The Large Hadron Collider - a EUR 6bn particle accelerator designed to simulate conditions of the Big Bang that created the physical Universe - was switched on at 0732 GMT to cheers and applause from experts gathered to witness the event. While observers were left nonplussed by the anticlimactic flashing dots on a TV screen that signalled the machine's successful test run, among teams of scientists involved around the world there were jubilant celebrations and popping champagne corks.

In the coming months, the collider is expected to begin smashing particles into each other by sending two beams of protons around the tunnel in opposite directions. The collider will operate at higher energies and intensities in the next year, potentially generating enough data to make a discovery by 2009, experts say. They say the experiment could confirm theories that physicists have been working on for decades including the possible existence of extra dimensions. They also hope to find a theoretical particle called the Higgs boson - sometimes referred to as the 'God particle', which has never been detected, but would help explain why matter has mass.