Right now, buried beneath the border between Switzerland and France, scientists are getting ready to flip the switch on the most powerful atom smasher ever built. The Large Hadron Collider will offer insights into the inner-workings of atoms and the fundamental nature of matter. Some people say the machine will create a giant black hole that could swallow up humanity - scientists assure us that this won’t be the case.
But even without the rumors of this being a doomsday machine, the collider still conjures images of sci-fi films and fantasy. Producer Eric Molinsky looked into the colorful and complex design of the largest machine on the planet, and he filed this story for public radio's Studio 360.
Click here for more images of the Large Hadron Collider
