Large Hadron Collider’s second run to start this week

BBC : The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), at CERN in Switzerland, is about to begin phase two of its operations. Phase one began in 2008, when the LHC fired its first protons, and lasted until early 2013. Since then, the world’s largest and most powerful particle collider has been undergoing a period of maintenance and upgrades. Each of its 10 000 superconducting electromagnets has been inspected and reinforced to withstand the extreme conditions meant to simulate those that occurred shortly after the Big Bang. At the same time, most of the LHC’s seven detectors have also been undergoing service and upgrading. They’ve been prepared for the return of the proton beams, which will have nearly twice the collision energy of those during the first run. The restart will be a gradual process, with the proton beams reaching full circle no earlier than Wednesday.