Stressed Plants produce an Aspirin-like Chemical !

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON - Aspirin is among the most popular remedies used by people. Turns out some plants like it, too.

Researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research were surprised to discover that stressed plants produce an aspirin-like chemical that can be detected in the air above the plants. The chemical may be a sort of immune response that helps protect the plants, the scientists speculated.
According to the researchers, the finding raises the possibility that farmers, forest managers and others may eventually be able to start monitoring plants for early signs of a disease, an insect infestation or other types of stress.
Currently they often do not know if an ecosystem is unhealthy until there are visible indicators, such as dead leaves.
"Unlike humans, who are advised to take aspirin as a fever suppressant, plants have the ability to produce their own mix of aspirin-like chemicals, triggering the formation of proteins that boost their biochemical defenses and reduce injury," NCAR scientist Thomas Karl, the lead researcher, said in a statement.
"Our measurements show that significant amounts of the chemical can be detected in the atmosphere as plants respond to drought, unseasonable temperatures or other stresses."
While researchers had known that plants in the laboratory produce a form of aspirin known as methyl salicylate, they had never looked for it in the forest.
But when they set up measuring devices in a walnut grove near Davis, Calif., to monitor plant emissions that can affect pollution, they discovered measurable amounts of methyl salicylate.
Previous studies have shown that plants being eaten by animals also produce chemicals that can be sensed by other plants nearby.
The new findings, announced Thursday by NCAR in Boulder, Colo., were published in the journal Biogeosciences. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, NCAR's sponsor.
Measuring instruments 100 feet above the ground measured methyl salicylate from plants that were stressed by a local drought and unseasonably cool nighttime temperatures followed by large daytime temperature increases.
In addition to having an immune-like function, the chemical may be a means for plants to communicate to neighboring plants, warning them of the threat.
"These findings show tangible proof that plant-to-plant communication occurs on the ecosystem level," says NCAR scientist Alex Guenther, a co-author of the study. "It appears that plants have the ability to communicate through the atmosphere."
Karl added: "If you have a sensitive warning signal that you can measure in the air, you can take action much sooner, such as applying pesticides.

The earlier you detect that something's going on, the more you can benefit in terms of using fewer pesticides and managing crops better

/Yahoo News

What is the most Common Vegetable in the World ?

The vegetables that are grown in the largest quantities around the world are the tomato and the potato.

But the most widely used vegetable is the onion!
The onion appears in more dishes and in more countries than any other vegetable.

In some places, the onion is used to flavor dishes, while in other countries it's eaten by itself as a vegetable.
The ancient Egyptians ate onions both ways, for the onion was the most common vegetable in Egypt 5,000 years ago.

During the Middle Ages, the onion and a relative of the onion, the leek, were the only common vegetables in Europe.
Today, more than 20 billion pounds of onions are produced around the world each year!
Emperor Nero of Rome ate leeks because he thought they would improve his singing voice!

DRINKING POLITICS !

A man wearing a Democratic pin walks into a bar and sees a picture of President Bush hanging behind the bartender.

He calls the bartender over and says, "You should take that picture down. George Bush is a blight upon this nation. He should be impeached."

The bartender, a life-long Republican, is completely offended. "Why you liberal piece of garbage. How dare you come into my bar and tell me how to run my business!

"Listen, I'm the customer, so I'm always right." the man says. "That picture offends me, so I want you to take it down."

"That tears it," the bartender says, "How would you like it if I came into your bar and told you what to do?"

"Well, you'd be the customer, so you'd be right," the man says.

"Fine, then let's switch places," the bartender says.

So, they do. The man takes the bartender's place behind the bar, and the bartender walks outside, waits a moment, and then comes back inside.

The bartender sits at the bar and says to the bar, "You should take that pin off.

The Democrats are destroying our country with their liberal agenda."

"Sorry," the man says, "but we don't serve Republicans here." !

FAIL !

A Chair that can be arranged depending on your mood !

VIDEO SHOWS WORKERS ABUSING PIGS !

