In order to get the U.K. government’s support for the LHC, scientists had to find a simple way to explain the Higgs particle. Select another topic in particle physics (e.g., string theory, dark matter, one or more of the elementary particles or four forces), and develop an analogy or metaphor that explains it to the general public.
Brian Cox delivered this TED talk shortly before the Large Hadron Collider went live in 2008. What’s happened since then? Research the LHC’s accomplishments and challenges, and imagine you are reporting back to its original set of funders. Has “the biggest scientific experiment ever attempted” measured up to expectations?
CERN: The Large Hadron Collider http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/LHc/LHC-en.html
Scientific American: Farewell to the Tevatron (9/29/2011) http://www.scientificamerican.com/report.cfm?id=tevatron-closing