Particle physics is the quest to understand the most fundamental constituents of matter. But the deeper we probe into the secrets of subatomic particles, the bigger the machine required. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the next generation of atom smasher. Having a circumference of 27km and sitting 100m beneath the Swiss/French border, the LHC is the largest machine ever made. When operating it is claimed it will be the coldest place in the universe, and create conditions not witnessed since just after the dawn of the universe. The construction of the LHC is a big step forward for science. Once the LHC switches on in 2008, it will make us think about the universe differently.

But is this the end for big physics? At a cost of some 2 billion euros, the LHC did not come cheap. Famously, in trying to explain the need to fund the LHC in the 1980s, scientists were reduced to appealing to Margaret Thatcher’s ego. But has the justification for pure scientific research run out of steam? Even scientists at CERN now take great pains to explain their work’s spin-offs for medical physics. At a time when science seems to be re-orientating itself around the battle to stop climate change, is there a place for particle physics? With the closure of so many university physics departments over recent years it would seem the writing is already on the wall. And yet the questions big physics addresses colour everyone’s view of the universe we live in. Our fascination with the seeming implausibility of the Big Bang and the quantum theory of matter mean bookshops continue to be filled with biographies of Einstein and lay guides to physics.

At a time when theoretical physics seems trapped in speculation about the validity or otherwise of string theory, the LHC experiment gives us the chance to rejuvenate our understanding of the universe from particle physics to cosmology. Will this finally convince the world that particle physics is sexy?