Birds Like Their Bread!

Trouble at the Large Hadron Collider:

The Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle accelerator, just cannot catch a break. First, a coolant leak destroyed some of the magnets that guide the energy beam. Then LHC officials postponed the restart of the machine to add additional safety features. Now, a bird dropping a piece of bread on a section of the accelerator has, according to the Register, shut down the whole operation.

The bird dropped some bread on a section of outdoor machinery, eventually leading to significant over heating in parts of the accelerator. The LHC was not operational at the time of the incident, but the spike produced so much heat that had the beam been on, automatic failsafes would have shut down the machine.

This incident won't delay the reactivation of the facility later this month, but exposes yet another vulnerability of the what might be the most complex machine ever built. With freak accident after freak accident piling up over at CERN, the idea of time traveling particles returning from the future to prevent their own discovery is beginning to seem less and less far fetched.

For some reason, I am reminded of my visit in 2006 to see Queensland's Glass House Mountains, and look at the beautiful birds there.

Andrew and I watched a kookaburra deal with a slice of toast someone had left behind in a parking lot. Kookaburras sometimes hunt snakes and lizards, generally by catching the prey and bashing them against a rock until they stop squirming. This kookaburra was treating the piece of toast the same way it would treat a snake, by bashing it against a rock.

Presumably this European bird was bashing its baguette against the large hadron collider in a similar way. If the universe imploded as a result? Well, no one said life is accident-free!