http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32809636A new record has been set by the Large Hadron Collider: its latest trials have smashed particles with vastly more energy than ever before. On Wednesday night, two opposing beams of protons were steered into each other at the four collision points spaced around the LHC's tunnel. The energy of the collisions was 13 trillion electronvolts - dwarfing the eight trillion reached during the LHC's first run, which ended in early 2013. "Physics collisions" commence in June. At that point, the beams will contain many more "bunches" of protons: up to 2,800 instead of the one or two currently circulating. And the various experiments will be in full swing, with every possible detector working to try to sniff out all the exotic, unprecedented particles of debris that fly out of proton collisions at these new energies. For now, however, the collisions are part of the gradual testing process designed to ensure nothing is missed and nothing goes awry when the LHC goes into that full "collision factory" mode.
