Large Hadron Collider

Perhaps one of the most significant engineering projects ever completed is the Large Hadron Collider. The main objective of this 17-mile-long tunnel under the Swiss-French border is to collide various types of particles at extremely high speeds in order to comprehend the true essence of reality.

It was a gigantic project when it first started operating in 2008, both in terms of scale and the range of its objectives. Over 10,000 scientists, engineers, and other professionals from all over the world participated in its planning and construction, which was overseen by CERN, or the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

It is without a doubt the most costly machine ever created, costing over $10 billion, and we can now see that it was well worth the investment. Since its initial operation, the LHC has contributed significantly to theoretical physics, including the well-known discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012.