doing something stupid?
Collider Malfunctioned
Experiments with the Large Hadron Collider are going to stop for several weeks while a helium leak is repaired, the Agence France-Presse news service has reported.
No one is at risk from the leak, and crews are already in the collider’s 17-mile tube working on the problem, said officials at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
The group released a statement that said, in part: “Preliminary investigations suggest that the most likely cause of the problem was a faulty electrical connection between two magnets, which probably melted at high current leading to mechanical failure."
Last week, part of the cooling system had to be repaired. At that time, the repair problems weren’t a surprise to one physicist.
“This is arguably the largest machine built by humankind, it is incredibly complex, and involved components of varying ages and origins, so I’m not at all surprised to hear of some glitches,” said Steve Giddings, physics professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.
LHC, the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, was launched on the morning of Sept. 10. The machine took billions of dollars and two decades to build, and its launch attracted a great deal of media attention—including a rap video on YouTube, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Collider Malfunctioned
Experiments with the Large Hadron Collider are going to stop for several weeks while a helium leak is repaired, the Agence France-Presse news service has reported.
No one is at risk from the leak, and crews are already in the collider’s 17-mile tube working on the problem, said officials at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
The group released a statement that said, in part: “Preliminary investigations suggest that the most likely cause of the problem was a faulty electrical connection between two magnets, which probably melted at high current leading to mechanical failure."
Last week, part of the cooling system had to be repaired. At that time, the repair problems weren’t a surprise to one physicist.
“This is arguably the largest machine built by humankind, it is incredibly complex, and involved components of varying ages and origins, so I’m not at all surprised to hear of some glitches,” said Steve Giddings, physics professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.
LHC, the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, was launched on the morning of Sept. 10. The machine took billions of dollars and two decades to build, and its launch attracted a great deal of media attention—including a rap video on YouTube, according to the Daily Telegraph.
