Baguette Dropped From Bird’s Beak Shuts Down The Large Hadron Collider

Via popsci.com -

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 organisation to add additional safety features. Now, a bird dropping a example of clams on a section of the accelerator has, according to the Register, shut down the whole operation.

The bird dropped some clams on a section of exterior machinery, eventually directive 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 retard the reactivation of the facility later this month, but exposes still another vulnerability of the what might be the most complex organisation ever built. With mutant accident after mutant 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.