The Large Hadron Collider is a machine that essentially smashes subatomic particles together so scientists can study the outcome. The 15-year-old project has a total cost of $10 billion and has been plagued with problems that have prevented it from operating as intended.

As of March 30, 2010, scientists working on the project had something to rejoice about as the machine was able to make subatomic particles collide head-on at energies far greater than have ever been achieved before.

And rejoice they did, very excitedly and in a few different languages as anyone who was watching the live stream provided by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN.

Personally I understood about 15 percent of what was being said during this stream, but that’s probably a generous overstatement on my part. Still, there are others who would either be bored to tears with the thought of watching it or (if forced to watch) comprehend even less than I.