Basically, in the colliders, they are attempting to create fusion. In a fusion reaction, two atoms fuse together to produce one atom of another element -- for instance, fusing hydrogen to produce helium. However, the resulting helium is slightly less massive than the two hydrogens were -- a portion of the matter was converted into energy, and E=mc^2 allows you to predict exactly how much mass is converted into how much energy.<br /><br />Fusion could be an astonishing clean source of energy except for one rather big catch -- it takes an enormous amount of heat to get two atoms to fuse, and that sort of heat just doesn't come cheap. Right now, the technology scientists use to produce the requisite heat consume more energy than is produced in the fusion reaction. This has a lot to do with serious inefficiencies in the way we use energy in our technologies, but they're not easy problems to solve.<br /><br />This, of course, is why there was such a tizzy about cold fusion. It's a holy grail of nuclear physics, because it would be the answer to the whole problem.<br /><br />The Sun produces staggering amounts of energy via fusion, but it doesn't need to burn a whole lot of coal to do it. Instead, the heat comes from gravitational compression. Gravity is the weakest of the four fundamental forces, but with an object as massive as a star, it collectively becomes very powerful. Alas, there isn't really a way for us to do that in a laboratory settings, so we're stuck using these accelerators and colliders that require huge electrical supplies.<br /><br />Well, sort of. Actually, there is a cheaper way of getting fusion, but it's kind of a one-shot deal and tends to seriously annoy the neighbors: a hydrogen bomb. Hydrogen bombs use the explosion of fission bombs to produce the necessary heat to produce a momentary burst of fusion. The amount of power released is devastating, and considerably more than could be achieved through conventional means. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em> -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>