Large Hadron Collider Hit By French Bread Bomb
Bird drops bread on LHC, causing it to overheat.
A piece of baguette dropped on the overground part of the machinery resulted in parts of the machine overheating. The Register reports that temperatures in part of the LHC's circuit climbed to almost 8 Kelvin - significantly higher than the normal operating temperature of 1.9 Kelvin, and close to the temperature at which the LHC's niobium-titanium magnets are likely to "quench", or cease superconducting.
According to The Reg, readers monitoring the collider's operational data online noticed that temperatures started to rise in the early hours of Tuesday morning. While initial inquiries to CERN were met with assurances that everything was fine and the change in temperature was a result of routine testing, Dr. Mike Lamont told reporters that the problem was actually caused by "a bit of baguette on the busbars." CERN is assuming a bird dropped the offending piece of bread.
The incident happened while the LHC wasn't even on, which raises the question, "what would have happened had the collider been in operation?" Well, nothing hopefully. Lamont told the Register that the climb in temperature would have been noted and the LHC's beams would have been diverted to "dump caverns" lying a little off the main track of the LHC.
The dump caverns are large, artificial caves, which would channel the power into a "dump core." The core is a 7m-long graphite block encased in steel, water cooled and then further wrapped in 750 tonnes of concrete and iron shielding. According to Lamont, the dump core would become extremely hot and quite radioactive, but with massive amounts of shielding and a huge amount of solid granite between the dump caverns and the surface, " Nobody up top, except the control room staff, would even notice."
If there were no dump caverns? LHC's niobium-titanium magnets are likely to cease superconducting at around 9.6 Kelvin. When circulating, each of the two beams of hadrons pack enormous amounts of power and if they were to suddenly stop, all the energy would have to go somewhere. The Reg equates the damage to being rammed by an aircraft carrier.
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stupid f**king bird
Aside from not actually begging the question, it does raise the question of why there isn't a god-damned roof over the LHC if it's this vulnerable...
Don't blame the bird. Blame a design so fragile that that could happen.
^Agreed. If your whole operation can be taken down by something as trivial as this, I don't even want to know what would happen if, say an aircraft crash-landed there, or even a minor meteor strike.
Lame machine.
I heard it was actually us from the future sabotaging this device from performing its intended functions...
seriously.... isn't the LHC supposed to be underground? how the hell does a bird get in there?
seriously.... isn't the LHC supposed to be underground? how the hell does a bird get in there?
The article clearly states:
I agree with the other though, where is the roof or shed with spinning tin pans for scaring away birds?
Scientists are stupid, really really stupid
Sure they build 'dump caverns' in case something goes wrong, but building a shack or something around sensitive equipment... they didn't even THINK of that. I bet there's only one working bathroom in the place.
the theory is that the hadron event theyre trying to see, a little bit of dark matter coming into existence, is so unbelievably unnatural and against the rules of reality that if it ever does happen, it would literally go back from that point in the future to stop itself from occuring, at this present point. i guess that comes in the form of bread... at least the laws of the universe have a sense of humor...
seriously.... isn't the LHC supposed to be underground? how the hell does a bird get in there?
This. Read the Times article everybody!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/ [...] wanted=all
Here is a quote from the article:
"A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather."
These crazy scientists were right!
its wierd that all these things keep going wrong with something so expensive that took years of planning, im all for finding the god particle, but wats the sense if we find a black hole first?
The energies that thing throws around are pretty impressive... even if the security isn't.
Scientists are stupid, really really stupidSure they build 'dump caverns' in case something goes wrong, but building a shack or something around sensitive equipment... they didn't even THINK of that. I bet there's only one working bathroom in the place.
Yep, it's on the surface, with the bird's nest in the eaves....
its wierd that all these things keep going wrong with something so expensive that took years of planning, im all for finding the god particle, but wats the sense if we find a black hole first?
Someone has put forward the theory that it's being sabotaged from the future by people who know that it's a REALLY bad idea to start it up. Pretty funny stuff... you can probably find a rant online somewhere.
I tend to think that the risk is very small (negligable according to Physicists I know) and the knowledge to be gained could be huge... so it's worth it.
This large superconductor thingie sure is fragile... I wonder if it will ever even run. Doubtful.
It is underground, they said an above ground part. But ahh, what part above ground would cause the ring deep underground to heat up.
What did it drop it on the power lines and short them out or something. Doesn't make much sense.
seriously.... isn't the LHC supposed to be underground? how the hell does a bird get in there?
And where in hell does he get the money for a baguette??
lol either it was one massive bread crumb or that is one fragile, poorly planned design. You'd figure with they built a majority of it underground for safety reasons that they would put a bit of effort into shielding any parts of it above ground. I'd like to see what a squirrel could do to that thing.
http://www.google.com
search: 9.6 kelvin in fahrenheit
9.6 kelvin = -442.39 degrees Fahrenheit
Oh noes!! These supercooled magnets that are still over 400 degrees below zero are gonna SPLODE!
Give me a break, and stop wondering why something so small as bread could hinder a person in their quest to keep something cooled to -456.25 (1.9k). Its, not, hard.
The system would shut down and most of it would still be really, really cold. The dump areas really would be the main concern.
Chances of an explosive chain reaction are slim to none. I mean, the thermal exhaust port is only 2 meters wide. It even has ray shielding!
didn't they say somewhere that this thing wasn't going to be running at full power until 2012? December some time?
didn't they say somewhere that the thing wasn't going to be running at full power until 2012? December sometime, I think
And they reassured us not to worry about mini-black holes 'coz a bird can bring down the LHC using a "bread bomb" before anything worse could happen.
somebody i met who worked on a collider explained it to my in layman terms
Imagine a NASCAR track where 2 cars go around the track but at different directions and when the two get up to speed they then merge into a single lane set for a collision course where on one specific area of the track is high speed cameras to take the shot of exactly where the high speed collision is to occur. If a boulder is on the track, causing one of the cars to derail or veer off course, it would either slow down into the pit area, or slam into the sidewall or the collision would occur where no high speed camera is at to record the footage. Everything is made perfect and timed perfect to get the cars up to 150mph speed and tweaks are being made to get them to collide faster at 250mph and possible 350mph all within the target zone
stupid f**king bird
Are you serious? Hey I guess the new trend is to accuse nature for radioactive projects, that high risk. Its like when there is trafic or you are late for an appointement or work and you looks on the side from inside your car, looking at the trees ( if any ) and go ike "stupid trees" cause we could just chop them down and expand everywhere.
Stupid birds.. lol!?
Sooo, basically they have a Ferrari that melts if it rains...
O no...we came close to having a black hole appearing in France!
j/k
the LHC is going to open a portal to hell and zombies will come out to rule the earth...sweet
750 tonnes spell check....
Bird?
Personally, I suspect the baker from Zak McKracken...