![]() ![]() Yesterday, a group of children took National Public Radio off the air for over a minute before engineers could restore the broadcast. Of course, small mammals cause problems in all sorts of organizations. It is unclear whether the animals are trying to stop humanity from unlocking the secrets of the universe. Nor are the problems exclusive to the LHC: In 2006, raccoons conducted a "coordinated" attack on a particle accelerator in Illinois. "We are in the countryside, and of course we have wild animals everywhere." There have been previous incidents, including one in 2009, when a bird is believed to have dropped a baguette onto critical electrical systems. These sorts of mishaps are not unheard of, says Marsollier. Repairs will take a few days, but getting the machine fully ready to smash might take another week or two. Unfortunately, Marsollier says, scientists will have to wait while workers bring the machine back online. The Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile superconducting machine designed to smash protons together at close to the speed. If those other particles exist, they could revolutionize researcher's understanding of everything from the laws of gravity, to quantum mechanics. A small mammal has sabotaged the world's most powerful scientific instrument. This one could end up being 100km, almost four times the size. Researchers have seen some hints in recent data that other, yet-undiscovered particles might also be generated inside the LHC. But CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research behind the collider, is planning to build a second, even larger collider. The Higgs is believed to endow other particles with mass, and it is considered to be a cornerstone of the modern theory of particle physics. The shutdown comes as the LHC was preparing to collect new data on the Higgs Boson, a fundamental particle it discovered in 2012. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was constructed by the European Organization. Eventually this connection will be welded together so that the beams are. The blue cylinders contain the magnetic yoke and coil of the dipole magnets together with the liquid helium system required to cool the magnet so that it becomes superconducting. Although they had not conducted a thorough analysis of the remains, Marsollier says they believe the creature was "a weasel, probably." (Update: An official briefing document from CERN indicates the creature may have been a marten.) Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the worlds most powerful particle accelerator. Two LHC magnets are seen before they are connected together. "We had electrical problems, and we are pretty sure this was caused by a small animal," says Arnaud Marsollier, head of press for CERN, the organization that runs the $7 billion particle collider in Switzerland. A small mammal, possibly a weasel, gnawed-through a power cable at the Large Hadron Collider. ![]()
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