CERN Hadron Collider

The world's biggest atom-smasher, shut down after its inauguration in September 2008 amid technical faults, restarted on Friday, a spokesman for the European Organisation for Nuclear Research said. "The first tests of injecting sub-atomic particles began around 1600 (1500 GMT)," CERN spokesman James Gillies told AFP. He said the injections lasted a fraction of a second, enough for "a half or even a complete circuit" of the Large Hadron Collider built in a 27-kilometre (17-mile) long tunnel straddling the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva. "If all goes well tonight we will try to circulate a beam of particles for several minutes around 0700 (0600 GMT)," ... Read Full Story

GENEVA (Reuters) - Scientists are restarting a giant sub-atomic particle collider built to reproduce "Big Bang" conditions, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said on Friday. After a year's delay, they hope to have beams circulating by early Saturday in the huge tunnels under the French-Swiss border that are part of the world's biggest machine, and then accelerate them this weekend, CERN spokesman James Gillies said. "At the moment they're putting beams down in the Large Hadron Collider and as the night goes on they'll take the beams through and start circulating them," he told Reuters. The experiment will not be properly under ... Read Full Story

The world's biggest atom-smasher, which was shut down soon after its inauguration amid technical faults, is set to restart this weekend, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research said on Friday. The first beam of sub-atomic particles are expected to be injected into the Large Hadron Collider "early Saturday morning," CERN spokesman James Gillies told AFP, while adding that the timing was not set in stone. Nestled inside a 27-km long tunnel straddling the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, the LHC promises to unlock scientific mysteries about the creation of the Universe and the fundamental nature of matter. But the machine was shut down just nine ... Read Full Story

I used to think that nothing would happen with the Large Hadron Collider . I even made fun of the nutters saying it's going to destroy the world . After reading CERN Director for Accelerators's latest statement, I'm not so sure: The LHC is a far better understood machine than it was a year ago. We've learned from our experience, and engineered the technology that allows us to move on. That's how progress is made. Wait wait wait. WAIT, Mr. Director for Accelerators Steve Myers Sir. What do you mean that the machine is "far better understood" now? How could they spend a billion ... Read Full Story

" We have captured it! First circulating beam of 2009!" And with that tweet, researchers at CERN announced that they did in fact activate the Large Hadron Collider , after quite a long delay and despite warnings of a looming, nefarious Higgs boson . Whether or not we will have had total destruction as an unfortunate result of the device remains to be seen, but should the future find a way to either cease to exist or travel to the past in some time-bending paradox, we only hope linguists and physicists can work together and figure out the proper verb conjugations for this brave ... Read Full Story