Large Hadron Collider Taken Offline For Now

Everyone in the science community must have uttered a sigh of disappointment today when word traveled that the Large Hadron Collider had been taken offline due to electrical problems. With all the talk of black hole creation and Higgs-Boson particle finding, it's easy to forget this is a piece of technology, which can malfunction. 

The problem is electrical in origin and apparently is affecting a cooling system for the gigantic magnets that are used to keep the particle beams on track and prepped for collision (or not). The system was shut down for maintenance, but it is safe to assume it will be up and running again shortly.

Hey, they just switched the LHC on two weeks ago–it's bound to have a few hiccups along the way. And at least it's not up to full speed yet. When it is, I'd want that thing to be at 100%.

[via DVICE]