Science News Reporting Today
Monday, September 22nd, 2008 09:41 amFrom this story, one of many stories about the sad hardware malfunction at the Large Hadron Collider which will put the LHC out of commission for at least two months: "Spokesman James Gillies has been unable to give much more detail regarding the nature of the malfunction, but stated that in order for repairs to be made the tunnel will have to be warmed up to around absolute zero."
Warmed up to absolute zero, eh? What was the temperature before this???
Well, since the piece goes on to say that "Once the repair is made, the tunnel will then have to be cooled back down to its original operating temperature of -271C," one presumes that the spokesman probably meant--and probably even said--that it would be warmed up to something sensible, like zero degrees Celsius*. Still, the idea of the tunnel needing to be warmed up to absolute zero is delightfully bizarre.
* A different article says "CERN spokesman James Gillies said that the damaged section must be warmed up to 273 degrees Celsius before the system can be repaired," which seems a bit excessive somehow.
Warmed up to absolute zero, eh? What was the temperature before this???
Well, since the piece goes on to say that "Once the repair is made, the tunnel will then have to be cooled back down to its original operating temperature of -271C," one presumes that the spokesman probably meant--and probably even said--that it would be warmed up to something sensible, like zero degrees Celsius*. Still, the idea of the tunnel needing to be warmed up to absolute zero is delightfully bizarre.
* A different article says "CERN spokesman James Gillies said that the damaged section must be warmed up to 273 degrees Celsius before the system can be repaired," which seems a bit excessive somehow.
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