By FREDERIC J. FROMMER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - An undercover video shot at an Iowa pig farm shows workers hitting sows with metal rods, slamming piglets on a concrete floor and bragging about jamming rods up into sows' hindquarters.
On the video, obtained by The Associated Press, a supervisor tells an undercover investigator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that when he gets angry or a sow won't move, "I grab one of these rods and jam it in her (anus)."
The farm, located outside of Bayard, Iowa, about 60 miles west of Des Moines, is a supplier to Hormel Foods of Austin, Minn. PETA wants to use the results of the investigation to pressure Hormel, the maker of Spam and other food products, to demand that its suppliers ensure humane treatment of pigs.
Hormel spokeswoman Julie Henderson Craven on Tuesday called the abuses "completely unacceptable."
The animal rights group also planned to send the video to the sheriff in Greene County, Iowa, seeking prosecution of 18 people on animal cruelty violations. According to PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich, the video shows eight people directly abusing animals.
"Abuse on factory farms is the absolute norm, not the exception, and anyone eating factory-farmed meat is paying to support it," Friedrich said.
After getting a whistleblower complaint from someone inside the farm, PETA sent two undercover investigators to get hired at the farm and document its practices — one from June 10 to Sept. 8, and the other from July 23 to Sept. 11.
At one point on the video, an employee shouts to an investigator, "Hurt 'em! There's nobody works for PETA out here. You know who PETA is?"
The undercover PETA investigator replies that he's heard of the group.
"I hate them. These (expletives) deserve to be hurt. Hurt, I say!," the employee yells as he hits a sow with a metal rod. "Hurt! Hurt! Hurt! Hurt! ... Take out your frustrations on 'em." He encourages the investigator to pretend that one of the pigs scared off a voluptuous and willing 17- or 18-year-old girl, and then beat the pig for it.
Records at the Greene County Assessor's Office show the property was owned by Natural Pork Production II LLP of Iowa until Aug. 18, and then was transferred to MowMar LLP of Fairmont, Minn.
Lynn Becker, an owner of MowMar, called the abuses on the video "completely intolerable, reprehensible. We condemn these types of acts. If any animals were abused in the brief time we've owned the farm, if we still employ these people, any attempt will made to investigate and initiate corrective action immediately."
Becker said his company provided animal welfare training to the staff when it took over the farm.
Natural Pork Production II referred questions to AMVC Management Services, which managed the farm under its ownership. Mark Jones, AMVC's network manager, said the video showed "unacceptable practices" and that his company is working with the new ownership to investigate.
Craven, the Hormel spokeswoman, said the farm became a Hormel supplier only after the change in ownership, and that MowMar "shares our commitment to animal welfare and humane handling."
Craven said it was her understanding that the abuses took place before the change in ownership. But PETA's Friedrich said the abuses continued, and that the new manager abused animals by shocking and kicking pigs.
Dr. Jennifer Greiner, a veterinarian and director of science and technology at the National Pork Producers Council, said the industry condemns "willful abuse" of pigs and that the video depicts acts that are not acceptable.
"Our industry is committed to handling pigs humanely," she said. "My industry is full of good people."
At one point in the video, workers are shown slamming piglets on the ground, a practice designed to instantly kill those baby pigs that aren't healthy enough. But on the video, the piglets are not killed instantly, and in a bloodied pile, some piglets can be seen wiggling vainly. The video also shows piglets being castrated, and having their tails cut off, without anesthesia.
Temple Grandin, a leading animal welfare expert who serves as a consultant to the livestock industry, said that while those are standard industry practices, the treatment of the sows on the video was far from it.
"This is atrocious animal abuse," Grandin said after PETA sent her the video. But she disagreed with PETA's contention that it was widespread in the industry.
"I've been on many good farms, and the pigs are handled gently," she said. "This was blatant, deliberate animal cruelty. These people are sick. They need to be prosecuted. There are certain people that enjoy hurting animals and they should not be working with them — period."
One of the PETA investigators, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his ability to do further undercover operations, said there was a culture of violence on the farm, and working there was an emotionally and physically exhausting experience that typically involved working 12-hour shifts and walking 15 miles a day.
"So many times, it took all of my willpower not to step up and do something," he said, adding that he also saw the supervisor shove a cane into a sow's vagina. "I was just shocked. What do you say to that?"

/Yahoo News

TOOTH PULLING !

A man and his wife entered a dentist's office.
The wife said, "I want a tooth pulled.
I don't want gas or Novocain because I'm in a terrible hurry.
Just pull the tooth as quickly as possible.
"You're a brave woman," said the dentist. "Now, show me which tooth it is ?
"The wife turns to her husband and says : "Open your mouth and show the dentist which tooth it is, dear."

