Article: E (14 trillion electron-volts) = m (?) [c (close to the speed light).sup.2]: this fall, the massive Large Hadron Collider beneath France and Switzerland will switch on. Protons moving at almost the speed of light will collide with energies high enough, physicists hope, to solve matter's biggest mysteries.(Humans)(Cover story)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The hammering has stopped, the whining of power tools has abated. Only the hum of electronic detectors reverberates through the cavernous, eight-story space below the Swiss-Franco border that is stuffed with 9,300 magnets and enough niobium-titanium wire to stretch to the sun and back five times.

But by September, if all goes according to plan, two narrow beams of protons moving in opposite directions will begin making laps around the underground laboratory's 27-kilometer-long subatomic racetrack. The protons will pass from Switzerland to France without benefit of a passport, and smash into one another up to 500 million times a ...

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles:

 
 
Newsweek Harper's Magazine The Washington Post Chicago Tribune Crain's Chicago Business PRNewswire Pediatric News The Nation Advertising Age The Economist (US) A FREE trial gives you access to over 80 million articles! Access over 6,500 publications with a FREE trial!