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No joke: Large Hadron Collider shut down by speck of bread
Here's one for the books. CERN's Large Hadron Collider has once again been shut down. No catastrophic helium leak or failing magnets this time. The culprit? A speck of bread, which officials believe was originally part of a larger baguette. To make it all the more ridiculous, it's thought that the piece of bread was dropped into the works by a bird.
The morsel found its way into the doomsday device's outdoor machinery, sparking a temperature differential that triggered an automatic shutdown sequence. I know, I know — I'm sure that ruins all the images you had of a bird navigating the LHC's 17-mile-ring like a Death Star trench run, but there it is.
The Large Hadron Collider should still get collidin' in November as planned, though it will be offline for the next few days as CERN restarts it. Unless the crumb from a worker's lunch causes the LHC to explode and destroy half the planet, that is.
The Register, via Popular Mechanics, via io9
By Vortex_3 at 5:41 PM ON 11/05/09
Wow... sucks for those guys...
By Korben at 6:32 PM ON 11/05/09
Damn, that bird doing the trench run, sans tie fighters, was what was going through my mind. LOL
By Ronald Stepp at 10:16 PM ON 11/05/09
Sooooo.... what they're basically saying is, "The Earth is not going to be destroyed by the large hadron collider. It's going to be destroyed by that damn bird and his bread crumb of doom?
Even the four horsemen are bowing down to that avian Shiva tonight.
By Ronald Stepp at 10:18 PM ON 11/05/09
Heh, after I posted my brain started signalling for my immediate attention:
Microsft = BSOD (Blue Screen of Death)
Birds = BCOD (Bread Crumb of Doom)
By amruss22 at 10:26 PM ON 11/05/09
After these set backs, maybe the scientists should just "baguette".
By amruss22 at 10:31 PM ON 11/05/09
And just foccacia'll about the experiment?
By Mr. C at 1:59 AM ON 11/06/09
Yes, a few more days to live. Just kidding!!!
That just sucked.
By tekkblade at 8:45 AM ON 11/06/09
I wonder if I could use this an excuse for not coming into work one day. "Sorry boss, but I couldn't start my car b/c a bird had dropped a bread crumb into the engine block."
By DL at 9:59 AM ON 11/06/09
Let me guess....there will be setback after setback until Dec 21, 2012....when they will finally run it at full power......yep.
By killsciencesnobs at 11:22 AM ON 11/06/09
“But don’t worry about that “accidentally creating a black hole thing,” people. We’ve got it all under control.”
By ZPDM123 at 12:24 PM ON 11/06/09
I trained that bird, and I've got lots more where that one came from!
BTW I think this is an interesting new health related site
By Greg at 4:08 PM ON 11/06/09
The LHC will never work.
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/10/is-a-time-travelling-higgs-sab.html
By mik4384 at 5:06 PM ON 11/06/09
that bird watchs too much star wars :P
By dasraiser at 9:55 PM ON 11/06/09
mag rail pigeon racing.. place your bets now
By sle829 at 9:57 PM ON 11/06/09
Who was eating their lunch while working on this thing??
By Treefrog at 6:48 AM ON 11/10/09
Dough!
on your cellphone!
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