I was actually quite lucky to have insomnia last night and be able to catch live the first phase of powering up the accelerator and then celebration. Thank god this was able to get underway after that stupid black hole scare. But man, isn't this exciting? What do you guys think they might find? Nothing at all? I hope not. At least let us get to see some dark matter. But people are talking about alternate dimensions? Its fun to imagine what could happen after the real tests go down this fall.
Scientists Activate Particle ColliderBy DENNIS OVERBYE
Published: September 10, 2008
BATAVIA, ILL. — Science rode a beam of subatomic particles and a river of champagne into the future on Wednesday.
After 14 years and $8 billion, scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, outside Geneva, succeeded in turning on the most powerful microscope ever built for investigating the elemental particles and forces of nature.
At 4:27 a.m., Eastern time, the protons made their first circuit around a 17-mile-long racetrack known as the Large Hadron Collider, 300 feet underneath the Swiss French border, and then made a return journey.
"It’s a fantastic moment," said Lyn Evans, who has been the project director of the collider since its inception. “We can now look forward to a new era of understanding about the origins and evolution of the universe.”
An ocean and half a continent away from Geneva, several dozen physicists, journalists, students and just plain citizens gathered here at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab, outside Chicago, to watch the dawn of a new generation in high-energy physics, applauding each milestone of the night as the scientists at CERN slowly wrestled the beam into shape.
Many of them, including the lab’s director, Pier Oddone, were wearing pajamas or bathrobes or even night caps bearing Fermilab patches on them.
Outside, a half moon was hanging low in a cloudy sky as a reminder that the universe is beautiful and mysterious and that another small step into that mystery was about to be taken.
Dr. Oddone lauded the new machine as the result of “two and a half decades of dreams to open up this huge new territory in the exploration of the natural world.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/science/11collider.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp 
