The European physics research center CERN launched an upgrade of its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on Friday, six years after the huge particle accelerator solved an enduring riddle by confirming the existence of the elusive Higgs boson.
Staffers said the overhaul will boost the "luminosity" of proton-smashing experiments at the LHC, a 27-km (17-mile) ring under the Swiss-French border, increasing the number of particle collisions tenfold and producing a clearer picture of the sub-atomic world.
"This will allow us to address new questions, the outstanding questions in fundamental physics, with more opportunity to find answers," CERN Director-General Fabiola Gianotti said during the opening ceremony.