GONE TO THE BIRDS
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Breadcrumb Latest Speed Bump for Collider
$8B science project sidetracked by 'bit of baguette'
By W. McCahill
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Posted Nov 5, 09 11:59 PM CST
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Updated Nov 6, 09 6:29 AM CST
(Newser)
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The enormous science project buried beneath the France-Switzerland border has seen all kinds of detours in its search for the so-called “God particle”—busted vacuum tubes, al-Qaeda moles—so the latest might not be a huge surprise: A piece of bread dropped by a bird onto an outdoor segment caused the $8 billion Large Hadron Collider to shut down, again, this week.
“A bit of baguette on the busbars,” as one staffer put it to the Register, caused sections of the 17-mile-long particle collider to overheat. Had it been in use, the LHC would have shut down automatically; since it’s off-line until later this month, little damage was done other than to a reputation that’s already absorbed plenty.