LEP must be dismantled, says CERN
Managers at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland have decided to press ahead with plans to build a more powerful machine. This is despite researchers there announcing their first glimpse of the almost-legendary 'Higgs boson' earlier this year. Now it seems the large electron-positron (LEP) collider was not destined to confirm the particle's existence before being decommissioned. 'The new data was not sufficiently conclusive to justify running LEP in 2001,' said CERN. 'The CERN management decided that the best policy for the laboratory is to proceed full-speed ahead with the Large Hadron Collider project.' This could take five years to build and install. CERN has pushed the power on the LEP to the limits of its design in recent months in an effort to confirm the predicted existence of the Higgs particle. Researchers were astounded when three of the four LEP detectors recorded apparent 'shadows' of the particle. The news is of major interest to the physics community as, according to the standard model of particle physics, the Higgs explains why other particles have mass. 'LEP will be remembered as the machine that put the theory describing particle behaviour - the Standard Model - on solid ground,' said a CERN statement. The LEP, currently housed in a 27 kilometre long circular tunnel, will now be dismantled before the new Large Hadron Collidor can be installed.