First beam in the LHC since last year!
As reported by the BBC, last weekend particles were injected into the LHC for the first time in over a year. This confirms what we’ve known all along — the scientists, engineers, and technicians working on the LHC are making steady progress toward restarting the machine — and it’s an excitingly concrete reminder of how close we are to taking data!
Last year’s big startup event was focused on circulating a beam around the entire ring, which hasn’t happened again yet. This year’s really exciting milestone will be when beams are not only circulating in both directions, but actually colliding: that’s when we can start to do physics.
