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Did the group spearheading the world's biggest physics experiment just not want to spoil the party?

Within hours of its launch, the Large Hadron Collider malfunctioned, its operator has admitted — a week after powerful particle accelerator was turned on, the Associated Press is reporting.

A 30-ton transformer that cools part of the particle smasher broke on Sept. 11 after scientists sent a counter-clockwise beam around the 17-mile tunnel beneath the Swiss-French border, raising temperatures in the ring to 4.5 Kelvin (-451.57 Fahrenheit). The first, clockwise beam had been sent around the tunnel the day before, when the LHC was turned on.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research has replaced the transformer and cooled the underground ring back down to near zero on the Kelvin scale, its optimal temperature for research, according to AP. " The LHC is on course for [its] first collisions in a matter of weeks," CERN said in a statement.

Judith Jackson of the Fermi National Accelerator Lab in Batavia, Ill., tells AP the malfunction isn't dangerous or a big deal. Fermilab houses the Tevatron, which collides protons and antiprotons in an underground 4-mile ring. "These things happen," Jackson tells the newswire. "It's a little setback and it sounds like they've dealt with it and are moving forward."

The LHC will study why particles have mass and look for dark matter as part of an effort to better understand the origins of the universe.

(Image by CERN)

8 Comments

1. 1. msutch 11:49 AM 9/19/08

   It will be interesting to see how many more "malfunctions" the accelerator experiences, considering all of the controversy that has surrounded the project!

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2. 2. VgrPointer 12:22 PM 9/19/08

   Super large System of System Projects like LHC and Apollo are subject to this type of problem. The rush to get the system on line makes the full check out open to problems of this nature. This is among the most significant science experiments attempted by the race. It will need some time to shake out the "bugglets". Thanks to hard work by the Science and Engineering Team that these problems are not significant. Good Luck in your work.

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3. 3. AlaskaRose 12:27 PM 9/19/08

   Pftt! Don't be Scared when "The Nothing" comes for you! People are more interested in physics now than ever! But please folks let the Physic Majors Handle this one! Don't get caught up in the media hype! The nothing will not come and take over our little Earth! Chill Out! Recycle! And Please Take a Class before commenting on "malfunction...the accelerator....controversy..."

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4. 4. ChrisJones 01:01 PM 9/19/08

   Ya know.... somebody would have to be a pretty big dufus to believe that a machine of this complexity could just switched on and not have a single hitch. Seriously, this thing is huge and complex like a mofo! You can't even get something so simple as a freaking new car without some bugs.

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5. 5. agenthucky 01:56 PM 9/19/08

   My large hadron collider didn't have any bugs when I started it up. psshhht, get with it, unacceptable

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6. 6. ChrisJones in reply to AlaskaRose 02:46 PM 9/19/08

   Well.... yeah!
   
   Uh.... "The Nothing" ? ... Neverending Story? Yes, because "A hole would be something."
   
   Ok, I can play.

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7. 7. mudassarm 12:22 AM 9/20/08

   I think LHC is very interesting and having much information about earth and logics and old believes. If this happen the this is great success for human being and 21st century moves into a new era.
   The new doors of success will open to human being for more research. And the results of LHC will be very usefull and beneficial to the human.
   Yeh, its very interesting for human of 21st century.
   So all the human be cool and let see what happened next!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
   
   
   My this will be usefull an for human being. AMEENNNNNNNNN.

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8. 8. Hasanuddin 01:23 PM 9/22/08

   The scariest thing isn't that the machine busted, broke, or that the scientists had made yet another miscalculation. No, the scariest thing is that the folks at CERN kept it a secret that their machine was off-line. For a whole week they simply allowed the world to "believe" that everything was under-control and running smoothly. How honest is that? How transparent? Actually...how scary!!! How can we trust such people to be honest of the true risks, when they have shown that they will withhold embarrassing info as obvious as the machine "quenching"-out within seconds of its first start-up??

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