Weasel Apparently Shuts Down World's highest Powerful Particle-Collider Video
A small creature has sabotaged the worlds the majority powerful scientific instrument.
The huge Hadron Collider, a 17-mile superconducting machine designed to smash protons jointly at lock to the speed of light, went offline overnight. Engineers investigating the mishap establish the charred remains of a furry being near a gnawed-through power cable.
"We had electrical problems, and we are pretty certain this was caused by a small animal," says Arnaud Marsollier, head of press for CERN, the association that runs the $7 billion particle collider in Switzerland. Although they had not conduct a thorough analysis of the remains, Marsollier says they believe the being was "a weasel, probably."
(Update: An official briefingdocument from CERN indicates the being may have been a marten.) The shutdown comes as the LHC was prepare to collect new data on the Higgs Boson, a fundamental particle it exposed in 2012. The Higgs is believed to endow other particle with mass, and it is considered to be a foundation stone of the modern theory of particle physics. Researchers have seen some hints in new data that other, yet-undiscovered particles might also be generated inside the LHC. If those other particles exist, they could revolutionize researcher's understanding of all from the laws of gravity, to quantum mechanics. Unfortunately, Marsollier says, scientists will have to wait while workers bring the machine back online. Repairs will take a few days, but getting the machine completely ready to smash might take another week or two. "It may be mid-May," he says. These sorts of mishaps are not to no avail of, says Marsollier. The LHC is located exterior of Geneva. "We are in the countryside, and of course we have wild animals every-where." There have been previous incidents, including one in 2009, when a bird is supposed to have dropped a baguette onto critical electrical systems. Nor are the problems elite to the LHC: In 2006, raccoons conducted a "coordinated" attack on a particle accelerator in Illinois. It is unclear whether the animals are trying to stop humanity from unlock the secrets of the universe. Of route, small mammals cause problems in all sorts of organizations. Yesterday, a group of children took National Public Radio off the air for over a minute previous to engineers could restore the -broadcast.
(Update: An official briefingdocument from CERN indicates the being may have been a marten.) The shutdown comes as the LHC was prepare to collect new data on the Higgs Boson, a fundamental particle it exposed in 2012. The Higgs is believed to endow other particle with mass, and it is considered to be a foundation stone of the modern theory of particle physics. Researchers have seen some hints in new data that other, yet-undiscovered particles might also be generated inside the LHC. If those other particles exist, they could revolutionize researcher's understanding of all from the laws of gravity, to quantum mechanics. Unfortunately, Marsollier says, scientists will have to wait while workers bring the machine back online. Repairs will take a few days, but getting the machine completely ready to smash might take another week or two. "It may be mid-May," he says. These sorts of mishaps are not to no avail of, says Marsollier. The LHC is located exterior of Geneva. "We are in the countryside, and of course we have wild animals every-where." There have been previous incidents, including one in 2009, when a bird is supposed to have dropped a baguette onto critical electrical systems. Nor are the problems elite to the LHC: In 2006, raccoons conducted a "coordinated" attack on a particle accelerator in Illinois. It is unclear whether the animals are trying to stop humanity from unlock the secrets of the universe. Of route, small mammals cause problems in all sorts of organizations. Yesterday, a group of children took National Public Radio off the air for over a minute previous to engineers could restore the -broadcast.
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