Countdown to man's Big Bang begins

Scientists are today preparing to switch on the world's biggest scientific experiment.

The £5billion Large Hadron Collider aims to recreate the conditions moments after the Big Bang that created the universe.

To do this, a massive 27km tunnel has been constructed under countryside in France and Switzerland near Geneva, which will be used to smash protons together at 99.99 per cent of the speed of light.

Tomorrow morning, it will be switched on and the first attempt to send the particle beam around its entire 27km length will be made.

Experts say the LHC is probably the most complex and challenging scientific endeavour since the Apollo programme put astronauts on the moon.

"This is an incredibly exciting time for physics," said Professor Nick Evans of Southampton University.

"The LHC will help scientists to unlock the secrets of our Universe.

"The great thing about this experiment is that we know we must find something new because our current theories don't explain what will happen at LHC. We have some guesses which may or may not be right, but whatever the results, the LHC will herald a new age in our understanding of physics."

The discoveries made by the LHC could also lead to practical applications, it is hoped.

Major spin-offs have already emerged from earlier particle accelerator experiments at CERN, the European nuclear research organisation based in Geneva where the LHC is housed.

It is credited with pioneering radiotherapy machines and even the world wide web. One of the aims of the LHC is to hunt for the Higgs boson, the so-called "God particle".

The Higgs is said to be the so-far undetected key to mass. If scientists can prove its existence, it could pave the way for manipulating the gravity which exists in all mass - rather like Star Trek "tractor" beams.

Professor Brian Cox, from the University of Manchester, is one of the LHC scientists and also played keyboard with pop band D:Ream. He admitted to having received death threats from opponents of the LHC, who claim it could create black holes which could swallow the Earth.

Scientists dismiss such fears as nonsense. "At every stage of understanding the universe better, the benefits to civilisation have been immeasurable," he said.

"None of these big leaps were made with us knowing what was going to happen."