This weekend there was a storm over CERN, with thunder echoing across the valley. There were some power outages at CERN and today I glanced up that the LHC status and was welcomed by this message:
LHC status "Page 1"
It looks like there were some problems for the LHC and it’ll take some time to fix everything. With hundreds of staff and experts on hand this won’t be a major problem, and physics labs are prepared for these kinds of interruptions. (There was a rather serious flood and power outage at SLAC a few years ago, as reported in SLAC Today.)
It’s a bit frustrating for everyone involved with the LHC. Still, it reminds us that our machines are not magical or invincible, and that no matter distant the hardware is, or how abstract our thoughts about it are, it is made of nuts and bolts. It’s important to reminded of that from time to time.
