About the US/LHC Project

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland is opening new vistas on the deepest secrets of the universe, stretching the imagination with newly discovered forms of matter, forces of nature, and dimensions of space. This site provides general information about the Large Hadron Collider and detailed information about American participation in the LHC accelerator and experiments. U.S. LHC participation is supported by the US Department of Energy's Office of Science and the National Science Foundation.

A proton-proton collision event in the CMS experiment producing two high-energy photons (red towers). This is what we would expect to see from the decay of a Higgs boson but it is also consistent with background Standard Model physics processes. (Courtesy: CERN)

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FLASHFORWARD

In Robert J. Sawyer's science fiction novel Flashforward, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN provides the setting for an event that causes global mayhem. The story follows an international team of scientists and engineers, led by a Canadian physicist working on the ALICE experiment at the LHC, as they answer the question: If you knew what your future held, what would you do?

The science behind
the story:

The LHC in FlashForward: science or fiction?
CERN's FlashForward Web site, including interviews with theorist John Ellis and Robert J. Sawyer
Berkeley Lab physicist Peter Jacobs separates Flashforward science fiction from science fact
Symmetry Breaking interviews Robert J. Sawyer on the LHC, Higgs and Hollywood

The LHC:

FlashForward science
in the news:

"The Scientific Mind Behind FlashForward", Time.com, September 22, 2009
"Flashforward author Robert J. Sawyer on the LHC, Higgs and Hollywood", Symmetry Breaking, September 22, 2009
"FlashForward author Robert J. Sawyer on How George Lucas Pre-Empted His SciFi Series", AMC Blogs, September 21, 2009
"The science behind FlashForward", Symmetry Breaking, September 18, 2009
The science of FlashForward on CBC's Book Club, September 2009