Hadron Collider forced to halt

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7626256.stm ^

[chessplayer]

"Plans to begin smashing particles at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) may be delayed after a magnet failure forced engineers to halt work."

"The failure, known as a quench, caused around 100 of the LHC's super-cooled magnets to heat up by as much as 100C."

"The fire brigade were called out after a tonne of liquid helium leaked into the tunnel at Cern, near Geneva."

"The LHC beam will remain turned off over the weekend while engineers investigate the severity of the fault."

[billorites]

Reason to go for the extended warranty.

[silverleaf]

Maybe God does play dice

[refermech]

Scientist welfare program.

[driftdiver]

Maybe one of those black holes punched a hole in some coolant pipe or something.

[Right Wing Assault]

Another science reporter who's not so good on science. The LHC beam will remain turned off over the weekend while engineers investigate the severity of the fault.

They couldn't turn the beam back on if they tried. The damage has to be repaired first. It's like saying your car transmission won't work so you aren't going to drive until you see how bad it is.

must be supercooled to 1.9 kelvin above absolute zero

Redundant. 1.9 K is all you need to say.

[6SJ7]

I doubt this reporter knows a Kelvin from a Kelvinator.

[Cboldt]

This later post, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2086478/posts, indicates the outage will be a couple months in duration.

[bharrin742]

For an interesting read, check out Douglas Preston’s “Blasphemy”. It is fiction, built around the search for the “God particle”, and it looks like he viewed into a crystal ball for the plot line.

[JoeDetweiler]

Hmmmm......is a malfunctioning Hadron Collider more or less likely to destroy the Earth?

[Chode]

tooo funny...

[Shady]

That's what you get when you're involved in a Had-Ron collision!

[shaft29]

Can anyone explain what this experiment is all about?

[DManA]

He doesn’t know Kelvin and energy from Calvin and Hobbs.

[Colorado Doug]

It probably sounded like a chipmunk convention when they rushed in to stop the leak.. That’s a lot of helium

[Chode]

you'll have that...

[Colorado Doug]

A link to a webcam shot of the accident, posted by shove_it on another thread

http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html

[struggle]

Actually I posted it first as a joke thread so neener!

This man was spotted near the incident...

[Colorado Doug]

A joke! A JOKE! I have been living like there was no tomorrow ever since I saw the video, knowing that there would be no repercussions for my actions. I guess I had better apologize to the neighbors.

Now I'll have to wait for the Maunder Minimum . . . er I mean climate change caused by man.

[jonascord]

Now, THAT’S FUNNY!