World's biggest particle accelerator to start up again after 2-year shutdown and upgrade
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The world's biggest particle accelerator is about to start up again after a two-year shutdown and upgrade.
Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, were preparing to shoot the first particle beams on Sunday through the Large Hadron Collider's 27-kilometer (16.8-mile) tunnel, beneath the Swiss-French border near Geneva.
The collider was instrumental in the discovery of the Higgs boson, a subatomic particle that had long been theorized but never confirmed until 2013.
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Scientists are promising nearly twice the energy and more violent particle crashes this time around. They hope the more powerful beam crashes — expected to start as early as June — will give them a peek into the unseen dark universe.