Looking for Life on Mars, in a Canadian Lake !

MARSDAILY
Pavilion Lake, nestled among the peaks of Canada's Marble Range, looks like a thousand other mountain lakes. It's not unusually large or deep. It's not especially acidic, or alkaline; it's not overly salty; nor are there high concentrations of minerals dissolved in its water. Locals come here to fish, to boat, to swim, and to watch the summer clouds drift by.
But underwater lies an astonishing discovery that has drawn astrobiologists from around the world to this rural corner of British Columbia. Pavilion Lake is host to an underwater "forest" of microbialites, coral-like structures, in a variety of shapes and sizes, that may help guide the search for life on Mars.
"The size of these microbialites is unlike anything else that's ever been documented," said Darlene Lim of NASA Ames Research Center. Lim is the principal investigator for the Pavilion Lake Research Project (PLRP).
"On a micro scale, there might be a lot of similarities to what you see in other lakes, other ponds, around the world, and also in marine environments. But on a macro scale, they look very different. And the fact that they're in this very accessible, sort of regular, recreational lake is curious."
Scientists have been studying the Pavilion Lake formations for nearly a decade. Scuba divers have retrieved samples from as deep as 100 feet below the surface for analysis. But the lake is too deep - more than 200 feet at some points - and the microbialites structures too varied for divers to survey it thoroughly.
So this summer, a team of researchers went through a rigorous training program to become submarine pilots and then spent a week exploring the lake in DeepWorker submarines built by Nuytco Research of North Vancouver, British Columbia.
Their goal was to map the distribution of microbialites in the lake, and to bring back a more-extensive set of samples, including samples from the deepest regions.
The streamlined, shiny black DeepWorkers - there were two of them - looked more like George Jetson's flying car than a typical Hunt-for-Red-October-type submarine. There was just enough room for one person to fit inside and the pilot's head stuck up into a Plexiglas bubble that hinged open for access. The unit was operated entirely by foot pedals.
At the start of each run, a custom-built barge, pushed by a small motorboat lashed to its back end, hauled the DeepWorkers into position. The pilots climbed inside, the hatches were sealed and the subs, assisted by a pair of divers, were lowered through a hole in the floor of the barge into the water.
The pilots then "flew" the subs along a course decided upon during lengthy scientific discussions earlier in the day. The runs typically lasted 2 to 3 hours.
The pilots were guided by another pair of team members, who tracked the subs' movements from CapComm, a rectangular flat-bottom watercraft with a metal roof decked out in Christmas lights. Although the pilots had excellent visibility, they literally didn't know where they were going without continuous navigational updates from CapComm.
The microbialites, composed of calcium carbonate, range in size from small bumps just a few centimeters across to enormous structures as much as 12 feet high. They come in a variety of shapes; some have been described as looking like cauliflower, others like broccoli, still others like asparagus, or fingers. Some contain central columns that resemble chimneys.
But it's not just their varied shapes that makes them so interesting. It's the fact that no one knows how they formed.
"We are sure that the structures are here. We're sure that they vary significantly with depth. And we're sure that they're not found in other analogous lakes.
Those are the facts, the observational facts," said Chris McKay of NASA Ames Research Center. McKay was one of the first scientists to scuba dive in Pavilion Lake. "When you look at structures like this, the standard hypothesis is that organisms are playing a role in creating them. But we haven't proven that here."
Present-day bacteria are playing some role in forming calcium carbonate structures in the lake, Lim said. "There's trash down there. And the trash is fairly recent; at most it's like 100 years old, but probably less than that. We know that there's carbonate deposition happening on the trash. We know that there is microbial growth of some sort on the trash, there are microbial crusts that are developing on trash."
