September 10, 2008, was the day the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) started up. With a few teething problems, things won't get into 7-trillion-electron-volt full swing (spin?) until next year, but I'm excited anyway. With the exception of neutrino hunting, particle physics has almost seemed to be in suspended animation since the superconducting supercollider ran fiscally aground in 1993. By this time next year, we may be able to report the sighting of that notorious fugitive, the Higgs boson. That would be splendid, but I'm even more captivated by what we won't see coming.
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