I'm sure you have all heard of the Large Hadron Collider, and some of you may recall this picture circulating around.



If you dont then read up on it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider and here http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/the_large_hadron_collider.html and this video explains it layman's terms http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6uKZWnJLCM

Essentially, its a 27Km (17 mile) circumference particle accelerator. The experiments that physicists will be able to do with this will be vast, and could change our knowledge of how the universe works.They're even planning on making some (micro) black holes! Insane, no?
The whole area is cooled to 1.9K (1.9C above absolute zero - the temperature where even electrons stop moving - essentially nothing can exist below that temperature, or something like that). Or in a way that is easier to comprehend, -271.25 C (-456.25 F). All this, and it only cost $6billion. Pretty cheap for something that has the potential to destroy the world don't you agree?

Anyway the first official firing of this thing was today, its been fired. And nothing happened!

The fireworks start on October 21st, when there's actually a collision. Today was the first full test, getting the beam going around the LHC in both directions, but no collisions. The BBC have quite a lot on it, too.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7604293.stm

For those worried that its going to kill us all, keep checking this website:
http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/ I had a pretty epic laugh when i saw this website. {imitating Professor Farnsworth} Good news everyone! If anything DOES happen, France will go first.