The Large Hadron Collider is quietly having a phenomenal year

Enlarge / A measure of the number of collisions already obtained at the LHC's CMS detector. (credit: CMS/CERN)

We tend to only pay attention to particle physics when scientists announce that they've found something new. But those discoveries would never get to the announcement stage without the years of grunt work needed to control particles at extremely high energies and record the debris that spews into detectors when those particles collide. This work doesn't get talked about much because it simply sets the stage for discovery rather than containing obvious "eureka!" moments.

The people behind CERN's Large Hadron Collider are in the process of setting a phenomenal stage.

Last year's run was all about taking the LHC to higher energies, which would enable the discovery of heavier particles and make it easier to spot light ones. This year's run was about taking the experience gained last year and using it to produce lots more collisions. So far, everything is going according to plan.

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