Forget the Large Hadron Collider – our team has designed a particle accelerator the size of a large room

In 2010, when scientists were preparing to smash the first particles together within the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), sections of the media fantasised that the EU-wide experiment might create a black hole that could swallow and destroy our planet. How on Earth, columnists fumed, could scientists justify such a dangerous indulgence in the pursuit of abstract, theoretical knowledge?

But particle accelerators are much more than enormous toys for scientists…

© La Conversation - jeudi 18 février 2021