Re-started collider smashes previous record

The “Big Bang” machine with which scientists hope to re-create conditions at the dawn of the universe smashed the world record for accelerating subatomic particles today.

Two beams of protons, one of the building blocks of atoms, were spun round the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) early today at an energy of 1.18 teraelectronvolts (TeV).