The Large Hadron Collider will begin blasting apart atoms starting in October, scientists at CERN confirmed today.

The much-ballyhooed "most complex machine in the world" will officially restart in September, going through a series of tests, before it progresses to actual science experiments that could (all together now) provide new understanding about the nature of dark matter and the first few moments after the Big Bang.

That is, if it doesn't break like it did last September, mere days after it started up and a week before the first collisions were scheduled to take place. Last time around, a helium leak seriously damaged part of the tunnel track on which beams are accelerated. Psyched physicists, who've been waiting for a generation to test the sprawling ideas of theoretical physics, were forced to postpone their experiments for yet another year. Now, they've got a date to repin their hopes on.

"The schedule we have now is without a doubt the best for the LHC and for the physicists waiting for data,” said CERN Director General Rolf

Heuer. “It is cautious, ensuring that all the necessary work is done on the LHC before we start-up, yet it allows physics research to begin this year.”

*Image: CERN. An LHC component "in the style of" Leonardo da Vinci. *

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