On September 10th 2008, the Large Hadron Collider finally went live, and the first beams were put through their paces, circling the entire 27 kilometer ring at 99.99981% the speed of light.
The new dawn of scientific discovery has finally begun. On the top of the to-do list for CERN is now the search for the Higgs boson and find the source of all the dark matter (and dark energy) that occupies 75% of our universe by mass.
One of the main suspects for dark matter is super-symmetry, or 'SUSY' as its fondly know
Super symmetry predicts that for every know particle in the universe, there exists a heavier super partner, know as a 'sparticle'. Since sparticles are heavier partners, and as of now have remained undetected, they are the prime suspects for super-symmetry.
If either the higgs particle or super-symmetry are found (or in either case, the particle responsible for mass and the source of all this dark matter) then it would be an incredible boost to the entire scientific community.
It would confirm the standard model's prediction of the higgs mechanism and provide, finally, a working model and a 'theory of everything' at least from a particle physics standpoint.
Within a year, what has been a long sought part of the mystery will finally come together, but by no means will it be the final page.
as the evolutionary biologist J.B.S Haldane once said,
"I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine. Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose."
