The end (or the beginning) of the world is close!

The launch of the most complex scientific instrument of all times, which was due this month, is now scheduled to May 2008. The Large Hadron Collider, a 27-km ring tunnel built deep underground between the Swiss and French borders, promises to recreate the conditions right after the Big Bang. By revisiting the beginning of time, scientists hope to unravel some of the deepest secrets of our Universe.

Since on March this year, a pressure test of one of the "inner triplet magnets" (whatever that is) failed, the team decided to extend the experiment to make sure everything goes as planned. And they better make sure that everything will work as planned, because otherwise, we might be looking at a new Big Bang and I'm pretty sure that wouldn't do wonders to France and Switzerland's landscape. Or the Planet's, for that matters.

Nevertheless, the successful ending of this experiment might reveal the answer to the ultimate question: how was the Universe created? While some authors have interesting theories about the beginning of the Universe, we can only wait to see if the most complex experiment of our world will shed some light on the subject.

If you're interested on knowing a bit more about this experiment, check out these videos:

Large Hadron Collider - part 1, part 2 and part 3