" Two beams of protons began 10 days ago to speed at high energy in opposite directions around the 27-kilometer (17-mile) tunnel under the Swiss-French border at Geneva. The beams have been pushed to 3.5 trillion electron volts, the highest energy achieved by any physics accelerator—some three times greater than the previous record. The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, plans to start trying Tuesday morning to use the powerful superconducting magnets to force the two beams to cross, creating collisions and showers of particles. " - bob