Posted on 11/05/2009 4:31:31 PM PST by LibWhacker
The Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle accelerator, just cannot catch a break. First, a coolant leak destroyed some of the magnets that guide the energy beam. Then LHC officials postponed the restart of the machine to add additional safety features. Now, a bird dropping a piece of bread on a section of the accelerator has, according to the Register, shut down the whole operation.
The bird dropped some bread on a section of outdoor machinery, eventually leading to significant over heating in parts of the accelerator. The LHC was not operational at the time of the incident, but the spike produced so much heat that had the beam been on, automatic failsafes would have shut down the machine.
This incident won't delay the reactivation of the facility later this month, but exposes yet another vulnerability of the what might be the most complex machine ever built. With freak accident after freak accident piling up over at CERN, the idea of time traveling particles returning from the future to prevent their own discovery is beginning to seem less and less far fetched.
Sounds like pretty sloppy engineering!
Messages and warnings from the Universe...
Headline of the Day.
Oh, it’s haDRon!! I had the D and the R interchanged and thought it was about some encounter in San Francisco.
Someone ‘up there’ doesn’t like this thing.
Knowing how little I comprehend the purpose and ultimate good for mankind (?) this machine is for, I can only wonder how we'll know anything happened if the particles prevent their own discovery. My brain hurts, I'll stop wondering now.
Must have been one stale piece of bread...
You’d think they’d at least built a lean-to cover over equipment that can cause a system-wide failure.
Crust from a pi-meson.
Like my first physics professor wrote on the blackboard, first day of class: PHYSICS IS PHUN!
I’ve heard some people speculate there is a possibility that this machine could produce microscopic black holes. Of course the scientists say that they have done some calculations, and these black holes, if created, probably wouldn’t actually suck up our entire planet. I guess that is reassuring.
God works in mysterious ways....
What could have gone wrong? The LHC combines the best practices of European engineering: French diligence; German imagination; and British organization.
lol
It's happened before and will again.
Or something somewhere will not let us do this.
There's a great sci-fi story in there.
Need to check probably already been written.
Need to figure out the implications of the above sentence
Are you sure Joseph “a gentleman doesn’t go motoring about after dark” Lucas didn’t have a hand in the engineering of this fine piece of equipment?
Honestly, it’s starting to sound more like engineering sabotage, more than “sloppy” engineering.
Now that you mention it, one of his acolytes must have been on the team.
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