Large Hadron Collider Set to Start Up (broadcast Friday, August 29th, 2008)

An original rap about the Large Hadron Collider--don't miss it. Brought to you by Will Barras, PhD student in the department of linguistics and English language at the University of Edinburgh and science writer (and rapper) Kate McAlpine. (Credits: Courtesy of Will Barras) See More Videos

The massive Large Hadron Collider at CERN is just a few weeks away from startup. The particle accelerator has passed several key performance tests, and is on track to send the first beam of particles through the ring of the accelerator on September 10th.

Scientists hope that this new collider, the most powerful in the world, will provide glimpses of particles and interactions that have so far been out of reach -- including the elusive Higgs boson, a particle thought to be responsible for matter having mass. We'll get an update on the startup procedures, and talk about why physicists are excited about the instrument's upcoming experiments.