Large Hadron Collider accelerates 'atoms' for the first time
Geneva-based Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle accelerator, has successfully accelerated lead atoms containing a single electron during a one-day run. LHC made the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of Higgs boson in 2012 using proton-proton collisions. Physicists are testing with lead atoms to see if the LHC could be used as a gamma-ray factory to produce exotic particle beams.