Scientists have transformed lead into gold—a process known as chrysopoeia—within the Large Hadron Collider.

The High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider will provide a tenfold increase in particle collisions compared with the initial LHC infrastructure by increasing the number of ions in collision bundles and by concentrating the ion beams.

At the CERN Control Center, where the Large Hadron Collider and connected accelerators are managed, champagne bottles from parties commemorating major milestones, such as the first collisions or a new record energy, are collected.

At the Large Hadron Collider, protons are accelerated so close to the speed of light that they would lag behind a laser by just 10 feet after 14 minutes of travel.

The Large Hadron Collider repurposed an excavation tunnel built for the Large Electron-Positron Collider, which was used until 2000 and whose construction involved the largest civil engineering project in Europe before the Channel Tunnel.

As of 2026, 75 of the 86 particles discovered by the Large Hadron Collider have been found by the LHCb experiment—a detector that explores the decay of particles made of beauty and charm quarks.

Learn about five of the largest particle accelerators on Earth, which, as of 2026, are led by the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

How gold, platinum, and many rare earth elements form during neutron star mergers

Despite fears of creating black holes, the Large Hadron Collider produces collisions with energies of 13.6 trillion electronvolts, about one million times smaller than the energy needed to create the lightest possible black holes.

The Large Hadron Collider is the world's largest cryogenic system, which uses 10,000 metric tons of liquid nitrogen and 120 metric tons of helium to cool 36,000 metric tons of magnets to temperatures colder than outer space.

Watch an animated visualization of how the Large Hadron Collider works, including how particles are accelerated through a series of machines and how collision data is collected and distributed worldwide.

Ernest Rutherford's gold foil and nitrogen experiments revealed nuclear structure

Within ALICE—A Large Ion Collider Experiment—at the Large Hadron Collider, scientists have created quark-gluon plasma—an exotic form of matter present in the moments after the Big Bang.

CERN—the European Organization for Nuclear Research—is the world's largest particle physics laboratory, with the Large Hadron Collider serving as its largest tool.

The history of chemistry up to World War I, from alchemists seeking gold to probing atomic structure

Neutron star collisions may be the universe's gold factories

At CERN's Antimatter Factory, researchers create and guide antiprotons and antielectrons together to form antihydrogen, and all these antiparticles are analyzed to help scientists study the behavior of antimatter.

Particle accelerators propel matter toward small targets at high speed

Before 1932, when particle accelerators were first used for nuclear research, scientists relied on naturally radioactive substances to advance their understanding of the atomic nucleus.

Although built from 1996 to 2008, the Large Hadron Collider relies on accelerators built starting in 1954 to help bring protons to 99.9999991% the speed of light—about 2.73 million football fields per second.

Each year, the Large Hadron Collider undergoes a winter shutdown—when electricity costs are highest—and bringing it back online requires weeks of tests, including some involving high-energy particles from outer space.

Through 2038, the Large Hadron Collider research program is expected to generate societal benefits of €25.6B, or €3.3B more than operating costs and investments.

Light has been observed bouncing off light instead of simply passing through it—a phenomenon predicted by quantum field theory.

View the most expensive materials on Earth, led by antimatter and other elements forged in particle accelerators.

Gold's electrical conductivity, reflectivity, and catalytic capabilities make it scientifically valuable

The first circular particle accelerator was narrower than the average cereal bowl

The Louvre in Paris has its own particle accelerator for art analysis

It may be possible to create dark matter in particle accelerators

If particle accelerators did create black holes by packing tremendous energy into a small volume, then trillions would be created in Earth's atmosphere daily by cosmic rays.

Fusion reactions and radioactive decay produce elements inside stars

Earth's core is leaking precious metals, including gold

As of 2025, LUX-ZEPLIN is the world's most sensitive dark matter experiment, which is designed to indirectly detect a potential candidate for the invisible form of matter.

Explaining the Higgs boson, also known as the 'God Particle'

Experiments suggest nuking a metal-rich asteroid may strengthen it

On average, the Large Hadron Collider uses 1.3 terawatt-hours of electricity annually—equivalent to about 124,000 US homes—generated by a French substation.

Gold has a yellowish appearance rather than the silvery color of most metals because of special relativity, which causes gold's electrons to absorb blue light.

In 2026, researchers successfully transported antimatter in a truck using a portable trap that employed electromagnetic fields to hold 92 antiprotons.

Run your own particle physics lab in a clicker game made at CERN, turning collision data into discoveries, reputation, and funding.

Scientists create movies of subatomic phenomena using X-ray free-electron lasers, in which images are produced by striking matter with high-intensity light created by accelerating electrons.

Scientists have determined the properties of cosmic rays by analyzing their trajectories in bubble chambers—containers filled with a vapor that clings to charged particles.

The Higgs boson is a fluctuation of the Higgs field, which gives elementary particles, such as quarks and electrons, mass as they travel through it.

A laser energy system has allowed scientists to achieve fusion ignition

Efforts to find Majorana particles may finally lead to reliable quantum computers

The total length of superconducting wire at the Large Hadron Collider spans about 250,000 kilometers (155,000 miles)—enough to wrap around the equator 6.2 times.

View a timeline of particle discoveries through the Higgs boson in 2012

A beam of neutrinos can be created by firing a beam of high-energy protons at a target to produce unstable particles that decay into neutrinos.

Take a 360-degree tour of ATLAS, one of two general-purpose detectors at the Large Hadron Collider and the largest particle detector by volume ever built. (VR device-compatible)

Why it's so hard to end the use of toxic lead

View a step-by-step breakdown of how helium is forged in stars alongside antimatter

Since 2026, the Large Hadron Collider has provided heat to thousands of French homes and businesses through a system that harnesses hot water from the accelerator's cooling circuits.

The discovery of the neutron paved the way for nuclear weapons