PetaPixel

Stunning Photo Set Shows The Beauty of The World’s Largest Particle Accelerator

 

A few days ago the people over at CERN — the guys behind the biggest particle accelerator in the world, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) — made what has been called “the biggest advance in knowledge about the cosmos for over 30 years,” they discovered the long-sought-after Higgs Boson.

Of course particle physics doesn’t always pique the interest of us photographically inclined peoples, but what does is a gorgeous photo set, like this one from The Atlantic which celebrates the particle accelerator that helped make the discovery (in truth it did all the heavy lifting). The set goes a long way in showing that ever elusive “beauty in the machine.”

Check out the full Atlantic article to see all 34-photos, or head over to Ars Electronica’s flickr stream if you want to feast your eyes on even more particle accelerator pics.

The Fantastic Machine That Found the Higgs Boson (via The Verge)

Image credits: CERN, photos by Maximilien Brice and Laurent Guiraud

 
 
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  • http://www.facebook.com/billybobtexas Paul Alderete

    frightning… lol

  • http://www.facebook.com/donahuememp James Donahue

    I wonder what benefit the finding will be to the everyday person

  • Steve Stevenson

    ” they discovered the long-sought-after Higgs Boson.”

    No they haven’t, not yet. They think they have found it. They still have to do some more research.

  • Craig from Brisbane

    Why should that matter James Donahue? As far as I’m concerned, Theoretical Science should be for the pure pursuit of knowledge, not necessarily for the entertainment of the ‘everyday person’.

  • docyogi

    There are always those who say “just what good is pure research?”. For just one example out of literally thousands lets look at the SQUID (Superconducting Quantum Interference Device). Before quantum physics this was not even an idea. But when we started learning, through basic research, about quantum theory and it’s uses many useful things came out of the pure research labs. The SQUID made Magnetic Resonance Imaging possible. So due to pure research into quantum physics we now have one of the most useful and accurate diagnostic tools since the X-Ray.

  • http://twitter.com/stoyanov stanimir stoyanov

    I *love* the third photo. It reminds me of HAL in Kubrick’s 2001.

  • Peter Croft

    To the knockers who say, “What’s it for, why should we waste money on this?”, just add up the cost of each cruise missile, each Hellfire missile, each drone, each nuclear powered aircraft carrier, each “smart bomb” the wonderful USA unleashes on civilians every day, and go and stand in the corner in shame. Cretins.

  • http://twitter.com/DazamCom Dazam

    Says the guy using a computer attached to the internet (which was developed at CERN)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet#CERN.2C_the_European_Internet.2C_the_link_to_the_Pacific_and_beyond

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Joey-Duncan/1111692326 Joey Duncan

    Seriously, it bothers me people posting “what good is this”… well I mean that throught process would put the US in the 13 colonies and that’s it, no moving West. That was expansion through blood sweat and tears along with money. This is just money, (and hopefully not creating a black hole or something that’ll swallow us) No trips to the moon, Most great leaps forward are due to wonder, or war…. the byproduct is technology. Sometimes technology for war but usually life too. Quantum research has created new direction that even star trek can’t even make up. This is only the tiniest of mild-stone. In 30-40 years we WILL have tiny little robots that unclogs your tubes, repair stuff. Injections that repair bad cell and kill cancer. Even more expansion of LASER tech, armor that can stop shrapnel and bullets but is 10 lighter and cars that are 10 times safer,