Some cyanobacteria excrete calcium carbonate, so one possibility is that the crusts are composed of this bacterial waste. Or perhaps, the bacteria build up an electric charge along their cell walls, which attracts calcium carbonate in the lake water; or they secrete slime that the carbonates bind to.
But whether or not the process that is forming the modern-day carbonate crusts is the same process that formed the bulk of the large structures, "that's what we're trying to figure out," Lim said.
The working hypothesis is that bacteria were involved in some way in creating the large structures. But it's also possible that, although bacteria form crusts on the surfaces of the structures, the structures themselves were the product of a purely chemical, rather than a biological, process.
Cyanobacteria in other locations are famous for building a variety of structures, from thick rubbery mats to layered dome-like structures known as stromatolites, which are thought to have been the dominant form of life on early Earth. Today, though, they are rare, existing only in extreme environments.
The shallow waters of Shark's Bay, in Western Australia, for example, are home to large fields of dome-shaped stromatolites. But Shark's Bay is too salty for the tiny worms that like to snack on the bacteria. That's why the stromatolites can thrive: there's nothing around to eat them.
Pavilion Lake, however, is "normal." It has all kinds of larger organisms living in it. It's even stocked with fish. And therein lies the mystery. There are smaller, less diverse, carbonate structures in another nearby lake, Kelly Lake, but none have been found in any of the other lakes in the region. Something makes Pavilion Lake unique. It's just that no one has figured out yet what that something is.
Researchers are approaching the problem from a number of different angles. Some are looking at the chemistry of the water and trying to understand the lake's topography and underground water sources. Others are doing DNA analysis of the slime that coats the microbialites to learn what organisms are living there, and what they eat - and excrete.
Still others are comparing the carbon in calcium-carbonate samples from the slime layer to that in samples taken from the hard core of the structures, to determine whether there is a clear biological signature in the core. Living organisms prefer to use the lighter isotope of carbon, C-12, so they tend to leave the environment around them enriched in the heavier C-13.
Results on that front remain inconclusive, says Greg Slater of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. Slater is a co-PI of PLRP. "The carbonate in the surface community has a signature of biological activity. But when you go in deeper and down into the structure, that signal doesn't seem to be preserved."
Which is odd, because if the structures were built by microorganisms, there should be some isotopic evidence of their biological origin. Slater plans to use powerful microscopes to compare the crystal structure of calcium carbonate from different depths within the microbialites.
It's possible that, over time, the structures have dissolved and recrystalized, in the process changing from one form of calcium carbonate to another - and losing their biological carbon-isotope signature in the process.
If this avenue of research pans out, the results could provide new insight into how biosignatures are modified and preserved over time, and that understanding, in turn, could aid in future efforts to look for biosignatures on Mars.
Lim and her colleagues plan to return to Pavilion Lake in future years to continue their work - perhaps with an even more unusual submarine. Although the DeepWorkers enabled researchers to collect samples from the deepest parts of the lake, it's difficult to maneuver them precisely enough to avoid damaging the microbialites.
Lim is hopeful that a new combination-submarine-and-pressurized-underwater-suit, under development by Nuytco, will make it possible for divers to work in the deepest parts of the lake without having to resort to dangerous compression diving.

