CERN's LHC@home 2.0 project simulates a Large Hadron Collider in the cloud

"You break it, you bought it," came to mind when researchers at the Centre for European Nuclear Research (CERN) announced the LHC@home 2.0 project, giving us regular Joes access to the Large Hadron Collider. OK, we kid; the reality is that much like SETI@home, a whole group of volunteering home computers link up to simulate LHC particle collisions. Scientists at CERN then compare these results with those from actual LHC experiments, thus potentially speeding up the mission to in a low cost manner.

Besides being a great way to get your science on, the cloud-based program also makes CERN's resources (like crisis mapping and damage assessment) available to researchers in developing nations that may not to be able to afford the accelerator's $6 billion dollar price tag -- but nowadays, what nation can?