‘New era’ in physics as world’s biggest particle smasher cranks up

A scientist looks at a section of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which was used to prove the existence of the Higgs Boson — also known as the God particle — which confers mass/AFP

 The world’s biggest particle smasher started experiments with nearly doubled energy levels Wednesday, with scientists hailing a “new era” in their bid to unlock more mysteries of the universe.
The tests with collisions of 13 teraelectonvolts (TeV) came after a sweeping two-year revamp of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), used to prove the existence of the Higgs Boson — which confers mass and is also known as the God particle.


The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said everything went according to plan at the giant lab, a 27 kilometre (17 mile) ring shaped tunnel straddling the French Swiss border.
“It is time for new physics!” declared CERN’s outgoing director general Rolf Heuer.
“We have seen the first data beginning to flow. Let’s see what they will reveal to us about how our universe works,” he said.

source: Capital FM Kenya