Scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) say they have moved a step closer to their aim of unlocking the mysteries of the Universe. The world's highest-energy particle accelerator has produced a record-breaking particle collision rate – about double the previous rate. According to physicist Andrei Golutvin, the collider is now generating around 10,000 particle collisions per second. Physicists say this marks the start of turning the LHC into the world's most powerful particle collider. The LHC is housed in a 27 kilometre circular tunnel under the French-Swiss border. The vast machine is operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), based near Geneva in Switzerland.<br/>