A rap song explaining the inner workings of the Large Hadron Collider (affectionately known as the atom smasher), the particle accelerator to be turned on this Wednesday, has become a hit on YouTube.

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The song, aptly called Large Hadron Rap, is the creation of Kate McAlpine, a former employee of CERN, the laboratory behind the world's biggest experiment.

The CERN collider was 14 years in the making and is 27km underground, as we learn in the song.

The experiment is designed to seek out the particles, never before isolated, which are responsible for determining the weight of an object.

As well as this it will probe the differences between matter and its 'evil twin' antimatter.

McAlpine says she was inspired by programmes like Sesame Street which often used educational songs as a means to explain.

"I deliberately created a sort of 1980s-retro-hiphop style for the track. I used the distinctive "woo-yeah" sample of James Brown, which was frequently used in 80s hiphop," she said.

Other inspirations she listed include rapper Eminem, although it is obvious from watching the video the art of dancing has been bypassed.

In the video's first day on YouTube it attracted more than 50,000 views. It is now been seen more than a million times on YouTube alone.

The Hadron has also been inspiring the doomsday prophets who have taken to the web to spread the message that the experiment will create a black hole through which we will all be sucked.

"I am more terrified than ever after watching this video," commented one viewer.

www.cern.ch

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