After two years of extensive upgrades, the Large Hadron Collider was warming up on March 21 for another round of experiments when a circuit controlling one of its massive magnets shorted out. Dismayed, scientists began repairing the equipment, hoping for a short delay. Just yesterday, CERN announced that the LHC could restart within days.
Then the unexpected happened. As physicists were testing the repairs by zipping a few spare protons around the 17 mile loop, the CMS detector picked up something unusual. The team feverishly pored over the data, and ultimately came to an unlikely conclusion—in their tests, they had accidentally created a rainbow universe.
“Rainbow universes were pure speculation before this happened,” said Jessica Czerniski, the CERN physicist who was overseeing the warm-up procedures. “We had some solid math backing us up, of course, but none of us ever dreamed we would live to see this day.”
I like rainbows. ;-) To read more, click here.