Large Hadron Collider

To describe the machine and technology, I end up using far more superlatives than I conventionally do, but this exception is warranted in the case of the LHC. The LHC is not merely large: it is the biggest machine ever built. It is not merely cold: it is the coldest extended region that we know of in the universe—colder than outer space.  The vacuum inside the proton-containing tubes, a 10 trillionth of an atmosphere, is the most complete vacuum over the largest region ever produced. The energy of the collisions are the highest ever generated on Earth, allowing us to study the interactions that occurred in the early universe the furthest back in time. Each LHC dipole (the magnets responsible for keeping the protons running in their tracks) contains coils of niobium-titanium superconducting cables, each of which contains stranded filaments a mere six microns thick – much smaller than a human hair. If you unwrapped all of these filaments, they would be long enough to encircle the orbit of Mars. And the last superlative that I’ll mention: the LHC’s $9 billion price tag also makes it the most expensive machine ever built.