CERN May Give LHC an Extra Year to Pursue The Heated Hunt for the Higgs
A Collimeter at the LHC The collimation system protects the LHC against damage due to beam loss. Claudia Marcelloni, CERN Like all good marathons, the race to find the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider began with much fanfare but has now left spectators with little to do but wait until someone nears the finish line (at which point things will become very exciting again). But there's reason to think LHC researchers at may have the finish line in sight: Scientists and administrators there are seriously considering extending the LHC's current research run by an extra year through the end of 2012. While 2012 may still seem a long way away, CERN's willingness to extend the current research period suggests scientists really do believe they can crack the Higgs code in the next 24 months - and do without cranking the experiment up to full power. The LHC was scheduled to...