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Thu 09 Sep 2008Big Bang machine passes its first test
THE FIRST test of the world's largest science experiment has been a resounding success as controllers sent a beam of atomic particles racing around the new atom smasher at Cern under the French-Swiss border.
At 9.28am Irish time yesterday, staff in the Cern control room watched intently, then cheered as monitors showed that a cluster of protons had completed three complete laps of the 27km-long, ring-shaped beam channel. The €4.2 billion Large Hadron Collider (LHC) had finally sprung to life, heralding what experts say is the beginning of 15 to 20 years of scientific discovery.
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