A physics breakthrough

3/30/2010 9:51 AM EDT

CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research, a provisional body founded in in the ealy 1950s with the mandate of establishing a world-class fundamental physics research organization in Europe.

What happened on March 30 at CERN is the start of a new physics as the LHC begins its first long run at an energy three and a half times higher than previously achieved at a particle accelerator.

CERN will run the LHC for 18-24 months with the objective of delivering enough data to the experiments to make significant advances across a wide range of physics channels, according to the CERN website.

Following this run, the LHC will shut down for routine maintenance, and to complete the repairs and consolidation work needed to reach the LHC's design energy of 14 TeV.

As Joel Achenbach in his blog states: "The scientists want to find things that catch them by surprise, and which inspire new theories — 'new physics.' No one wants to come to the conclusion that we've found out everything that we're ever going to find out. Because then we'd have to fold up shop."

"As always, what's really interesting is the unknown, and the journey into mystery," said Achenbach.

I agree.

First photos can be seen here.

Congratulations to all scientists on this project!