Beams sent around LHC

Physics Today : Updated: 2:38PM EST and 4:40PM EST: Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), announced that they have sent a particle beam around the 27-kilometer collider."It’s great to see beam circulating in the LHC again,” said CERN director general Rolf Heuer. “We’ve still got some way to go before physics can begin, but with this milestone we’re well on the way."The LHC circulated its first beams on 10 September 2008, but suffered a serious malfunction nine days later. It has taken over a year repairing and consolidating the machine to ensure that such an incident cannot happen again."The LHC is a far better understood machine than it was a year ago,” said CERN’s Director for Accelerators, Steve Myers. “We’ve learned from our experience, and engineered the technology that allows us to move on. That’s how progress is made."The next important milestone will be low-energy collisions at 450 GeV, expected in about a week from now. Ramping the beams to high energy will follow in preparation for collisions at 7 TeV (3.5 TeV per beam) next year. Recent coverage of the LHC by Physics Today can be found here . Related news stories Scientists at Cern hold their breath as they prepare to fire up the LHC The Guardian