Stackable Seating made with Zero Defects

The Mebel furniture series has a set of stackable chairs made of molded wood or plastic.

The ergonomic shape and portability make it ideal for hotel and office lobbies and small spaces. What’s more, construction adheres to the six sigma philosophy, meaning zero defects , an idea hopefully more furniture designers adopt.
Designer: Daniel Milchtein Peltsverger

ATLANTIS DUBAI

Possible First Photo of Planet around Sun-Like Star

By Clara Moskowitz/ Space.com

Astronomers have taken what may the first picture of a planet orbiting a star similar to the sun.
This distant world is giant (about eight times the mass of Jupiter) and lies far out from its star (about 330 times the Earth-Sun distance). But for all the planet's strangeness, its star is quite like our own sun.
Previously, the only photographed extrasolar planets have belonged to tiny, dim stars known as brown dwarfs. And while hundreds of exoplanets have been detected by noting their gravitational tug on their parent stars, it is rare to find one large enough to image directly.
"This is the first time we have directly seen a planetary mass object in a likely orbit around a star like our sun," said David Lafrenière, an astronomer at the University of Toronto who led the team that discovered the star. "If we confirm that this object is indeed gravitationally tied to the star, it will be a major step forward."
Further study will be needed to prove that the planet is in fact orbiting around the star, as opposed to the possibility, however unlikely, that the two objects just happen to lie in the same area of the sky at roughly the same distance from us.
"Of course it would be premature to say that the object is definitely orbiting this star, but the evidence is extremely compelling," Lafrenière said. "This will be a very intensely studied object for the next few years!"
The researchers used the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii to glimpse the planet and its star, 1RXS J160929.1-210524, which lies about 500 light-years from Earth. Though the star has about 85 percent the mass of the sun, it is younger than our star. In order to image the far-flung system, the team utilized adaptive optics technology, which uses flexible mirrors to offset the distortion light suffers as it passes through Earth's atmosphere.
The strange planet so far from its parent star is unexpected based on current theories of star and planet formation. For comparison, the farthest planet in our solar system, Neptune, lies only 30 times the Earth-sun distance away from the sun.
"This discovery is yet another reminder of the truly remarkable diversity of worlds out there, and it's a strong hint that nature may have more than one mechanism for producing planetary mass companions to normal stars," said team member Ray Jayawardhana, also of the University of Toronto.
The distant exoplanet, at about 1,800 Kelvin (about 1,500ºC), is also much hotter than our own Jupiter, which has a temperature of about 160 Kelvin (-110ºC).
The team discovered the new planet as part a survey of more than 85 stars in the Upper Scorpius association, a group of young stars formed about 5 million years ago. The researchers have detailed the study in a paper submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters and also posted online.
"This discovery certainly has us looking forward to what other surprises nature has in stock for us," said University of Toronto team member Marten van Kerkwijk.

CAMEL WRESTLING !

While the Spanish have bullfights, and the Italians cockfights, and the English go hunting with hounds, the Turks have camel wrestling.

Camel wrestling is now mostly restricted to the Aegean region though it was once more widespread in Anatolia.

In the winter you will see elaborately saddled camels being paraded through the villages with the owner extolling just how his camel is going to make mince-meat of anyone rash enough to challenge his beast.

The camels are all fully grown bulls specially fed to increase their bulk further, and the sight of them wrestling one another would seem to promise some spectacular action.
In reality it doesn't happen and camel wrestling is more akin to comedy than to blood-sport.

Bull camels normally wrestle and butt one another in a knock-out contest for precedence in a herd, and more importantly, precedence in mating.

In the arena two bulls are led out and then a young cow is paraded around to get them excited. It's very easy to know when a bull is excited as streams of viscous milky saliva issue from his mouth and nostrils.

Mostly the two bulls will half-heartedly butt each other and lean on the other until one of them gives in and runs away.

This is the really exciting bit as the bull will often charge off towards the crowd, with the conquering bull in pursuit, and the spectators must scramble hurriedly out of the way.

The antics of spectators trying to avoid a thousand kilograms (nearly a ton) of camel running towards them can lead to pure comedy and is the best part of camel wrestling.

Miraculously there are few accidents. Occasionally two bulls will get down to it and actually try to wrestle one another, feinting in here and there, eventually locking a fore-leg inside the leg of the opposition and leaning on him to topple him over in a dromedary's version of a wrestling fall and pin.
The sport is a declining one as the cost of keeping, feeding and training a camel solely for competition doesn't come cheaply, and only a rich man can afford to do it.

Large bets are wagered by owners and spectators alike, though how you tell just which camel won can be difficult to determine.

What happens when they both run away? - it happens. It's worth going once just to see and it's quite nice to know that there isn't a lot of blood and gore involved in the sport, it's really quite gentle.

Wolves, Are'nt they Magnificent ?

NEW SIGN OF A STROKE !

STROKE IDENTIFICATION :

During a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) .....she said she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes.

They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening. Ingrid's husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00 pm Ingrid passed away.)

She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today.

Some don't die.... they end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead. It only takes a minute to read this...

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours , he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke... totally .

He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE :

Thank God for the sense to remember the '3' steps, "STR" .

Read and Learn !

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately,the lack of awareness spells disaster.

The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.

Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:"S-T-R"

1. S * - Ask the individual to SMILE.

2. T * Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (i.e. It is sunny out today)

3. R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call emergency immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

New Sign of a Stroke >"Stick out Your Tongue"

NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this > Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue.. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke.

GRASS EATER !

A rich man was riding in the back of his limousine when he saw a man eating grass by the roadside.

