Hadron Collider Hits New Snags

(NEWSER) - The Large Hadron Collider, the $5-billion, 17-mile experiment seeking answers to the universe’s deepest mysteries, hit a snag within hours of its Sept. 10 launch, but its overseer did not report the malfunction for a week, the Daily Telegraph reports. A 30-ton transformer in the cooling system broke, causing tests to cease just a day after it fired its first proton beam. More»

Physicists' understanding of the universe is at stake

(NEWSER) - Christmas may be about to come early for the world's physicists. Two competing teams of scientists who have been sifting through data from CERN's Large Hadron Collider will give a progress report today. Scientists caution that there won't be any firm answer on whether the Higgs boson "God particle" exists until March of next year at the earliest, but CERN rumors say the team's preliminary results will strongly suggest that it has been glimpsed . But another possibility—equally exciting for physicists—remains: The teams may say they are on the way to ruling out the particle's existence, the BBC notes. More»

CERN, Fermilab find 'bumps' in data that could be Higgs boson particle

(NEWSER) - Science teams in both Europe and America are reporting promising new data in the hunt for the elusive Higgs boson particle —the so-called "God particle" believed to give mass to matter that remains the only particle predicted by the Standard Model of physics that has not yet been seen in experiments. So far, researchers are only calling them "excess events." But unusual "bumps" in the data were detected in particle collisions around 130-150 gigaelectronvolts at CERN's Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, reports Nature . More»

Proton collision shatters record as scientists cheer

(AP) - The world's largest atom smasher conducted its first experiments at conditions nearing those after the Big Bang today, breaking its own record for high-energy collisions with proton beams crashing into each other at three times more force than ever before. In a milestone for the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider's ambitious bid to reveal details about theoretical particles and microforces, CERN scientists collided the beams and took measurements at a combined energy level of 7 trillion electron volts. More»

After 14 months of repairs, proton beams circulate

(NEWSER) - The Large Hadron Collider roared to life today for the first time since September 2008. "The first tests of injecting subatomic particles" took just a fraction of a second, a CERN rep said, but the circulation of the proton beams confirmed that the repairs instituted 9 days after the collider opened were successful. "If all goes well tonight we will try to circulate a beam of particles for several minutes" early tomorrow morning, the rep said. More»