The most powerful particle accelerator in the world now has its very own app, free for download for anyone interested in cutting-edge physics.

Looking for the Higgs boson? Try your Android phone. The most powerful in the world now has its very own app, free for download for anyone interested in cutting-edge physics.

The app, created by scientists at Oxford University and approved by the European Organization for Nuclear Research aka CERN, offers Android users a peek into the research going on at the (LHC), including a live feed into what particles are being smashed at any given moment. The imagery is shown with computer-generated 3D models that users can move to see any angle, and the app offers a tutorial for physics newbies to decipher the things they're seeing. According the Android Market, users have already downloaded the app more 10,000 times.

"For ages I'd been thinking that with the amazing capabilities on modern smart phones we really ought to be able to make a really great app—something that would allow everybody to access the LHC data," wrote Dr. Alan Barr, the person who conceived the app, wrote on the University of Oxford's science blog. "We've squeezed in a bunch of cool features. If you want to learn about the science of the LHC, then you can play with the animated tutorials. Then you can stream videos to your phone about the construction of the detector, and its operation."

The LHC generates more than several gigabytes of data every second, so the app isn't able to show all the collider's data. It also doesn't assign any numerical values to any of the pictures shown, so users won't be able to do their own analyses of particle data (though considering the recent success of , maybe they should).

One notable feature is called "Hunt the Higgs," a game that sees the user try to find the Higgs boson, the so far never-seen particle that physicists predict will help explain how matter has mass (the LHC may find evidence of its existence in 2012). The game involves looking at slides of reactions and trying to discern which particles are present. It's just a game, however—not actual research.

For now the app is Android-only, and there are no plans for an iOS version. With the app, Barr hopes users will understand a little more about research at the LHC, and possibly inspire some budding physicists to enter the field.

"It seems completely natural to design an app to explain how we do our science, and the beauty of the physics we hope to uncover," Barr wrote. "With the app you can understand what these strange shapes and lines actually mean—in terms of the individual particles detected. Our hope is that people can now appreciate the pictures and the science all the more—and perhaps even be a little inspired."