He ordered his driver to stop and he got out to investigate.
"Why are you eating grass?" he asked the man.
"I don't have any money for food," the poor man replied.
"Oh, please come to my house!"
"But sir, I have a wife and four children..."
"Bring them along!" the rich man said.
They all climbed into the limo. Once underway, the poor fellow said, "Sir, you are too kind. Thank you for taking all of us in."
The rich man replied, "No, you don't understand. The grass at my house is over three feet tall"!

Please Don't Disturb the Sleeping Guards !

PENGUINS & PENGUINS

"Big Bang" experiment starts well

By Paul Rincon , Science reporter/ BBC News

The LHC has been in construction for some 13 years
Scientists have hailed a successful switch-on for an enormous experiment which will recreate the conditions a few moments after the Big Bang.
They have fired a beam of particles called protons around the 27km-long tunnel which houses the the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
The £5bn machine on the Swiss-French border is designed to smash particles together with cataclysmic force.
Scientists hope it will shed light on fundamental questions in physics.
The beam completed its first circuit of the underground tunnel at just before 0930 BST.
"There it is," project leader Lyn Evans said when the beam completed its lap.
He added later: "We had a very good start-up."
The LHC is arguably the most complicated and ambitious experiment ever built; the project has been hit by cost overruns, equipment trouble and construction problems. The switch-on itself is two years late.
We will be looking at what the Universe was made of billionths of a second after the Big Bang
Dr Tara Shears, University of Liverpool
What is the Large Hadron Collider?
The collider is operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research - better known by its French acronym Cern.
The vast circular tunnel - the "ring" - which runs under the French-Swiss border contains more than 1,000 cylindrical magnets arranged end-to-end.
The magnets are there to steer the beam - made up of particles called protons - around this 27km-long ring.
Big Bang Day

Eventually, two proton beams will be steered in opposite directions around the LHC at close to the speed of light, completing about 11,000 laps each second.
At allotted points around the tunnel, the beams will cross paths, smashing together near four massive "detectors" that monitor the collisions for interesting events.
Scientists are hoping that new sub-atomic particles will emerge, revealing fundamental insights into the nature of the cosmos.
Major effort
"We will be able to see deeper into matter than ever before," said Dr Tara Shears, a particle physicist at the University of Liverpool.
"We will be looking at what the Universe was made of billionths of a second after the Big Bang. That is amazing, that really is fantastic."
The LHC should answer one very simple question: What is mass?
LHC DETECTORS
ATLAS - one of two so-called general purpose detectors. Atlas will be used to look for signs of new physics, including the origins of mass and extra dimensions
CMS - the second general purpose detector will, like ATLAS, hunt for the Higgs boson and look for clues to the nature of dark matter
ALICE - will study a "liquid" form of matter called quark-gluon plasma that existed shortly after the Big Bang
LHCb - Equal amounts of matter and anti-matter were created in the Big Bang. LHCb will try to investigate what happened to the "missing" anti-matter
"We know the answer will be found at the LHC," said Jim Virdee, a particle physicist at Imperial College London.
The currently favoured model involves a particle called the Higgs boson - dubbed the "God Particle". According to the theory, particles acquire their mass through interactions with an all-pervading field carried by the Higgs.
The latest astronomical observations suggest ordinary matter - such as the galaxies, gas, stars and planets - makes up just 4% of the Universe.
The rest is dark matter (23%) and dark energy (73%). Physicists think the LHC could provide clues about the nature of this mysterious "stuff".
But Professor Virdee told BBC News: "Nature can surprise us... we have to be ready to detect anything it throws at us."
Full beam ahead
Engineers injected the first low-intensity proton beams into the LHC in August. But they did not go all the way around the ring.
On Wednesday, they sent a proton beam around the full circumference of the LHC tunnel.
Technicians had to be on the lookout for potential problems.
Steve Myers, head of the accelerator and beam department, said: "There are on the order of 2,000 magnetic circuits in the machine. This means there are 2,000 power supplies which generate the current which flows in the coils of the magnets."
If there was a fault with any of these, he said, it would have stopped the beam. They were also wary of obstacles in the beam pipe which could prevent the protons from completing their first circuit.
Superconducting magnets are cooled down using liquid helium
Mr Myers has experience of the latter problem. While working on the LHC's predecessor, a machine called the Large-Electron Positron Collider, engineers found two beer bottles wedged into the beam pipe - a deliberate, one-off act of sabotage.
The culprits - who were drinking a particular brand that advertising once claimed would "refresh the parts other beers cannot reach" - were never found.
After the the beam makes one turn, engineers are due to "close the orbit", allowing the beam to circulate continuously around the LHC.
Engineers will then try to "capture" it. The beam which circles the LHC is not continuous; it is composed of several packets - each about a metre long - containing billions of protons.
The protons would disperse if left to their own devices, so engineers use electrical forces to "grab" them, keeping the particles tightly huddled in packets.
Once the beam has been captured, the same system of electrical forces is used to give the particles an energetic kick, accelerating them to greater and greater speeds.
After Wednesday's test, engineers will need to get two beams running in opposite directions around the LHC. They can then carry out collisions by smashing them together.
Long haul
The idea of the Large Hadron Collider emerged in the early 1980s. The project was eventually approved in 1996 at a cost of 2.6bn Swiss Francs, which amounts to about £1.3bn at present exchange rates.
However, Cern underestimated equipment and engineering costs when it set out its original budget, plunging the lab into a cash crisis.
Cern had to borrow hundreds of millions of euros in bank loans to get the LHC completed. The current price is nearly four times that originally envisaged.
During winter, the LHC will be shut down, allowing equipment to be fine-tuned for collisions at full energy.
"What's so exciting is that we haven't had a large new facility starting up for years," explained Dr Shears.
"Our experiments are so huge, so complex and so expensive that they don't come along very often. When they do, we get all the physics out of them that we can."
Steve Myers said engineers would break out the champagne if all went to plan. But a particular brand of beer will not be on the menu, he said.

