Engineers have sent proton particles all the way round the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) machine for the first time in more than a year.
From: news.bbc.co.uk
Operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), the LHC will create similar conditions to those which were present moments after the Big Bang.
At allotted points around the tunnel, the proton beams cross paths, smashing into one another with enormous energy. Scientists will scour the wreckage of the collisions for discoveries that should extend our knowledge of physics.
On Friday evening, engineers sent a beam around the LHC's 27km-long ring for the first time since September 2008. Engineers are expected to continue sending protons around the collider overnight.
The beams themselves are made up of "packets" - each about a metre long - containing billions of protons. The protons would disperse if left to their own devices. So once beams are circling the LHC, they have to be stabilised.
