Experiments at the world's biggest atom smasher have yielded tantalising hints that a long-sought sub-atomic particle truly exists, with final proof likely by late 2012, physicists said Monday.

US physicists said Monday they were unable to confirm the findings of an atom-smasher experiment that was touted in April as possibly having discovered a new force of nature.

BANGALORE (Reuters) - Download a full-length movie on your computer and you'll need about 700 megabytes of space. Now multiply that digital mass by 2.7 trillion.

The world's biggest particle collider set a new record early Monday, a feat that should accelerate the quest to pinpoint the elusive particle known as the Higgs Boson, a senior physicist said.

Physicists believe that by the end of 2012 they will be able to determine whether a theorised particle called the Higgs boson, which has unleashed a gruelling decades-long hunt, exists or not, they said on Tuesday.

Europe geared up on Tuesday for a quantum leap in Internet traffic and a new generation of infrastructure to carry data, announcing the launch of a 600-million-euro research and investment programme.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Everything scientists now know about the cosmos, from the Big Bang to black holes, has come from measurements of light rays.

The world's biggest atom smasher has set a new world record for beam intensity, a key measure of performance and power, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said Friday.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Scientists at the CERN physics research center reported on Friday that they had smashed particles together at a record intensity in a key advance in their program to unveil mysteries of the universe.

Israel's cabinet on Sunday announced it had approved the country's membership in the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, becoming the research group's first non-European delegation.

Data from a major US atom smasher lab may have revealed a new elementary particle, or potentially a new force of nature that could expand our knowledge of the properties of matter, physicists say.

Data from a major US atom smasher lab may have revealed a new elementary particle, or potentially a new force of nature, one of the physicists involved in the discovery told AFP on Wednesday.

GENEVA (Reuters) - CERN scientists said Monday they staged their first speed-of-light particle collisions of the year at the weekend, resuming their probes into the origins of the cosmos in the centre's Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

GENEVA (Reuters) - CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is gearing up to resume full-speed particle collisions next month aimed at resolving key mysteries of the universe, scientists and engineers at the research center said on Monday.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Scientists at the CERN research center seeking answers to key mysteries of the cosmos said on Wednesday they would be moving ahead cautiously this year to avoid any possible breakdown in their giant LHC machine.

2010: World saw quake, financial meltdown, dramatic rescue from a ringside seat online. The disruptions of earthly existence came from some unlikely places in 2010: ash from an Icelandic volcano; the contents of an airline passenger's underwear; a website called WikiLeaks spilling the secret cables of international diplomacy onto front pages across the world.

Chronology of news events in 2010. JULY

GENEVA (Reuters) - European scientists reported on Monday the creation and capture of anti-hydrogen atoms in a novel magnetic trap and said it put them on track to solving one of the great cosmic mysteries -- the make-up of anti-matter.

Matter of fact, not fiction: Physicists trap elusive antimatter atoms to study them better. Scientists may have been able to capture elusive atoms of antimatter, but don't expect that to lead to interstellar rocket engines or powerful bombs anytime soon ? if ever.

Scientists trap 'anti-atom,' claim breakthrough for studying universe's missing antimatter. Scientists claimed a breakthrough Thursday toward solving one of the biggest riddles of physics, trapping an "anti-atom" for the first time in a quest to understand what happened to all the antimatter that has vanished since the Big Bang.