What is 'The Big Bang Machine'?

Answer 1

The "Big Bang Machine" is a popular reference to the Large Hadron Collider

which scientists just refer to as the LHC. It was constructed in CERN in Switzerland (1998-2008) and is the most recent and most expensive of a line of particle accelerators designed for the sole reason of producing very high energy collisions between elementary particles, usually simply protons.

The LHC acquired the moniker "Big Bang Machine" as part of the publicity process where various explanations of the purpose of the LHC were simplified for popular consumption. It was said that the result of these proton collisions would "create a state of matter present during the Early Universe." That evolved to saying things like, "just after the Big Bang." What this really means is that a few minutes after the Big Bang the energy density of the whole universe was high enough that elementary particles like protons and neutrons were not yet condensed out of the "primordial soup." With the LHC there is the possibility of getting two colliding protons into a state that was somewhat like the high energy density state that all the matter of the universe was in at an earlier time, not long after the Big Bang.

The LHC is the most expensive science experiment of all time, so there is a strong effort to give it some popular appeal. (It is well past the 7 billion Euro mark, or 9 billion dollars or 6 billion pounds) In the effort of promoting the first grands experiment of the LHC the search for the Higgs

Boson, the object acquired the name "The God Particle." To LHC's

credit, they did not invent the name (or misnomer), but they did not shy away from the extra attention that created.

In balance, it should be noted that not all of the outlandish characterizations associated with the LHC have been to their benefit. Just before the LHC went on line, a story started to circulate that it might be able to produce a "mini black hole" that would then destroy the Earth. The story

did have a legitimate scientific core where some equations did open the possibility of such entity, but that possibility
was highly speculative and the LHC PR response was appropriately calming.

There is a long history of "big ideas" floated for the consumption of the general public in parallel with large budget scientific experiments. The Hubble Space Telescope had its share. There is no real way to judge whether there is a net benefit from the effect of popular enthusiasm

for science balanced by popular misconceptions of science and it is not something that anyone has much control over anyhow.

Answer 2

"The Big Bang Machine" refers to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator located at CERN in Switzerland. It is used to collide particles at high speeds to recreate conditions similar to those just after the Big Bang, helping scientists to explore fundamental questions about the nature of the universe.