Some friends were lucky enough to be able to visit CERN, the world's largest particle physics laboratory.
The most recent experiment being conducted at CERN is to find the hitherto unseen Higgs Boson This involves using the Large Hadron Collider which sends particles in opposite directions round a 27km tunnel. The initial particle beams were injected into the LHC in August 2008, and the first attempt to circulate a beam through the entire LHC was on 10 September 2008, but the system went wrong due to a faulty weld, and it was stopped for repairs. After repairs the magnets must be recooled. The experiment will resume this summer. See some photos, including one of Peter Higgs, here
If you want to see a glamorised view of CERN and a reasonably accurate description of anti-matter, go and see Angels & Demons
