AT a time when the world is shrouded in doom and gloom, good news is hard to come by. For Pakistanis, especially, rising prices, terrorism and political uncertainty have all combined to produce a dire scenario.

But for me, there is a silver lining: the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern on the Franco-Swiss border is about to be commissioned. Okay, this might not be a signal for universal celebration and the sound of thousands of champagne corks popping, but for those of us caught up in the excitement of standing at the edge of a brand new frontier in quantum physics, it is a very exciting moment.

Before readers think I have finally lost my marbles, let me explain what the LHC is, and what it means to physicists the world over. Just to give you a small idea about the scale of the Collider, it should be sufficient to say that one of its four detectors, Atlas, weighs as much as a hundred Boeing 747s. The tunnel around which particles will be accelerated to near light speed forms a circle of 27 kilometres. It has taken two decades and $10bn to construct, with several European countries collaborating to build it. (Some of this information is from a recent booklet published by the Guardian).

So what do scientists expect to discover once the Collider is operational? Nothing less than the ultimate composition of matter itself. Since the quantum theory was first postulated a century ago, many sub-atomic particles have been discovered. At this level, things get truly weird, and appropriately, particles get names to match. Neutrons and protons are made of up quarks, and these are known as up, down, and strange. When another quark was discovered in 1974, it was dubbed the charm quark to welcome its arrival. Binding quarks together are particles called gluons.

Despite this proliferation of particles and sub-particles, there are many gaps in our knowledge. Perhaps the biggest mystery in the universe is the composition of ‘dark matter’: this is the invisible stuff that holds galaxies together, and constitutes the bulk of all matter. Some forty years ago, Peter Higgs proposed the existence of a particle — named the Higgs boson in his honour — that would be the missing ingredient in the Standard Model of particle physics. However, if this particle is not found at the LHC, other theories will gain currency. Among these, my personal favourite is the so-called ‘string theory’, a complex model that allows for the presence of an infinite number of parallel universes. Alas, no empirical evidence has yet been discovered to underpin this exotic theory.

Many people question the usefulness of spending so much money on this enterprise. For me, the cooperation that has made the LHC possible is the finest example of what can be achieved if nations work together instead of making war. Some of the finest minds in Europe have collaborated to produce this monument to the human spirit. For if any one quality defines us as a species it is our endless curiosity. The questions surrounding the beginning of the universe have occupied theologians, scientists and philosophers for centuries. Step by step, physicists and mathematicians have pieced the jigsaw puzzle together, but a few pieces still remain. Perhaps the LHC will answer the remaining questions.

By creating conditions that existed a billionth of a second after the Big Bang some 14 billion years ago, the scientists at Cern hope to study what the universe looked like at the beginning of time. In order to accelerate sub-atomic particles to 99.9 per cent of the speed of light, the entire 27 kilometre tunnel is currently being cooled to near absolute zero, and air is being pumped out to create a vacuum. In fact, when it has reached its lowest temperature, the tunnel will be the coldest place in the universe. The particles will then be fired in opposite directions, and accelerated by superconducting magnets. When they smash into each other, the violent collisions will be recorded by four detectors monitored by over five thousand scientists.

For those who think that such scientific quests are a waste of time and resources, it might come as a surprise to know that the Internet was first invented in Cern. In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, an obscure computer scientist, came up with an idea that would allow physicists to share information over a distributed net that he named the World Wide Web. In order to handle the incredible volume of data that will be generated by the LHC, a network of some 20,000 desktop computers distributed over 11 academic computing clusters will be connected to form a supercomputer of immense power. On the average day, the LHC will produce some 40,000 gigabytes of useful information.

Bizarrely, some individuals in Hawaii have moved a court to halt the Cern experiment on the grounds that it might generate black holes that would grow and swallow the world. Indeed, it is one of the hopes of scientists that black holes will be created, but they will be so tiny, and will last for such a brief moment, that there is no danger to the facility, or to the rest of us. Every time mankind seeks to explore the unknown, there are people who mutter warnings and predict the worst. Luckily for us, these doom-and-gloom merchants have not succeeded in halting the march of progress.

If a civilisation stops exploring new frontiers, it stagnates and ultimately dies. Over the last half century, as man has tried to step off this planet, there have been naysayers who have objected to these expensive expeditions on the grounds of expense. Their argument is based on the widespread poverty that blights our planet. But oddly, they do not object to the billions we spend on weapons and armies. So far, the US has blown over $600bn on its Iraq misadventure, and that’s only the official figure. And yet, few people have said the war should never have been fought on the basis of its cost.

The truth is that if we had done a cost-benefit analysis before undertaking every voyage of discovery, we would probably still be in the Stone Age today.

irfanhusain@gmail.com