Did anyone create and if so, who created our universe? When was it created? Does God exist? Who are we? What is our place in nature? What is our relation to the unknown? These and several such questions are being asked through the ages ever since intelligent beings came into existence.

Can the Large Hadron Collider help man find answers for these intricate questions? No. It cannot answer the eternal query, �does God exist?�



We know of three dimensions of space and one of time. The world's most powerful particle accelerator can search for evidence of extra dimension(s). According to media reports, it can also look for the ``dark matter'', that is supposed to fill most of the universe, the antimatter that mirrors all known matter, and the elusive Higgs-boson particle, which could explain how all other particles get their mass. All of these have previously only been theorized, but not confirmed.

There are several theories relating to the origin of the Universe. 'God said, Let there be light and there it was' is a theory widely believed until Darwin came up with his theory of evolution about one hundred and fifty years ago. Man's urge to know the past has opened up several possibilities. Big Bang is one such. Followers of this theory believe that Bing Bang started the universe 13.7 billion years ago. One of the detectors of the Collider will smash together lead ions to simulate conditions shortly after the Big Bang. Scientists hope they would be able to learn from this how matter was formed.

Man's search will continue till he finds the eternal truth. And once he finds that, life would become meaningless and purposeless. Let�s hope the US$10 billion invested by CERN�s 20 member nations in this twenty four year old project would not go waste.

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