The Large Hadron Collider is one of the largest machines in the world. Its purpose is to fire subatomic particles at each other so we can better see how they function. Find out more about this massive machines in Colossal Machines, on Thursdays at 8pm, on National Geographic UK. | National Geographic UK

The largest machine ever built is shutting down for 2 years of upgrades. We take you inside its underground chambers in this 360-degree video, where discoveries that challenge our understanding of the universe take place. Read our story: https://nyti.ms/2T2ts8r | The New York Times

50 years ago, CERN scientists collided particles in the first hadron collider ever built. On 27 January 1971, CERN’s Intersecting Storage Rings (ISR) produced the world’s first proton–proton collisions. Physicists had planned this machine in the 1960s, based on the idea that smashing two particle beams head on would give much higher energies than colliding a single beam of particles with a fixed target. This first hadron collider helped change the views of members of the physics community, who d

Researchers accidentally turned lead into gold inside the Large Hadron Collider while conducting experiments mimicking the Big Bang. | Hashem Al-Ghaili