Building Better Marriages !

It is important for men to remember that, as women grow older, it becomes harder for them to maintain the same quality of housekeeping as when they were younger.
When you notice this, try not to yell at them. Some are oversensitive, and there's nothing worse than an oversensitive woman.
My name is Jeff. Let me relate how I handled the situation with my wife, Susie.
Since I retired several years ago, it has become necessary for Susie to get a full-time job along with her part-time job, both for extra income and for the health benefits that we needed.
Shortly after she started working, I noticed she was beginning to show her age.
I usually get home from the golf club about the same time she gets home from work.
Although she knows how hungry I am, she almost always says she has to rest for half an hour or so before she starts dinner.
I don't yell at her. Instead, I tell her to take her time and just wake me when she gets dinner on the table.
I generally have lunch in the Men's Grill at the club so eating out is not reasonable. I'm ready for some home-cooked grub when I hit that door.
She used to do the dishes as soon as we finished eating. But now it's not unusual for them to sit on the table for several hours after dinner.
I do what I can by diplomatically reminding her several times each evening that they won't clean themselves. I know she really appreciates this, as it does seem to motivate her to get them done before she goes to bed.
Another symptom of aging is complaining, I think. For example she will say that it is difficult for her to find time to pay the monthly bills during her lunch hour. But, boys, we take 'em for better or worse, so I just smile and offer encouragement.
I tell her to stretch it out over two or even three days. That way she won't have to rush so much. I also remind her that missing lu nch completely now and then wouldn't hurt her any (if you know what I mean).
I like to think tact is one of my strong points.When doing simple jobs, she seems to think she needs more rest periods. She had to take a break when she was only half finished mowing the yard. I try not to make a scene.
I'm a fair man. I tell her to fix herself a nice, big, cold glass of freshly squeezed lemonade and just sit for a while. And, as long as she is making one for herself, she may as well make one for me too.I know that I probably look like a saint in the way I support Susie.
I'm not saying that showing this much consideration is easy. Many men will find it difficult. Some will find it impossible!
Nobody knows better than I do how frustrating women get as they get older. However, guys, even if you just use a little more tact and less criticism of your aging wife because of this article, I will consider that writing it was well worthwhile.
After all, we are put on this ear th to help each other.
Sincerely, Jeff

EDITOR'S NOTE : Jeff died suddenly on March 1 of a perforated rectum. The police report says he was found with a Calloway extra long 50-inch Big Bertha Driver II golf club jammed up his rear end, with barely 5 inches of grip showing and a sledge hammer laying nearby.
His wife Susie was arrested and charged with murder. The all-woman jury took only 15 minutes to find her Not Guilty, accepting her defense that Jeff somehow, without looking, accidentally sat down on his Golf Club !

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