin exploded in a void, spewing out matter that expandedrapidly to create stars, planets and eventually life on Earth.
Lyn Evans, project leader for what experts are calling thebiggest scientific experiment in human history, declined to saywhen CERN would start to smash particle beams together in theaccelerator straddling the Swiss-French border.
"The LHC is its own prototype so it is difficult to judgehow long it will take," he said. "I think what has happenedthis morning bodes very well that it will go quickly."
"DISCOVERY MACHINE"
Once the LHC starts up at full speed, it will be able toengineer 600 million collisions every second, with protonstravelling at 99.99 percent of the speed of light.
Physicists hope such high-energy clashes will fill in theblanks of modern physics whose theories cannot yet fullyexplain gravity or mass.
The data recorded by the LHC -- measuring the location ofparticles to a few millionths of a metre, and the passage oftime to a few billionths of a second -- will be transmitted tocomputers around the world for scientists to review.
They will be looking for how the particles come together,fly apart, or dissolve. The conditions in the LHC could alsoconfirm or disprove the existence of the Higgs Boson, atheoretical particle named after Scottish scientist Peter Higgswho first proposed it in 1964.
Also referred to as the "God particle," the Higgs Boson isthought to give matter its mass. It has never been observed.
"The LHC is a discovery machine," said CERN DirectorGeneral Robert Aymar, a French physicist. "Its researchprogramme has the potential to change our view of the universeprofoundly, continuing a tradition of human curiosity that's asold as mankind itself."
Scientists halted the particle beam's counter-clockwisespin temporarily on Wednesday afternoon after problems with themachine's magnets caused its temperature to warm slightly.
CERN officials said such minor glitches were to be expectedgiven the intricacy of the machine, which is cooled to minus271.3 degrees Celsius (minus 456.3 degrees Fahrenheit).
Project leader Evans, who wore jeans and running shoes forthe LHC's debut, said careful calibrations would be required atevery step for the high-profile experiment.
"This is a machine of enormous complexity. Things can gowrong at any time. But this morning we had a great start."