theSIGNAL SCIENCE
28 June 2026
"The important thing is not to stop questioning; curiosity has its own reason for existing."
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Science

The God-Particle Machine Goes Dark for Four Years

CERN's Large Hadron Collider shuts down for a $1.5 billion upgrade that could finally shed light on dark matter.

Picture a tunnel buried 100 metres beneath the French-Swiss countryside, cold enough to make outer space feel warm, humming with magnets that bend protons around a 27-kilometre ring at speeds that make the word "fast" sound lazy. On Monday, that tunnel went quiet. The Large Hadron Collider — the machine that confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson, the so-called "God particle" — has been switched off. It will not restart in its current form until June 2030.

The shutdown is not a retreat. It is a reloading. Engineers are planning to replace components across 1.2 kilometres of the tunnel and install a new generation of superconducting magnets that can squeeze particle beams into tighter, more collision-prone streams.

When the machine reopens, it will carry a new name: the High Luminosity LHC, or HL-LHC. The upgrade's total bill is expected to reach 1.2 billion Swiss francs — roughly $1.5 billion — funded through CERN membership fees and in-kind contributions from countries including the United States, Japan, Canada, and China.

Photo: Braňo / Unsplash
Rows of dipole magnets curve through the LHC tunnel beneath the French-Swiss border near Geneva.
Discuss
  • Why might it be significant that four continents are funding the LHC upgrade together?
  • The machine is described as searching for dark matter. What do you think 'dark' means in this context, and why?
  • Should governments spend $1.5 billion on a physics experiment when other urgent problems exist? Defend your view.
  • How does the jump from 60 collisions to up to 200 per packet meeting change what scientists can learn?
  • The article ends by saying the universe's silence will be 'harder to maintain.' What do you think this phrase means?
Science

A baby's cry in the rubble

Andreina Valerio heard a baby crying inside a collapsed building in La Guaira, Venezuela — and she is certain it was her son Santiago, not yet two years old. He was trapped inside with her partner, Ramsés Mendoza, and several other family members after two massive earthquakes struck the country. …
  • Should wealthier nations be required to send rescue teams after major earthquakes?
∞
We still have lots of physics questions without answers.
Markus Zerlauth, HL-LHC Project Chief, CERN
Science

Mirror molecule shreds superbugs' sticky armour

In 2019, antimicrobial-resistant infections contributed to nearly five million deaths worldwide — and almost no existing antibiotic can penetrate the sticky "biofilm" shields that bacteria hide behind. Researchers at the University of Alberta, working with colleagues in Hong Kong and Philadelphia, stumbled upon something remarkable. …
  • If a mirror version of a human molecule can defeat superbugs, what other biological secrets remain hidden in plain sight?
AMERICAS · Science
Nasa rover detects potential signatures of ancient microbial life on Mars
GLOBAL · Science
Earth may have been seeding Venus with life for billions of years
EUROPE · Science
Millions of stars light up largest and most detailed shot of Milky Way’s centre
WORLD · Science
'Fingerprints' of black hole's event horizon detected for first time
theSIGNAL IN THE LAB
1VOCABULARY
superconductingcollision-prone
luminositybiofilmantimicrobial-resistant
in-kind contributionspeptide
2GRAMMAR FOCUS
Causative have/get — have something done
Use 'have/get + object + past participle' to describe arranging for someone else to do something for you. For example: 'They had the tunnel upgraded' means they arranged for others to do the work.
replaced · upgraded · installed · tested · funded · detected · analysed
  1. CERN engineers will have the old magnets across 1.2 kilometres of the tunnel before the HL-LHC can reopen.
  2. Scientists hope to get billions of collisions every second once the High Luminosity LHC comes online.
  3. CERN had the entire upgrade through membership fees and in-kind contributions from countries on four continents.
  4. Researchers at the University of Alberta are hoping to get the mirror peptide D-GK17 in full clinical trials before it can be approved.
  5. Venezuelan authorities had dozens of damaged structures by international rescue teams following the catastrophic earthquakes.
  6. Once the HL-LHC restarts, physicists expect to have up to 100 times more collision data than was ever possible before.
  7. The team had the original peptide extensively before they discovered that only its mirror version could destroy bacterial biofilms.
3DEPENDENT PREPOSITIONS
Complete each phrase with the correct preposition. All from today's articles.
  1. Engineers are planning to replace components _____ 1.2 kilometres of the tunnel.
  2. The upgrade is funded _____ CERN membership fees and in-kind contributions.
  3. Dark matter has never been directly detected, yet it appears to make _____ most of the universe's mass.
  4. Antimicrobial-resistant infections contributed _____ nearly five million deaths in 2019.
  5. The molecule killed bacteria without harming human cells, yet only its mirror version could crack _____ the biofilm code.
  6. Officials called it the worst disaster Venezuela had suffered _____ a century.
4CRITICAL THINKING
The Higgs boson was confirmed years ago, yet physicists insist the LHC's work is unfinished. What does this suggest about the nature of scientific discovery — and is there a point at which a question should be considered unanswerable rather than simply unasked?
5CREATIVE · HEADLINES
Write a headline for the top story in each of the following styles. One line each, no explanation:
  • TABLOID NEWSPAPER
  • LUXURY MAGAZINE
  • ACTIVIST BLOG
6WRITING
The three stories in today's edition — a physics shutdown, a disaster rescue, and a medical breakthrough — each involve humans pushing against the limits of what is currently possible. Choose two of them and argue which represents the more urgent frontier for humanity to pursue, and why.
7DEGREES OF EXTREMITY
Complete each ladder from mild to strong. Fill in the missing word or phrase at each level.
  • cool→→
  • quick→→
  • damaged→→
  • noticeable→→
  • ___→→
  • crack→→
  • concerned→→
8SPEAKING
  1. What makes a machine worth giving it a brand-new name?
  2. Could Andreina's experience change how disasters are reported globally?
  3. Why might nature hide solutions in mirror images of itself?
  4. What human qualities does 'cheerful bluntness' suggest about scientists?
  5. Which of these three stories will matter most in fifty years?