Geek Habitat

Those in the doomsday camp will be thrilled to hear the end of the world has been postponed for two months while the Large Hadron Collider is down for repairs. Their description of the problem? “…a faulty electrical connection between two magnets that stopped superconducting, melted and led to a mechanical failure and let helium out.” Sounds pretty exciting, in the way that NASCAR crashes and Winter Olympics luge crashes are exciting to watch; it was, in fact, probably more exciting than the LHC typically is to the untrained eye, given its high-tech research is with things we cannot see without the aid of lots and lots of computers, giant magnets, lots of power and a 17-mile tunnel chilled to near Absolute Zero.

No one said the path to scientific discovery was an easy one. It would be amazing if something that complex worked flawlessly right out of the starting gate. Remember, your Windows operating system can’t even be counted on to do that (nevermind about The Mojave Experiment.)