Problems Hit New Search For 'God Particle'

Scientists working on the world's biggest "atom smasher" have made another attempt to locate what has been dubbed the "God Particle", but their efforts have already been hampered by technical problems.


The Large Hadron Collider in Geneva could reveal more about how the universe is composed, if scientists manage to collide beams of protons.

But the first two attempts at collisions have failed.

Steve Myers, head of accelerators at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, said the first beams were lost when a power supply tripped, and the second try was hampered by a problem with the new magnet protection system.

The $10bn project has been described as the world's largest scientific experiment.

Two beams of protons began 10 days ago to speed at high energy in opposite directions around the 17-mile tunnel under the Swiss-French border at Geneva.

The beams have been pushed to 3.5 trillion electron volts, the highest energy achieved by any physics accelerator.

Scientists are now attempting to force the two beams to cross, creating collisions and showers of particles.

But it could take days to get any of the particles to collide.

The aim is to find the much talked-about Higgs boson particle which is thought to play a key role in the structure of the Universe, and would help scientists explain why matter has mass.

Detractors fear the collisions will create black holes that could swallow the earth.

However, the scientists say the holes will not be powerful enough to bring mankind to a premature end.

The LHC created a sensation when it was launched in 2008, with fears that it would lead to the end of the world, but technical faults put it out of action for a year.

A faulty electrical connection between two of the accelerator's magnets caused the system to fail.

It suffered another setback in November 2009 when a "bit of baguette", thought to have been dropped by a bird, fell onto machinery and caused a fault.

Conspiracy theorists claim the machine is aware of its own power and is deliberately breaking down to avoid the destruction of the universe.

[link to uk.news.yahoo.com]