IT has been called “the brick that built the universe” and “the God particle.”

CERN scientists have staged their first speed-of-light particle collisions of the year, resuming their probes into the origins of the cosmos in the centre’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

SCIENTISTS smashed sub-atomic particles into each other with record energy yesterday, aiming to recreate conditions just after the Big Bang that gave rise to the universe 13.7 billion years ago.