<div id="subtitle">World's largest atom smasher takes a break ahead of new research planned for 2010</div><div><p>Operators of the world's largest atom smasher say they have shut down the machine until February to prepare for an expected groundbreaking research program.</p><p>The European Organization for Nuclear Research said Friday the break is necessary to increase the levels of the energy used to smash protons into each other.</p><p>The new collisions are expected to shatter the subatomic particles into even smaller fragments that could reveal secrets of matter and the universe.</p><p>Among the goals are studying suspected phenomena such as dark matter, antimatter and ultimately what happened in the first split seconds after the creation of the universe.</p><p>Many scientists theorize the universe occurred as a massive explosion known as the Big Bang 14 billion years ago.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=65657000&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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