Trouble at the LHC

Well at least we are going to leave for another 2 months! Yay!

http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html

Actual LHC footage...

Phew! We've staved off destruction for another few weeks!

If it takes you 2 months to leave, something is wrong with your exit strategy! :P

Seriously, though, the delay is annoying. I just want them to do the darn collisions so when nothing apocolytic happens, people will be calm again. like when Y2K hit, etc...

Still, though, entropy becomes much more of an antagonist as complexity rises (this is one reason shuttle launches are delayed so often), and the LHC is pretty complex.

A large helium leak... makes me wonder what the person that discovered the leak sounded like.

So is "helium leak" CERN's way of saying "half of the LHC disappeared into a black hole"? Kinda like the equivalent of "weather balloon" when people report UFO's in the US. ;)

Only in operation for ten days? Then it's still under warranty!

there is no leak. only a black hole sucking the helium :P

When you build the biggest, most complicated machine in the history of mankind there will be problems.

LV said "When you build the biggest, most complicated machine in the history of mankind there will be problems."

But these are supposed to be the smartest scientists in the world. No excuse. Of course, if they didn't get this little detail right, should we trust their math about black holes? LOL.

Darn. bob stole my joke.

Helium is really difficult stuff to contain, because the molecules are so small they slip through the minutest cracks. "Major" in this case probably means a leak that would have contained air at 100psi for a century, and the amazing thing is they managed to make a structure of that size and complexity function for 10 days before they found one. I once worked in a place that made vacuum chambers, and we tested for leaks by pumping them down, puffing helium on the outside of the casing and seeing if any showed up inside. We didn't just find leaks in the welds, we found them in the middle of inch-thick stainless steel plates where the rolling process (at the steelworks) had left a molecular-sized crack.

I would think the components still went to the lowest bidder.

this is why they should've built two at twice the cost

This problem is GREAT news for us here in Batavia, Illinois, home of Fermilab. At least our jobs are safe until Thanksgiving!

@DOJ - is that a Contact reference? ;)

"Leak" huh. Sounds like a cover to prevent us from learning the horrifying truth that Aliens are right now battling a group of Special Force troops in the bowels of the LHC.