Big Bang machine ready for restart
The world’s largest atom smasher could be ready to start again by the weekend, according to scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research.
Following a year of repairs, spokesman James Gillies says scientists have refrained from setting an exact date for sending beams of protons around the 27-kilometre (17 mile) circular tunnel housing the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC.
He says the organisation known as CERN is taking its time with the sophisticated equipment, which is much more powerful than any such machine in the world.
The machine was launched with great fanfare last year before suffering a spectacular failure from a bad electrical connection, damaging 53 of the superconducting magnets.
