Now here's a gadget. In fact not just a gadget, but arguably the gadget. It's the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, the European laboratory for particle physics near Geneva, scheduled to have its Grand Opening next month.

Stephen Hawking explains what the LHC is for:

"It will smash particles together to recreate the moments after the big bang, producing a new golden age of discovery for physicists."

There's more, lots more, and the Guardian has just unveiled a group of articles and multimedia and podcasts that explains it all.