If scientists were already able to discover and study the Higgs boson, what is the benefit of doing the experiment at higher speeds? And even though natural collisions happen at higher speeds, is there any unique risk to this specifically when manufactured by humans?
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The LHC wasn’t designed specifically to look for the Higgs boson, it was designed to produce and study very high energy collisions, which were expected to result in all kinds of interesting new particles and effects. The Higgs was just the most important and high-profile target. Actually the LHC has been used to discover various other particles too (mostly much more obscure ones), and to rule out some other hypothetical particles.
> And even though natural collisions happen at higher speeds, is there any unique risk to this specifically when manufactured by humans?
It’s extremely doubtful. Anything created by the LHC should also be created when high-energy cosmic rays hit the upper atmosphere. Unfortunately it’s hard to study those because they’re unpredictable and they’re so high up.
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