Protons and Champagne Mix as New Particle Collider Is Revved Up (yep, he's actually wearing a robe!)

BATAVIA, Ill. — Science rode a beam of subatomic particles and a river of Champagne into the future on Wednesday.
(Image: The entrance to the CERN laboratory near Geneva. After 14 years of labor, scientists activated their new particle collider.)
Peter Wynn Thompson for The New York Times
"Some scientists at the Fermilab in Batavia, Ill., showed up in pajamas on Wednesday for the activation of the collider near Geneva.

After 14 years of labor, scientists at the CERN laboratory.

outside Gene

va

successfully activated the

Large The Hadron Collider, the world’s largest, most powerful particle collider and, at $8 billion, the most expensive scientific experiment to date.

At 4:28 a.m., Eastern time, the scientists announced that a beam of protons had

complete

d it

s fi

rst c

ircuit around the collider’s 17-mile-long racetrack, 300 feet underneath the Swi

ss-French border. They then sent the beam around several more times...."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/sci

ence/11collider.html?ref=science