Where did we come from? (Visiting CERN)

In this aerial view of the Lake Geneva region you can see a yellow circle. nope, it's not a train track. it's the plan for the world's largest particle accelerator, buried 100m underground in the Swiss-France border. If you've read Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, it might ring a bell. it is here, in CERN (European Organization for nuclear research) that the story of this international bestseller starts (i won't go further for the reason of spoiler :-)). Ever since I arrived in Switzerland I've been wanting to visit! but holly molly, when I emailed them to make a reservation, they told me they are fully booked till next year!!! what a bummer. however there is a multimedia center opened for the visitors year-around and today i am feeling extra scientific so off i went.
Although most of the time i tried to recall what proton, atom and all that stuff are from high school physics class (which is way back) and tried to connect the dots, i really marveled at the scale of the project and what the scientists there try to accomplish. They are currently building its most powerful machine ever, the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC. Here are a few things about it:

• It recreates the conditions a millionth of a millionth of a second after the big bang, so that the scientists can gain understanding on the mysteries of how our universe is made and how it came to be.
  
• And it does so by accelerating beams of particles (to as fast as light speed!) and smashing them into each other to create high energy conditions similar to those in the first instants of the Universe.
  
• in just one second, protons travel 11000 times around the 27km ring of the LHC accelerator, crossing the border between France and Switzerland on each circuit

I apologize if these scientific tidbits bore you, but i thought it's really amazing what they are trying to do. We are so used to who we are that we don't ask questions anymore. but somewhere out there, there's a group of devoted scientists who are determined to find out the ultimate answer of mankind. and this dedication brings together top minds across nations and around the world. And to top it off, the world wide web (www) was invented here! Which means without it, i wouldn't be here typing this entry. :)i wish i will be able to visit the lab on my next trip back here, perhaps i should reserve the tour now!