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Comment and Technology

LHC scare stories were good for science

By Valerie Jamieson

24 September 2008

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

YOU would have thought it was the final moments of the World Cup. An estimated 1 billion people were glued to their television screens. Nearly 6000 newspaper articles discussed the event and the blogosphere was buzzing with anticipation. were made, Google changed its logo for the day, and people placed their . Only it wasn’t soccer that people around the globe were so enthralled by – it was a beam of protons.

The protons’ lap around the 27-kilometre circumf-erence of the , the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, was the talk around water coolers everywhere. Coverage of the event even bumped the…

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