The final portion of the ATLAS particle detector was put in place in the ground beneath the Swiss-French border this past Friday. The detector is expected to measure muons from particle collisions in the Large Haron Collider. The collisions studied are supposed to recreate the conditions that existed shortly after the Big Bang. The underground particle path of the LHC is 17 miles in diameter. Construction began in 1994 and the project involves over 10,000 scientists from all around the world. The LHC is expected to begin operating in mid-2008.
