Credit: CERN

The final element of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector is gently lowered into place at CERN, Europe's particle-physics laboratory near Geneva in Switzerland. The detector will look for physics beyond the 'standard model' in the high-energy collisions of protons at the Large Hadron Collider, CERN's next-generation particle accelerator.

On 22 January, the last piece of the 1,430-tonne detector was installed in a chamber 100 metres below the surface. There, researchers will join it with 14 other segments to complete the instrument. The CMS will help to lead the search for the Higgs particle, which is believed to endow all other particles with mass. If all goes to plan, it could take its first data later this year.