Prof. Julia Thom, physics, presented results from the Large Hadron Collider’s first year of operation on Sept. 19 in Schwartz Auditorium. The LHC at the European Organization of Nuclear Research, also known as CERN, is meant to address the fundamentals of physics, according to the organization’s website. So far, the LHC has found no evidence of two important theories in physics, the Higgs boson and Supersymmetry.

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.

A group of hackers identifying themselves as the 2600 succeeded in hacking into a computer network of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. CERN scientists said the network is used to analyze data from the new accelerator’s Compact Muon Detector.

The Large Hadron Collider, (LHC) began operation in early September, but will not begin smashing particles until late in the year. The particle collisions will recreate conditions the universe has not seen since a tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang.

The hacker team 2600 also identified themselves as the “Greek Security Team” and was competing against a rival hacker group to successfully tap the computer system of history’s largest physics experiment.