How are you covering the inauguration of the most amazing scientific experiment of all times ?

Just imagine 10,000 scientists from 85 different countries who for the past 14 years have been preparing a project that will have cost more than 6 billion dollars. Now imagine that this project is quite simply the largest machine ever built by man for the craziest scientific experiment of all time.

In a room cooled to –271°C, this machine will cause protons to collide, generating temperatures 100,000 times hotter than the sun. The researchers hope to recreate the conditions that existed just after the Big Bang in an attempt to discover new particles and perhaps revolutionize our understanding of the universe.

Is this just a pipe dream? Are they just dangerous sorcerer's apprentices? Largest, smallest, hottest, coldest… should we be worried by these superlatives? And what if the men behind this Tower of Babel lost control of their machine?

A popular rumour is circulating: these physicists might accidentally create a black hole that would swallow up the Earth. In the USA there was even an attempt to have the courts prevent CERN from switching the machine on.

The LHC accelerator will be inaugurated in Geneva on21 October 2008in the presence of around 40 heads of State. It is now a question of days, hours.

This documentary provides exclusive insight into the last few months of this pharaonic project, describing the scientific mysteries that Man is trying to shed light on and the scale of the risks that this experiment is exposing us all to. An exciting human story in which physics questions the meaning of life as never before.

The trailer is available by clicking here (RealPlayer required):
The Time Machine