CERN to re-start Large Hadron Collider this weekend

LHC finally getting switched back on
LHC finally getting switched back on

The scientists at CERN are shrugging off the fact that the future may be trying to stop their particle-finding mission and are ready to restart the Large Hadron Collider this weekend.

Having been offline for over a year, the LHC has overcome its myriad problems and is ready to hunt for the elusive Higgs boson once more.

Unlike a car in cold weather, the re-igniting of the LHC takes more work that simply pulling out the choke and revving the engine.

Essentially the bods at the LHC have been spending months making sure that the 4km of beam tube belonging to the LHC is safe enough for five trillion electron volts to pass through it.

Flipping the switch

Considering the Large Hadron Collider was knocked out of action because of some dodgy soldering, which meant a tonne of helium from the magnets seeped into the system (squeaky bum time indeed!) and short-circuited proceedings, work to ensure the LHC is safe has been nothing less than pain-staking.

According to the BBC, hundreds of new detectors have been installed, which should stop this from happening again. If for some reason it does, then relay switches will mean the system will be out for days rather than a year.

The switch-on time is a very precise 'early Saturday'. Fingers-crossed we will be notifying you of a successful launch first thing Monday!

If not: "So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu..."

Via BBC

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.

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