Atom smasher breaks a record

The world's most powerful atom smasher pushed subatomic particles to near the speed of light in a test that generated a record 512 billion electron volts at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, scientists said.

The power surged through the world's first high energy superconducting accelerator, composed of more than 1,000 superconducting magnets ringing a 4 -mile circular tunnel buried beneath a cornfield. The new accelerator is the world's first large-scale application of superconductivity - the absence of resistance in an electric current.