In a battle between a rodent and a 17-mile-long superconducting machine designed to smash protons, one might expect the rodent to fare poorly. And in this case, it did, though not without the little guy doing some damage of its own.
From a BBC report:
The Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator at Cern is offline after a short circuit - caused by a weasel.
The unfortunate creature did not survive the encounter with a high-voltage transformer at the site near Geneva in Switzerland.
The LHC was running when a "severe electrical perturbation" occurred in the early hours of Friday morning.
A spokesman for Cern said that the weasel did not get into the tunnels, just the electrical facilities.
Repairs will reportedly take a few days.
And I suppose this is as good of a time as any to remind one and all that when touring the Large Hadron Collider it important to remain with your group.
(CORRECTION: It has been made clear to me that a weasel is not a rodent. Sorry, weasels.)
Welcome regulars and passersby. Here are a few more recent buzzblog items. And, if you’d like to receive Buzzblog via e-mail newsletter, here’s where to sign up. You can follow me on Twitter here and on Google+ here.
- .
- Why this is not the "best selfie ever."
- Apple's autocorrection of "lardass" doesn't make Kardashian the butt of a joke.
- In defense of assuming another's identity.
- .
- .
- Networking pros slam AT&T for arming techs with iPads instead of laptops.
- Cisco Aironet APs + vinyl = awesome.
- Old-school sexting, as in circa 1969.
- "Unidentified" adapter no longer unidentified.
- Here's hoping no Amazon workers were harmed in the creation of this feature.
- Overhead projector vs. ceiling fan.
- "Someone has an issue with this rack."
- Geek-Themed Meme of the Week Archive.