Collider has (atom) smashing success

GENEVA -- The world's largest atom smasher made a leap forward Monday by circulating beams of protons in opposite directions at the same time and causing the first particle collisions in the $10 billion machine, organizers said.

The true test of the Large Hadron Collider will come in the first two months of 2010, when scientists plan to start deliberately crashing protons into one another to see what they can discover about the makeup of the universe and its tiniest particles.

While the initial collisions were a side effect of the startup of the machine, intentional hits could begin within the next 10 days, mainly to check how it is working, said James Gillies, a spokesman for the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

Ultimately, the collider aims to create conditions like they were one-trillionth to two-trillionths of a second after the big bang -- which scientists credit with beginning the expansion of the universe billions of years ago. Physicists also hope the collider will help them see and understand other suspected phenomena, such as dark matter, antimatter and supersymmetry.

The collider was started with great fanfare on Sept. 10, 2008, only to be heavily damaged by an electrical fault nine days later. It took 14 months to repair and add protection systems to the machine before it was restarted.