Scientists Now Need Permission From Three Countries Before Smashing Two Protons Together
PARIS — When the Large Hadron Collider fired up again yesterday to achieve a new energy record, physicists celebrated a triumph of human collaboration that would make international relations experts weep with envy. What followed was a more sobering reality check: no one actually knows who signed off on the collision yet, and it might take the European Union’s new “High-Energy Physics Approval Committee” another six months to issue a stamp of approval.