Large Hadron Collider grinds to a halt... again

In an increasingly unsurprising turn of events, the Large Hadron Collider suffered a major power failure this morning, knocking the machine and its website out of service. The failure occurred in an 18,000-volt power line in Meyrin, Geneva where the LHC is housed beneath the ground, causing pretty much everything to shut down. The LHC's magnets maintained a temperature of 1.9 degrees above absolute zero (having to re-cool them would have been a pretty sizeable setback), however, and no long-term damage seems to have occurred. The trouble-prone Large Hadron Collider is expected to resume full operations sometime later today, and is currently operating on limited power from a backup supply. Regardless, the unfortunate event is sure to resurrect that zany Higgs boson time-travelling theory.

[DTJ Posted Dec 2nd 2009 3:22PM]

@recharged95

(downranks dumb joke that went on way too long)

[Swordrune10 Posted Dec 2nd 2009 6:39PM]

@recharged95 but but... u dont cross the streams!

[kjb434 Posted Dec 2nd 2009 2:42PM]

This is why Europe is trying to force their people to conserve energy, they need need it to run this thing. It had nothing to do with man-made global warming (which isn't real anyway!).

[surfernerd6987 Posted Dec 2nd 2009 2:44PM]

Haha, so maybe God's telling us. STOP TRYING TO BLOW UP THE WORLD

[Tombio Posted Dec 2nd 2009 2:45PM]

They must be running all their systems on MS platform :(

[FnuGk Posted Dec 2nd 2009 2:48PM]

@Tombio haha so true :D

[Murkurie Posted Dec 2nd 2009 3:01PM]

@Tombio no there running linux and need better drivers

[tiago Posted Dec 2nd 2009 3:13PM]

@Murkurie wow, you guys are SO funny!

/sarcasm

[Wowzers Posted Dec 3rd 2009 12:20AM]

@Tombio

Good thing they are not using Apple'x OSX Snow Leapord either since it would violate the EULA:

"YOU FURTHER ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE
APPLE SOFTWARE AND SERVICES ARE NOT INTENDED OR SUITABLE FOR USE IN SITUATIONS OR ENVIRONMENTS WHERE THE FAILURE OR TIME DELAYS OF, OR
ERRORS OR INACCURACIES IN THE CONTENT, DATA OR INFORMATION PROVIDED BY, THE APPLE SOFTWARE OR SERVICES COULD LEAD TO DEATH, PERSONAL
INJURY, OR SEVERE PHYSICAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE OPERATION OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES, AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION
OR COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL, LIFE SUPPORT OR WEAPONS SYSTEMS."

In other words OSX should not be used for weapons systems (1) like the Large Hadron Collider designed to blow up the world, which would lead to death(2), personal injury(3), and environmental damage(4).

That's at least 4 violations I am counting there. Maybe you could help discover some more.

[Astaroth Posted Dec 2nd 2009 2:48PM]

Not the greatest piece of news to be reading after this week's FlashForward episode...

[Steve2000 Posted Dec 2nd 2009 2:58PM]

@Astaroth You're still watching that?

[Astaroth Posted Dec 2nd 2009 3:11PM]

@(Unverified) Yeah, I think I'm one of the 10 or so people still watching. I'm not really a huge fan but it's fun to watch.

[SirNoDroin Posted Dec 2nd 2009 3:40PM]

@Astaroth CRAP i forgot to watch it on friday

[ChazClout Posted Dec 2nd 2009 2:55PM]

Large Hadron Collider wins at 2 things:

1. It wins at failing.
2. It wins at making me chuckle when the child in me thinks "LARGE HARDON COLLIDER! lulz)

[JS Posted Dec 2nd 2009 3:01PM]

When all hell and fire breaks lose ..the puny fire extinguisher in the picture is gonna come in handy?

[techguy78 Posted Dec 2nd 2009 5:04PM]

@JS can a fire break lose at 1.9 degrees above zero? :D

[cannedbass Posted Dec 2nd 2009 3:16PM]

Jesus Christ. Incredibly complex machine has minor setback. Down time expected to be a few hours!!!!one!!eleventy!

Sounds like news to me.

This is not at all unexpected or a big deal. It's a complex machine, there are going to be minor problems. Anything that sets us back less than a week isn't worth even thinking about. The small accelerator at my home institute semi-regularly has problems that require a day or two of down time, and it's been running for close to 40 years.

[Nicnac Posted Dec 2nd 2009 3:18PM]

c'mon people. This isn't going to end the world.

EVERYONE knows the world will end when we build one of these on the surface of the moon and accidentally knock it out of orbit...

[Oli D Posted Dec 2nd 2009 3:20PM]

@Nicnac in 2012

[dwinkawatasaki Posted Dec 2nd 2009 3:20PM]

Damn, where's Leonard, Sheldon, Howard and Raj when you need them...

[Oli D Posted Dec 2nd 2009 3:20PM]

So there is an issue with time travelling saboteurs.
Solution: Build more large hadron colliders, these guys can't be in two places at once!

Can they?

[TjK Posted Dec 2nd 2009 6:25PM]

@Oli D if u watched the film "What the Bleep do we know" and believe it then yea they can

[aznofazns Posted Dec 2nd 2009 3:30PM]

@antriver Eh I thought it was pretty funny

[SirNoDroin Posted Dec 2nd 2009 3:33PM]

Calling Gordon Freeman

[kwahhn Posted Dec 2nd 2009 3:52PM]

Well thank god there's that lone fire extinguisher there just in case the black hole chain reaction commences.

[CharlieX Posted Dec 2nd 2009 3:58PM]

psssht! pssshhhttt!!
-It's not working!
-Spray some more!
psssht! pssshhhttt!!
-It's sucking me in help!!!!
-Oh fuuuu..u.u.u.u.........
GOBBLES UP EARTH.

[CJP Posted Dec 2nd 2009 3:54PM]

Damn, I bet it was another bit of bread between a chamber door.

[TSSaloic Posted Dec 2nd 2009 3:59PM]

I Blame Jason Howell!

[CaramelZappa Posted Dec 2nd 2009 4:01PM]

*Lowers crowbar*

[Samurai Jack Posted Dec 2nd 2009 4:28PM]

Hey Engadget! When you can travel through time, resurrection is not necessary...

[recharged95 Posted Dec 2nd 2009 4:53PM]

"zany Higgs boson time-travelling"

Correction: it's "zany Ziggy boson time-traveling". Well, at least to Scott Bakula...

[XBRPhoto Posted Dec 2nd 2009 6:16PM]

If the balls touch, we all die

[blendfish Posted Dec 2nd 2009 7:58PM]

If Hawking is right and there are an infinite number of universes then I have an alternative theory to the time traveling partical.

It could be that we are the lucky ones that live in the universe where the accelerator didn't painfully murder us all by crushing our brains into a tiny squishy dot. Every time the thing is started up 99.9% of the universes implode leaving the luckly 1% where for some reason something broke prior to it being started.

[Fab Posted Dec 4th 2009 10:00AM]

@blendfish
100 - 99.9 does not equal 1.

[Dr Yusuf AlKindi Posted Dec 2nd 2009 9:20PM]

Damn! This is so embarassing! The real reason this happened is because some moron was running that SETI search software in the background on the main computer that was montioring the power regulation! Damn you ET.