Imagine a project that has “no predecessor,” because until now, the technology has not existed to study it. This is the case with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Prof. Jim Alexander, physics, is one of almost 2,000 physicists working to push scientific knowledge of the physical world and question the fundamental laws that govern it.

Recession. Evangelical. Abortion. Large Hadron Collider. What do these words have to do with each other (outside of the triviality the word “real” is spelled using the first letter of each word?) Sure, words have been tossed about in the news of late, but what does the world’s largest (and non-functional at the moment) particle accelerator have to do with “hot button” political buzz-words? Absolutely nothing. And that’s precisely the point.

GENEVA (AP) — The world's largest atom smasher — which was launched with great fanfare earlier this month — has been damaged worse than previously thought and will be out of commission for at least two months, its operators said Saturday.

Experts have gone into 17-mile (27-kilometer) circular tunnel housing the Large Hadron Collider under the Swiss-French border to examine the damage that halted operations about 36 hours after its Sept. 10 startup, said James Gillies, spokesman for CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.