"big Bang Machine" Shut Down Until Spring 2009

London, Scientists have announced that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which aims to unravel the secrets of the Big Bang, will be closed down until spring 2009, as they work towards repairing a magnetic failure.

The LHC circulates particles in a 17-mile circumference underground tunnel straddling the French-Swiss border at The European Organization for Nuclear Research, near Geneva, Switzerland, known by the acronym CERN.