Oxford scientists are today analysing some of the first information being sent from the world's largest science experiment in Geneva.
About 20 scientists at the University of Oxford's particle physics department in Keble Road, North Oxford, are getting their teeth into figures from the Large Hadron Collider.
Ten of their colleagues are in Switzerland, operating machinery and analysing data as part of the Atlas project, one of the collider's detectors.
The experiment went live today at about 9am UK time. The machine is designed to recreate conditions which existed fractions of a second after the Big Bang when the universe began. They aim to collide two beams of particles to replicate the after-effects of the Big Bang.
UK physics co-ordinator Dr Alan Barr, from Witney, said: "When the beams did their first circuit the detectors lit up like a Christmas tree. There were people cheering, shouting and patting each other on the back."
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