Human error blamed for atom-smasher fault ( 77 Views )

1. HUMAN error was likely to blame for the breakdown of the world's largest atom-smasher, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research says. One of the 10,000 connections that join the 27km Large Hadron Collider (LHC) probably overheated and made a hole that leaked helium into the tunnel, the head of the project, Lyn Evans, said overnight. But the repair team had not yet been able to confirm this, he said. The leak happened on September 19, crippling the atom-smasher, which will not be up and running before the end of April 2009. Buried underground in Geneva, the LHC took nearly 20 years to complete and at six billion Swiss francs ($7.12bn) is one of the most expensive and complex scientific experiments ever attempted. It aims to resolve some of the greatest questions surrounding fundamental matter, such as how particles acquire mass and how they were forged in the Big Bang that created the universe some 13.7 billion years ago.
   
   (levent, Turkey)

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