Speculist contributor Kathy Hanson (who also blogs at Beyond Words) has been involved in the long, slow process of selling out to the mainstream media over the past few years. Stephen and I totally approve of this, of course, as we are constantly trying to pimp out FastForward Radio to some big media outlet -- so far with less success than Kathy has had.

Anyhow, her she is with some thoughts on the Large Hadron Collider.

A shot was heard around the world on Wednesday. But no bullets or guns were used. The projectile was a beam of photons fired through the Large Hadron Collider's 17-mile ring of tunnel. And the only noise involved was the cheering of elated scientists, including two graduate students from Iowa State University, celebrating how well the complicated systems worked for the first firing of the most powerful particle accelerator ever built.

Kathy reports that her current gig has her focusing a lot on hard science stories, so we're looking forward to more of these.