The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest particle accelerator, is being shut down until spring. It experienced several problems, including a failed transformer and two (apparently) melted magnets. The repairs to the magnets are expected to take some time, as they must be chilled to near absolute zero in order to function correctly. Warming them up to the point where they can be worked on safely and then chilling them down again is expected to take two months or more, and CERN (the research center housing the LHC) does not operate in the winter months because it would draw too much electricity from the European power grid while demand is high.
According to ABC news, "Scientists expected "teething problems" in getting the huge and extremely complex machine running at full power." They plan to resume normal operations as soon as possible.
Further research into the origins of matter will have to wait until spring, as will fears that the LHC will create black holes capable of destroying the Earth, which LHC scientists have dismissed as inaccurate.
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I really enjoy all the consperasy theories that people come up with to just ruin others days. For instance the Y2K virus that was suppost to crash all the computers in the world, and my personal favorite the faked moon landing. But really this LHC thing is really interesting and i hope it will teach us more about what we all are.
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