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New telescopes and the Hadron Collider look at the start of the universe

Workers walk past a giant photograph of a part of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the 'Weltmaschine' ('World Machine') exhibition on October 14, 2008 in Berlin, Germany.
Workers walk past a giant photograph of a part of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the 'Weltmaschine' ('World Machine') exhibition on October 14, 2008 in Berlin, Germany.
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Listen 24:33
New telescopes and the Hadron Collider look at the start of the universe
The Giant Magellan Telescope is part of a new generation of instruments currently under construction that will allow scientists to look back in time at the processes that formed the universe. And after a significant delay, scientists have activated the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva- a 16.8 mile tunnel lined with super-conducting magnets that crash protons together. Physicists will ramp up the power until the collisions mimic conditions at the time of the Big Bang. As long as that doesn't create a black hole that eats Switzerland and crushes the solar system, it should tell physicists some pretty interesting stuff.

The Giant Magellan Telescope is part of a new generation of instruments currently under construction that will allow scientists to look back in time at the processes that formed the universe. And after a significant delay, scientists have activated the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva- a 16.8 mile tunnel lined with super-conducting magnets that crash protons together. Physicists will ramp up the power until the collisions mimic conditions at the time of the Big Bang. As long as that doesn't create a black hole that eats Switzerland and crushes the solar system, it should tell physicists some pretty interesting stuff.

Guest:

Lawrence Krauss, physics professor at Arizona State University and writer of "The Physics of Star Trek."